> Meanwhile we've moved on to dismantling unions

I can agree with most of what you said but your implication that dismantling unions is part of the problem is completely wrong.

Unions are part and parcel of the problem. They created an environment with such unreasonable costs and rules that businesses had no choice but to go offshore in order to remain viable.

For example, unions forced General Motors to continue paying full salaries to about 10,000 people who were no-longer needed due to automation and other improvements in manufacturing. GM, quite literally, had people going to "work" every day, go into this building and spend the day reading the newspaper and having coffee while being paid full wages with benefits.

And that's just one example.

Right now, in California, they are going to raise the cost of water, energy and gasoline in order to fix the infrastructure. Water pipes are in bad disrepair. Roads are a mess. So, we ask: What the hell have they been doing with the money we've been paying in taxes for decades? Well, they've been giving themselves huge raises, great benefits and ridiculous pensions. And, of course, not doing a fucking think towards maintaining the infrastructure. Taxpayers are suckers and unions are sinking us.

The usual meme is to blame offshoring on "corporate greed". The only people who say that do so because they have no clue whatsoever how business runs. Do you know who triggered offshoring? You. Me. Everyone. Consumers. The minute the first few companies started to offer lower cost goods and we started to buy them the fate of our industries was sealed.

Few would buy US-made blender for $300 when you could buy a Japanese, and later Chinese, made blender for $30 to $50.

So, if you owned a company making blenders in the US the choices were clear: Go out of business or offshore. Greed has absolutely, positively nothing to do with it. It's as simple as survival.

No, unions are a disaster. They served a purpose when they were needed. And, at that time they were a wonderful thing. Very important to understand that they were very good for our country. However, they devolved into beasts that each their very source of income. Today we can point at whole cities where this flawed interaction between unions and employers left a wide patch of devastation. Union bosses made out while unions members and industries got destroyed.

Manufacturing cannot return to the US or Europe except where a highly automated process can be implemented. And, even then, China has an absolutely massive advantage in that their supply chain is short and highly optimized. Our supply pipes are long, expensive and very inefficient.

Nothing is as eye opening as taking your own money, starting a business and instantly becoming exposed to the realities of taxation, government, labor, international commerce, supply and distribution chains, competition, sales and marketing. Most people love to talk about this stuff as if they actually had a clue.

Start a business. Run it for ten years. Then come back and read what you wrote and you'll find yourself answering back exactly as I have.

There's a lot more subtlety to this than meets they eye. In order to see it you have to have had years, decades of skin in the game and a solid understanding of business, which most people do not have. Yet everyone has an opinion.