Wages aren’t fixed though. Certain policies strengthen and weaken wages. Pro-union policies give workers more power over the employer, for example. Throughout US history the market’s typical assessment of someone’s pay has changed drastically. We’ve gone through the gilded age and Great Depression and we had the post-war boom.

If you had lived in the gilded age, would have just accepted that the market provided mostly terrible pay, unsafe working conditions, and immense inequality? Or would you have realized that the typical deal you’re given by the market can be changed by breaking up monopolies, regulations, and unions? Roosevelt gave us the latter and I think it’s clear that everyone was better off because of it.

Even if you think socialism is impossible or whatever, isn’t it clear that the wage market has tipped too far in favor of the employer? We’re not at gilded age levels yet, sure, but we’re heading that direction and the typical bargaining situation of workers is worse off than 40 years ago due to the rise of neoliberalism, changing market demographics, etc. Do you not see any justification for the sentiment people have?