"Politics and the Markets are connected just like everything else..."

Yes they are. I used to talk to one of nephs about politics a lot. Most times he would bring it up, sometimes I would. When he wasn't in the mood to hear it he would say...I'd rather not have to deal with politics at all. To wit, I would say...I hear you, it sucks but politics, unfortunately, impacts every aspect of your life. It wasn't meant to be that way in this country but because people didn't want to deal with it, politics now regulates just about everything you do.

Unions, at one time, served as a necessary evil. The labor force was mistreated in this country, early on. They did improve the situation like tending to the child slave labor issues. Then, like everything else, it seems, the controllers(communist and crooks but I repeat myself) took over the unions and they became to overbearing to the point they began to bleed the host organism(the companies) dry and they died or were severely crippled. The American automotive industry is a prime example of that. Like all communist do, the communist controlled unions took things to their most absurd extremes and killed the companies that were providing the jobs by playing off the greed of the employee.

I read a story just the other day about how small unions have become. Can't remember the numbers but they were small. I doubt they make a comeback anytime soon and may actually continue to decrease in size as more and more people continue to see what a burden they have become. Most anytime the people are given the opportunity to vote themselves out of the unions, they will.