> Detroit was the wealthiest city in the US in 1950, with the highest per capita GDP in the country. Over the course of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the UAW union took over, with membership eventually peaking in 1978.

> What followed was industrial collapse, and eventually, Detroit becoming a ghost town.

East Michigan was wealthy in the 1950s, and the unionized workers like Larry Page's grandfather sent their children off to college.

Textile mills in the Carolinas had virtually no unionization.

Yes, manufacturing employment is down from Michigan's heyday. What about the textile plants from North Carolina's heyday? They closed down too. They never unionized, so what caused that to happen?

The difference is the Michigan factory worker entered the middle class, and owned a home, two cars and sent his kids off to college. The North Carolina textile worker's children did not get this education, and when the textile mills closed had no such luck.