Today, but not when this started.
Consumers were taught that they could have both high wages and benefits along with low prices for the goods they wanted to buy. I don't know if they have learned that they can't exist in the same country.
If you google Ford Record Profit Sharing 1999, 1998, keep going. You will see Ford was profitable and the employees were paid well.
Then 2000's came and if I remember correctly, it was an all out assault on unions. So Republicans practically cheered as uneducated blue collar workers lost their jobs to Mexico or China. But no problem, Bush's economy turned into a service economy. Because the dollar was so low, we now wait on rich people from other countries who come here to take advantage of the weak dollar. Service jobs, that don't pay nearly what manufacturing jobs do.
One reason I don't feel sorry for these deplorables is because they voted for Reagan Bush and Trump. Now they are falling for Trump? It's these former highly paid union workers who are butt hurt about losing their jobs and pensions, and now they are voting GOP? Fuck em!