Actually, I was not referring to the War of Northern Aggression (or do they teach that it started when a non-existent Southern Army invaded the north now?) I was referring to the occupation of reconstruction. You have to live your life down here to understand the effects. All the history books (history is written by the winners, by the way) that try to describe it from an outside perspective are a joke. Not all economic decay is the fault of the unions. Just that of the auto, steel, several airlines... Our government is the result of elections. Not the Supreme Court. Corporations do not vote. People do. Unions also spend millions of dollars to influence voters. They get it from the mandatory dues the members are forced to pay. The union bosses spend it on whichever candidate they think will help them to increase their own power. The membership has no input on where the money they earned is spent. In many cases the union bosses spend money on themselves rather than funding the benefits that they are supposed to provide...then get the government (in collusion) to force the very industries that the unions are strangling to fund it again. Corporations do not pay taxes. Their customers do. Taxes are an expense, like utilities, insurance, raw materials or labor. When expenses go up, prices go up. If the prices are too high then the customers stop buying. Or they buy from a company that can produce it for less. Which these days means a company (or at least the manufacturing facility) located in China. Or Vietnam or some other place that actually encourages business to manufacture there. When the cost of labor, taxes, utilities and the like get too high they either leave the country or leave the business. That means the jobs that all employees enjoy - union and non-union alike- go away. When companies are left to the rigors of the marketplace, are not protected by government from competition nor protected from their own irresponsibility (too big to fail? Only when protected by government!) , when unions and companies both are held responsible for their actions against citizens, the market forces can actually work. Complaining about "greedy corporations" without accepting the fact that unions are every bit as greedy, every bit as ruthless and every bit as willing (if not more so) to destroy anything in their way of power is to display either a remarkable ignorance or naivety. Just ask Jimmy Hoffa. If you can find him.