mbs: Context aside for a second, I'd say this is not one of Marx's better moments. His closing remark boils down to "the worse, the better." But worse does not necessarily lead to better; it can lead to worse yet.
I'd like to second TD's remark about the relative reasibility of union organizing in manufacturing, hence its strategic political importance. It may also have a strategic economic importance by propping up labor standards and exerting some pull on service sector wages.
Whatever the drawbacks of manufacturing work, the potential pay premium seems to be enough for workers to figure out where their best interests lie. As things stand, the Dems are abandoning these people to Buchanan. Let the centrists babble about education, having eight different careers in a lifetime, or improving service sector jobs. Let the greens vent about alternative technology. Lefts can fantasize about revolution in the periphery. Buchanan is going to be speaking directly to workers who understand that is all hooey, and there is one guy who wants to *protect* the jobs they want, the jobs their fathers had that enabled them to make a life from the humblest origins.
mbs