As far as labor competition, that only works if there are a wide variety of employers, rather than a few primary employers (Amazon, Walmart) who can effective set wages prices. Labor competition has also gone international, driving labor wages down in the US. Factors like these account for the relatively flat growth in bottom-level wages relative to CEO/shareholder wages, which have skyrocketed throughout the past 40-year neoliberal globalization period.

As far as this round of inflation, monetary supply arguments are a bit specious. The Fed's 'quantitative easing' (money printing goess brrrrr) is pretty trickle-down Reaganomics in practice, although they could have just printed monthly checks for average citizens instead of giving it all to large banks and corporations, who use it for things like stock buybacks.

A more plausible explanation is breakdown in the global supply chains and failure to build up resilient infrastructure domestically. Consider gasoline and diesel prices, which have knock-on effects in all transportation-related sectors (food delivery, goods delivery, commuter costs, etc.). In 2015 US crude oil exports were allowed for the first time since the early 1970s and at least one major refinery was closed. This has clearly impacted the supply of refined products in the USA:

"U.S. Fuel Exports Are Draining Domestic Diesel And Gasoline Supplies, May 2022"

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Fuel-E...

This is at least a simple concept: reduce supply when demand remains constant and prices will go up, aka inflation.