Without any external discipline in the free markets, both high executive salaries and dividends to shareholders can suck wealth away from the pot from which workers draw their salaies.
Another serious problem is the growth of monopolies and oligopolies which have so much control over the market that it is impossible for any real interaction between supply and demand to have any effect. The pharmaceutical industry can be considered oligopolistic with ten or fewer companies worldwide. Not only do they have more control over the market but they can lobby government to adopy policies favorable to their industry. Lobbying is another factor in the so-called free market that interferes with the dynamic between supply and demand.
As well, the WTO, IMF and World Bank are external forces acting on governments in developing countries that influence price and availability of goods and services.
Another external force that has had a major impact on wages and prices are all the trade agreements that have been signed recently such as NAFTA.
So while there are external forces operating on workers and consumers there is little in the way of similar pressures on producers. To understand all the issues in the global economic system, you need to abandon the myth about free markets and think about realities of how and why so many people suffer under this system.
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