>> Even worse, because of the unions, and tenure, unqualified and unethical teachers cannot be fired.
>

Teachers are fired every day.
Tenure is another issue and has nothing to do with unions. Lots of college profs who are not in unions have tenure.
I'm all for getting rid of tenure, in all its forms.
Gerrymandering has created de facto tenure in many congressional districts and that is a lot worse than having a bad teacher or two.
Perhaps the most egregious example of the evils of tenure can be found on the US Supreme court.

it is the business owner that loses everything he or she invested in it. The workers only lose their jobs.

Which company are you talking about?
Walmart? Sam, who founded it is long dead. His kids have taken billions off the table
If Walmart went belly up tomorrow they'd still all be billionaires.
Ditto with Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, Exxon, IBM, Dupont, ad nauseum.

Many workers, on the other hand, especially those who have devoted their lives to learning specialized skills that aren't readily transportable - do have a lot at risk. "They can always quit" is what the robbers barons said.
What they really meant was "He can always quit." Once the workers organized in large groups, the robber barons stopped saying "They can always quit" because that would been too costly, so they were forced to bargain.


It's interesting that you think that employers have more rights than workers.
That's exactly my point. My children think that way too.
50 years ago, the rights of workers to organize and have equal rights - and power - at the bargaining table were a given.




>I don't think that it's a coincidence that the middle class in the US began to shrink at the same time that that change in perception of unions began to take hold.
>
>Actually, the middle class shrank in the final decades of the 20th century for a welcome reason: More Americans moved up into what might be considered the upper middle class or the affluent. Since 2000, the middle class has been shrinking for a decidedly more alarming reason: Incomes have fallen. I believe that the increase in big government in the 21st century is partially responsible for this.

I'd like to see the data supporting that.