Incidentally, factory closures are attributable to excessive wages and ridiculous workplace conditions. Lower wages--probably still much better in real terms than those in India--would mean a larger manufacturing sector. But the total victory of unionism is itself a self-defeating phenomenon: for its short term self-interest unions advocate high wages for unionised workers and far too stringent conditions (like demanding the right to choose whether a company can outsource its workers or not). Having obtained that result they bewail the fact that these very manufacturers find higher profits overseas. The result is that the union loses members, jobs are lost, and the economy suffers.