You're right, except that it is not unionized workers parasitizing profits (unions are decreasing in numbers everywhere), it is shareholders parasitizing compan

You're right, except that it is not unionized workers parasitizing profits (unions are decreasing in numbers everywhere), it is shareholders parasitizing companies to extract whatever value they can. This is the big difference. In Asia, shareholders don't have the power to parasitize profits, and they allow ample competition between manufacturers. See, for example, the absurd situation of Apple. Americans think it is nice to have a single company nearly monopolizing device production, as if it were their right. In Asia people would have already started hundreds of companies to fight their monopolistic advantage (as they currently have in China).