system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Are the Unions actually to blame for the 1970s UK economic crisis (stagflation,winter of discontent, end of post-war consensus)?

Had the Unions really caused the end of the post-war consensus by driving up wages too high? Or was there another way? Could Keynesianism have survived in some form? What is the truth of the matter?
gpt
I recently read Greenspan and Woolbridge's *Capitalism in America*, and in it they discuss the 1970's inflationary spiral here in the United States. They seems to pin the blame on, in order of importance,   

1. Oil supply shock, caused by the OPEC embargo
2. US financial system hitting the gold ceiling
3. inefficiently structured managerial systems and firms
4. extractive union negotiations

I can't give specifics on the UK, but in as much as the parallel crisis in the US gives insight into what's happening in the UK at the time, strong and extractive unions don't seem to be to blame. 

For some cross-sectional evidence, look at West Germany in the 1970's (or Germany today) which had a higher rate of unionization (and has a higher percentage of it's workforce unionized today) than either the US or the UK. Along with Japan, West Germany was the major center of firms and conglomerates which were out-competing US firms internationally. It's not definitive proof, but this trivia seems to point the finger away from strong unions as the general cause of economic malaise. At best, perhaps strong unions can compound and exacerbate problems already current. 

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