> prospects for the working class disappeared when you moved manufacturing to China
I think the prospects of the working class died with the crisis signaling the end of the USSR and by extension communist/socialist circles. After all it was the only counter-balance that instilled a baseline fear of violent uprising from the workers class in the heart of the wealthy class.
And in a way the final nail came with the free reign liberal policies that followed with Thatcher e Reagan, not so much about offshoring in itself.
The true problem is money in politics. No, this has nothing to do with Musk. Musk is just visible, but it's been going on in the US for a long, long time.
Other countries have limits on campaign donations, for example at the federal level in Canada:
* no donations are allowed by corporations
* individuals may only donate $1750 to the party, and $1750 to the local candidate
* people running for office can donate to their own campaign, to the tune of $5000
* leadership candidates (eg, for Prime Minister) can donate $25k to their own campaign
That's it.
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=lim&do...
All of these donations are heavily regulated, amounts of $100 I think require disclosure.
Another example, lobbyists must be registered. If you have lunch with a lobbyist, they can't pay for your lunch, you can't pay for theirs.
All of this takes corporate influence and most importantly the need for "big money" out of the equation.
Things such as third party advertising are covered too:
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=thi/ec...
With overall limits at the federal level from all third party contributions at $600k, and $5k per district:
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&document=i...
You want the "working class" to have more of a say? Make candidates beholden to normal people to get elected. Destroy the machinery of big-business donations for campaign, and campaign management funding.
That's it. That's the biggest, most significant fix, right there.
>...After all it was the only counter-balance that instilled a baseline fear of violent uprising from the workers class in the heart of the wealthy class.
Are people claiming that the USSR provided a valid counter-balance for the working class? At any rate, if the chances of political violence have actually decreased in democracies due to the end of the USSR, isn't that a good thing?
Yes! Western states had to ensure that life was better in a Capitalist country. Hence unions were tolerated, along with human rights, rule of law, anti corruption etc etc.
Unions have never been tolerated - they seized what little power they have through actual economic force. The kind that no king or government can oppose for long.
Human rights and fighting graft don't have very much to do with the USSR, unless you ignore the centuries or history there before the Communist Manifesto was even written.