Let's say we actually unionize or set equal fees for similar work. What will that change? The agents don't care if the work is terrible as long as the title companies underwrite their policies. Most claims come from errors at the settlement table. This is changing as the offshore work has increased other sources of error, but not enough to change the Race-to-the-Bottom Fee Game.

Another question is Who Will Do the Work in Ten Years? Most of us will age out of  the work force in the next ten years or so, and no one is training their replacements (since they would become rivals). The Big Box Companies have SOME in-house searchers (in addition to India-house searchers, who I suspect will train their replacements when they hit 60 years of age or so.