People could organize into citizens, social or consumer unions using their consuming power to effect economy to counter the onslaught against worker's unions.

The CPI, the consumer price index, is built into any economic model presented by the Fed. Consumption is the prime mover in the economy. The Fed bases interest rates off the CPI along with other consideration. Debt, speculation, borrowing and lending are based in future consumption.

People could always refuse to pay back debt in mass, tax boycotts in mass, stop paying credit cards, stop paying for student loans, stop paying their mortgages, all kinds of things to counter corporate dominance in the political and economic systems.

People could run on the slogan "We'll start paying when you stop playing!"

ChicagoTim, you can't seriously be asking that. You really think that workers don't want membership of unions and that that's why so few are members? You either fell off a turnip truck yesterday or are shillin' like a villain and are just playing dumb.
Taking your professed utter lack of worldly knowledge at face value, here is the report of a study made in the early 2000s - when I was doing some labor organizing. It describes how the process of organizing is legally stacked in favor of union busting employers. http://web.wm.edu/so/tlsc/orgmaterials/Busting.pdf
Survey research shows consistently that a large majority of blue collar workers would much prefer to belong to unions but in more than a third of workplace organizing campaigns participants in the campaign are illegally fired and often with complete impunity because legal protections of this activity are so weak.
Tim, tell me something. Walmart is the largest employer in the U.S. and has NO union shops. Do you seriously think that that's because none of Walmart's employees want to join a union? Do you know what happens if a Walmart manager even suspects any intent to organize workers in their store or even hears mention of a union?

Chuckle8, 10K, thanks for answering chicagotim’s anti-union BS so I don’t have to.

Anyone who is anti-union is against democracy in the workplace. Simple as that.

chimatt -- What you are describing is the specified goal of the Powell doctrine. Lewis Powell, coincidentally, wrote that confidential document to the "billionaires" in 1970.

Reply to #1..What happened to the Union movement? ......I'll tell you what...Ronald Reagan and free trade agreements. My answer to the anti-union push by the Fascists would be to tell corp "merica" to go f itself and we the people form massive cooperatives....giant green energy companies, electric cars, wind turbines, solar, you name it. Greedy god damn CEO's need not apply!

and what about HR 1409?????... The Employee Free Choice Act!

chicagotim -- If you really wanted to test your theory, just pass card check. The "billionaires" are scared to death of unions. That is probably why there is a $3 billion dollar industry that forces workers to meetings to hear the ideas you spout. It is also why the sycophants of the "billionaires" (AKA republicans) filibustered the employee free choice act.

There really ought to be a "No" response just for the heck of it, but I would support almost any measure that got people registered. I would also like to see the US adopt online voting the way other countries have. Surely the US is capable of doing that, especially if other countries have successfully been using online voting. And while I'm at it, I would like to see an end to gerrymandering, while redistricting taken out of the hands of politicans and redstricting being handled by non-partisan enities such as a university. I would also like to see term limits in the absense of real campaign finance reform and the Citizens United misruling.

The anti-Union forces spend billions of dollars every year on Union busting law firms. Fewer dues paying members means less money to pay for representation. And of course there has been corruption in Unions. Just like in any corporate environment. The difference is Unions are a democracy. We can vote the bums out. Can the average working person do that at a corporation? In the recent depression, many Union members worked with their employers to cut cost's and improve productivity. It is a fact that when workers have a voice, business succeeds. Just ask Volkswagen.

We need to start changing our majority, exclusive representation Unions to minority, members only Unions. It is the duty of fair representation for non-paying members that is bankrupting Unions. Let the folks who value collective negotiation pay for that right, and let the rest of the employees fend for themselves. Right to work is nothing more than right to freeload.

Next up is billionaire Gov. Rauner trying to make Illinois right to work for less. We'll see if there are enough real Dems. in the State Legislature to keep him at bay. As a 30 year plus carpenter I can tell you unions carpenters make 30% to 50% more than non union not to mention benefits and pension.

So in your analysis, what exactly happened to the union movement and why has it become largely irrelevant in the private sector? I'll give you a few choices: dues for little to no representation, corruption and mob influences at the national level, intransigent leaders who destroyed companies and jobs (see International Harvester)... I'm sure there are more.

If actual workers wanted unions they'd still be around. They became really no better than the corporate overlords and yet wanted a good share of everyone's paycheck...

Thom's interpretation of how the judicial branch should operate would leave no use for a process of getting a legal case from the bottom level to the Supreme Court. I would say the Supreme Court would have no function at all, but it would still have its areas of original jurisdiction. But it would in no sense be supreme, as cases outside its original jurisdiction would not filter up to it.