This is part 2 of my “beef” with deindustrialization where I continue my screed against Trump’s industrial policy that mistakenly believes that manufacturing can return to the United States.

Decline of Worker Power

Loss of Unions and Collective Bargaining: You know where unions had the most power? In the industrial economy. Know where unions have next to no power? In the service economy. When manufacturing left the US, so did a fair amount of unions. The unions didn’t go overseas tho, they just disappeared. If you want manufacturing in Asia to compete on a level playing field with manufacturing in the US, bring collective bargaining to Asia.

In the US, big service companies like Amazon and Starbucks can’t stand the thought of unions. When we lost the collective bargaining power of labor unions, workers lost control over their wages, conditions, and rights. So in addition to pressuring the global south to unionize, we should reintroduce labor unions to the service economy.

Maybe the 21st century mission for the Central Intelligence Agency should be agitating for labor and environmental protections in Asia and Latin America. You know, instead of destabilizing governments. Just a thought.

Introducing the Gig Economy: The gig economy means precarious employment. Workers have little job security, benefits, or control over their work environment. Platforms like Uber, DoorDash, and Amazon Flex centralize power in the hands of the platform owners (big tech) while workers are treated like drones with little recourse to influence policies or working conditions.

An alternative platform, one that makes these connections without exploiting workers and consumers, could be a humane application for blockchains. Maybe it’s time for tech bros to think about someone other than themselves.

Financialization and Speculation

Speaking of tech bro pump and dump scams, financialization is what comes after deindustrialization.

Shift to Finance: Financialization replaces long-term growth with short-term profits. Why bother to make things when there’s trading? This consolidates power among financial elites. Sure, you can’t eat profits, or sleep under a shareholder value when it rains, but think of the earning potential! American society has always been stable and nothing bad ever happens. There is no reason that made up “financial instruments” won’t endure forever.

Vulture Capitalism: Private equity firms and investors buy failing industrial companies, strip them for parts, fire everyone, and then move on to their next victim. This further concentrates wealth and economic power and leaves workers and consumers behind. This is an opportunity for the state to step in and demand protections for workers, but that is going to require a major change in campaign finance laws.

Political Centralization and Global Governance

Speaking of corruption, wealth and power aren’t the only things that concentrate at the top.

Corporate Influence on The State: Politicians and governments are often influenced by the large corporations that dominate the economy. Corporate power over public policy shapes laws over labor rights, environmental regulations, and taxation. The political system then becomes more responsive to the needs of corporations over its citizens.

Trade: International trade favors multinational corporations. Global supply chains push out not only local jobs or industries, but they can circumvent pesky government regulations. Governments offer sweetheart tax and land deals to large corporations in order to keep them in place. This puts national and regional governments into competition with each other to offer corporations the most. This reinforces corporate power at the expense of the people’s liberty and autonomy.

Cultural and Social Centralization

Speaking of state failure, corporate power doesn’t just corrupt the state. It also corrupts the media.

Media Consolidation: Much like the centralization of industrial power, the media landscape has been centralized as well. A few corporations control much of the media content that shapes public opinion. The loss of local newspapers, radio stations, and TV networks in favor of large media conglomerates means fewer voices are heard, and the narratives that shape our world are often dictated by a small group of corporate interests.

Cultural Homogenization: As industries shift to globalized models, cultural production also becomes globalized. The cultural output of many regions is standardized, reflecting the interests of large media companies rather than the unique identities of local communities. In a sense, deindustrialization accelerates the rise of global cultural products that are sold to the same global market, further diluting local cultures. Everyone in the world is familiar with ‘The Avengers’ but the people of Cincinnati have lost touch with their rich tradition of anarchist thought.

Even life styles as diverse as the urban political and the rural communal require complex technological support systems which create their own realities, realities which will either have to be considered as part of the problem, or, better, part of the solution, but which cannot be ignored. –Radical Software - Volume 1, Issue 1