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microtherion
According to the 1800 US Census, 17% of the US population back then were slaves. This seems rather hard to square with a graph claiming that more than 80% of the labor force were "free agents".
vgr
I think Morgan's figures may have excluded slaves. They weren't paid a paycheck either, so they fall in neither category.
microtherion
Yes, I was suspecting that the underlying data excluded slaves. Not sure I buy the "paycheck" argument --- presumably in the less tamed regions of the US, there were plenty of other people who hardly ever handled money.
marze
Driven in part by soaring health care costs for full-time employees.
vgr
That's one of the drivers, certainly, but there's many more forces. Check out Dan Pink's "Free Agent Nation" for more. It's a few years old by now, but still the best view of the overall trend.