[the OlLine Rebel]

Loss of manufacturing - fascist (i.e., control of business) regulations building over a century, including allowing communist-based unions to do what they want and demand (as all commies do) more money for less work.

“Workers” basically caused their own demise.

[DannyTN]

Unions may be part of it, but the economy worked ok, even when Unions were at their peak of power. But then things began to shift overseas for a number of reasons.

I refuse to accept that our economy should have always been paying wages competitive with wages paid by Communist China. Or that it must now pay wages competitive with wages paid by Communist China.

Our economy worked and grew paying much higher wages. And unions for better or worse, help bring some of those higher wages about. The free market may have produced some of those wages on it's own. And in fact, I knew of non-union shops 30 years ago that were paying higher wages than their union counterparts.

Several factors have combined to change the way we trade.

• Global communications and travel have increased to the point where it is much easier to do business overseas.
• We have changed our trade policies towards places like China, despite their ideaology being completely opposite ours.
• We have done business with countries like India despite not having adequate copyright protections.
• We have promoted free trade when often it meant selling the U.S. products in order to obtain hard currency with which to buy U.S. manufacturing capacity and know how.