what exactly is your position? you say unions have increased the american wage scale. they also pioneered worksplace safety rules so that we didn't have more garment factory fires and child labor.
what are you for or against? the higher wage scale? the unions? offshoring of jobs? globalism and free trade?
Because there isn't much more that unions can offer their workers wrt workplace safety and child labor issues, their main concern today is collective bargaining. The important issues beyond collective bargaining have been resolved for decades. Sure, there is always room for improvement. But if the unions were only needed to work those issues, then there wouldn't be much need for their existence anymore. So all they have to offer their workers as the years pass is higher and higher wages. And it is for that reason that I believe the unions have priced themselves out of the global market.
I believe in liassez faire economics. You cannot unilaterally raise the wage scale, no. Whatever the global market dictates is what the wage rates should be imo.
Of course i'm not in favor of offshoring jobs but that is what the global market dictates at this time. That is what globalism and free trade dictate. Whether i'm in favor or against globalism and free trade or not is irrelevant. That is the situation we are in.
If you have a hard time understanding how this works, and if i believe that you are smarter than the average bear, then most of America doesn't understand this. It is easier for them to believe that "Bush is selling our jobs overseas". Basic economics like this is something most people can't grasp, unfortunately.