A union employee, a tea party activist, and the CEO of a multinational corporation sit down at a table that has a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO immediately takes 11 of the cookies, then he turns to the tea partier and says, ‘Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.’

This is the least obfuscating and best post of this thread.

The use of 401ks as a retirement vehicle for the masses, is just another Wall Street scam to loot the public. They have hidden so many fees, they use so many tricks to make the 401k look better than it is, the managers get compensated based on asset amt., not performance, the kickbacks to company plan mgrs, the lack of oversight, the lack of an exit strategy in a severe downturn/crash, etc. 401ks are now required to list fees, but they are buried so deep in legalese, good luck finding them.

This country is run for and by banks, for their benefit first. The destruction of Glass-Steagall and the creation of 401ks produced a huge pool of money for Wall Street to speculate with.

Interestingly, when MacArthur was giving his input to the design of the new Japanese constitution after WW2, he insisted on the inclusion of trade unions. He knew they would counter balance the power of big industry. It was the military-industrial-complex of Japan that led it on the path of conquest.

The tea party activist bakes his own damn cookies while the Union official and the CEO are schmoozing with Harry Reid.

YOU DIDN'T BAKE THAT!!

Middle class economies are union made.
+1

For anyone who wants to state that the unions are the reason, US business can't compete or survive, I point out that Germany has very strong trade unions AND makes the best industrial products in the world. Their CEO's however are not given pay and bonuses that are many hundreds of times greater than the employees. They also have an excellent apprenticeship program in place, rather than the US system of "everybody should go to college" mentality.

Look a squirrel. Has anyone stated unions are the reason? There are plenty of reasons to go around. I like private sector unions, in fact I joined one when I didn't have to. It seems you and Ollie think unions need protection in order to survive, I think they can do just fine on their own. You don't.

Yes, that is why Mercedes, BMW and other heavy German industry is constructing plants in the US at a furious rate.

It isn't about unions or CEO pay, it is about an environment of regulation and taxation which forces business to move to other countries.

what about market penetration, target market, logistics, and transortation of goods? The market for those luxury cars is far larger in US than europe.

Know several small business owners and in discussing these topics, they say markets, sales, logistics and transportation aspects far outweigh taxes & regulation in their decision making