A rising labor cost in the West contributed to a lower rate of surplus value which was a crucial motivating factor in the globalization of the economy that began in the 1970’s.

Wealth in the US is trickle-up. Companies were doing very very well thanks to Fordism, the idea that well-paid workers can be profitable customers if production can keep up with demand. Competition from cheap foreign labor caused customers - including American workers! - to switch to foreign goods. Then, the American capitalists had to lower their labor costs, not to increase profits, but to stay in business. If we had instituted protectionist tariffs, American businesses would have continued to boom, workers pay would have increased, and the rich would have become richer.

The faults of capitalism all flow from what customers are willing to pay. No revolution is necessary. The capitalists are scapegoats for the consumers' miserliness. Why do "Buy American!" campaigns fail? Why do Chinese goods at Wal-Mart shut down Main Street Mom and Pop shops? Because customers don't care. You want better conditions for workers? Simple. Make treating them better profitable. Vote for tariffs. Biden has kept Trump's tariffs in place. (Please do not construe anything I say as a endorsement of defense of Trump the man.) If we wanted better paid workers, we would boycott goods made by poorly paid workers. We have the technical and political technology to do that. But we don't do it. That's not "the State." That's the People.