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Big unions seem to be an enemy of both the employee and employer now
A good reason for them to be on the chopping block.
Bluedeath brings up good points. As the consumers, we always have ultimate control. I purchase alot of up and coming computer-related hardware from various vendors for business. I've seen products that barely work with poorly written (badly translated) manuals, but they're cheap. We've gotten to a point where quality is expendable, if it means we can get almost-working stuff cheaper. Basically, our standards have fallen. Years ago Americans refused to buy non-American products. Yes it's arrogant, but it was driven by a need for quality. Apart from cars, American products were very well manufactured, and workers were happy. Cars were a major part of the paradigm shift, but Americans were suddenly engulfed in often better, at the time Japanese products. What's happened now is we're so desperate, especially in the field of technology, for cheap cheap cheap. I can't say how many times I bought some gadget and it turned out to be a complete piece of, in most cases, low quality Chinese-made junk. Japanese factories were of extremely high calibur... then Taiwan took over. Taiwans standards were initally low but became the leading semiconductor manufacturer in the world, with good quality standard. Costs got too great (like America and Japan), living costs increased, and therefore wages were no longer competitive with the rest of Asia, especially China. Now it's China's turn... they manufactur cheap while providing very little to their works other than a wage they haven't yet seen in their country. Living costs in China are dramatically increasing, and you can obviously see the pattern here. I should mention that Korea is undergoing the same transformation, about the same time as Taiwan.
I've worked with many Chinese partners, often good friends, American partners, Indian partners, Hispanic partners, you name it. I've found that 8/10, regardless of origin, are far better bull shitters than they are performers. It's amazing to me the human race has gotten this far - I guess a select few have shouldered the Lion's share.
American's got too comfy, feeling our economy was invincible. So, through unions, lawsuits, and unprecendented litigation costs, we're basically destroying it from the inside out. It all could've been prevented, but it really is the natural order of things. There's only so much $ in the world... and with globalization and nominal shipping costs, one can buy materials from anywhere.
Going outside is a good solution
