By Carter Bundy
Our country is the most prosperous in the history of the world, and often our free markets and corporations get the credit. But while capitalism plays a central role in our prosperity, if left to their own devices, corporations wouldn’t have created the widespread prosperity, safety and health most of us generally enjoy.
Five counterweights to untrammeled corporate power are all that stand between us and a filthy, dangerous, crime-ridden, unjust, poor country. Whatever country just popped into your head, whether it is capitalist or not, chances are excellent it’s missing most or all of the five guardians.
Guardian No. 1: Labor
Woo-hoo! Labor tops the list! (Of course, I’m a labor guy, and I had the only vote, but still, I’m thrilled with the ranking). Labor is indeed one of the top, if not the top, reasons we have a middle class. It’s also the reason we have safe workplaces, overtime, weekends, health care (for union workers, at least), whistleblower protections and retirements.
If you’re not in a union, if you’re in an industry that has good labor density, you still benefit every day of your life. Even if you’re not in an industry with significant union presence, unions are the leading advocates for policies that benefit all kinds of workers and retirees, like increasing the minimum wage, achieving universal health care, protecting Social Security and fighting off the privatization of Medicare. De Nada.
Guardian No. 2: Anti-Trust laws (read: competition)
To channel the spirit of Yogi Berra, competition works when it works. It may seem weird to call competition a counterweight to corporate power, but the truth is that in the absence of true competition, corporations are abusive. And in the absence of a country of laws, including anti-trust laws, competition doesn’t exist.
When Albertson’s took over Raley’s in
Fortunately, in this setting, there is competition, and I’ve started shopping at a Smith’s several miles further away.
But can you imagine if Albertson’s bought Smith’s? Yikes – prices would go way above market, because there wouldn’t be a market. They wouldn’t just take it out on organic milk drinking tree-huggers like me, either. All y’all who like KC Masterpiece Ruffles, Banquet frozen pot pies and Kraft American singles (oh wait, that’s all me, too) are gonna get hit awfully hard.
That’s where our pro-competition laws come in. Albertson’s can’t buy Smith’s, or at least couldn’t during an administration that believed in enforcing anti-trust laws.
Thankfully, great leaders like Republican Teddy Roosevelt worked to ban predatory business practices and monopolies, and people in the other party still work to preserve his legacy today.
Guardian No. 3: Regulators
Regulators (the suit-wearing-living-in-D.C. types, not the Nate-Dog-and-Warren-G types) and regulatory standards play a vital, unsung role in protecting us from corporate malfeasance. Seriously.
Have you given your dog poisoned food lately, and your name’s not Michael Vick? Have you given your kid lead lately, and your name’s not Susan Smith? You were on the receiving end of unregulated markets at their worst. Our trade deals with
You want quality, safe products? Demand that all our trading partners have to have an FDA, an OSHA and other similar entities to protect consumers. Only vote for politicians who demand it, too.
Guardian No. 4: Lawyers
OK, so little Princess bought the farm because the Chinese and Bush governments couldn’t be bothered to regulate Chinese cat food. What are your options? Lawyers. That’s it. For all the ribbing lawyers take (“What’s the difference between a dead lawyer and dead snake in the road? Brake marks before the snake.”), they’re the last line of defense when corporations abuse and governments neglect Americans.
What John Edwards and his compadres do is vital to the health and safety of all Americans. You may never see a big settlement to compensate you for the loss of Rex, but someone else did, and because of that your puppy is going to live to slobber all over you for a decade or more. We all benefit by laws and lawyers that hold corporations accountable for dangerous and deadly (but profitable) actions.
Guardian No. 5: Non-profit advocates
Yeah, the lawyers make the big bucks to protect us. But there is another group of Americans that make meager-to-middle class wages, without whom many abuses would go unchallenged: non-profit advocates. Groups like Voices for Children and the Sierra Club give the most voiceless in our society a voice.
They appeal to the better angels in all of us. They’re always outgunned and outspent by corporations wanting to pillage families and the planet, and they often lose, but they’re out there fighting, and winning more often than you’d ever guess possible. And they get $14 haircuts like the rest of us.
Geez, do I dare make two Teddy Roosevelt references in one column? Here goes: Non-profit advocates are also carrying on much of
This Labor Day, we should be happy to live in a country where we’re not only free, but we’re generally prosperous, safe, and healthy. You can thank the five guardians of our way of life: labor, anti-trust laws, regulatory standards, lawyers and advocates. And thank Teddy Roosevelt. Happy Labor Day!
Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in