In 2005, the real hourly wage for production workers in America was approximately 8 percent lower than it was in 1973, while our national output (productivity) per hour is 55 percent higher. So it's dubious whether most Americans have gained even a penny in purchasing power since 1989.
This country's delusional Republican sockpuppets must be frustrated by their party's failed policy : smashing the unions was supposed to line bourgeois GOP pockets with silver and gold, but no!
The GOP kicked all working and middleclass people from the economic table as if they were stray dogs!

Meanwhile, in Germany, unions are resurging among kids who are highly skilled.
Why are kids in Germany paying dues voluntarily?

American educator John Dewey believed that schools should not just teach practical skills but explain why kids have to be political, to be citizens and yes, to get into labor movements to protect the skills they are acquiring.
Ironically, American middleclass folks have only one political motto anymore: "NoNewTaxes."

So the Europeans will continue to prosper and have good jobs and good living environments and self-respect while Americans fall deeper into social inequality and are subjected to Republican talk radio sockpuppets.