Low Wage Work Grows, Median Wage Down

Wage growth is stagnant thanks to four decades of union busting - a war Republicans are eager to see to completion - and sky-rocketing health-care costs, which no mainstream politician in either party has proposed a solution for. Restore unions in all our industries, and introduce Medicare for All, and the money that the 1% has hoovered up for itself will start to come back.

As Mr, Hernandez says in his Labor Day piece, unions need to be industry wide to avoid putting union employers at a competitive disadvantage to non-union employers. In a globalized economy, however industry-wide unionization is near impossible. Even if unions controlled all aircraft production in the US, employers could shift production overseas (as Pratt & Whitney has done, shifting employment to Japan & Singapore). Moreover, the "open borders" movement means an endless supply of new labor to undercut existing workers. The meatpacking industry was always brutal and dangerous, but was reasonably well-paid until immigrant workers were used to break the meatpacking unions in the 1980's. If we reduced the supply of labor by actually enforcing our immigration laws and deporting those working here illegally, we would see an increase in wages for the remaining workers.
As for health care, yes, a single-payer, or single provider and UK style rationing would reduce costs. It would also reduce provider wages. Earnings for providers in the UK and Canada are substantially below those of the US.

Trump has deported migrants and enforced immigration laws just as aggressively as Obama (albeit with a bit more sadism). We are six years into this experiment with tougher border controls, yet wages continue to be outpaced by inflation. Hence the suspicion that this program of slow-motion ethnic cleansing is not really about wages after all, but has different motives.

It is not about Union Busting. It is about World Competition, The Big 3 got lazy, both Management along with Rank and File. All Hail The Marshall Plan, as the oil embargo and "shortages" caught Detroit with its pants down twice, while Japan came to the rescue with Datsun's and Toyota's, Germany had The Bug, all built by rebuilt state of the art factories. England on the other hand rebuilt on a early 19th century production plan. Technology has brought earthquakes to staid and true industries of News and Entertainment among others. Have you been to a McDonald's recently? As Politicians and "activists" clamor for a higher minimum wage or "livable wage," we know are greeted by an order Kiosk. More and more Self Check-Out are appearing at Grocery stores and Big Box Stores. Immigration is know being used to dampen wages on both sides of the wage scale, while the unions think going "global" as how to grow their members or rather their dues.