Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people blame unions for killing the American dominance of car manufacturing worldwide. And the general de-industrialization of the US. It was a big hit to peoples conceptualization of the country.
That's odd because Union membership has dropped off of a cliff. Worth noting that Unions can be good and bad - and entrenched union that takes control of the workforce, the kind of place where they don't pick up a hammer unless it's in their job spec, or where hiring/layoffs are 100% controlled by Union ... that can be a problem. But typically where Unions are formed there's probably a reason. Walmart, AWS, and proba…
One must be careful not to use 'union' as a catch-all to describe all worker groups.
At the moment, the Capitalists are extracting as much as possible from US Citizens through excessive price hikes (much over underlying inflation - this is well-documented). They will continue to do this until the median American sinks even lower in standard of living.
Your 'rule of thumb' is exactly right-on -- the first part. But the 'entrenched' --- we have to be careful of using the Crony Capitalist talking points frames. The point of the Capitalist is to keep as big a pile for himself, all others (except shareholders) be damned. That's how it works. It is a rapacious, greedy, antiquated way to organize human labor, production, and lives. I am hopeful that younger generations can recognize the brainwashing they are receiving from the Corporate Media, and can break free from these chains, and, eventually, replace this system of institutionalized greed with something that more equitably permits sharing of our resources.