{"id":2188,"date":"2007-09-05T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-05T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/the-five-guardians-and-teddy-roosevelt\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:10:53","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:10:53","slug":"the-five-guardians-and-teddy-roosevelt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/the-five-guardians-and-teddy-roosevelt\/","title":{"rendered":"The five guardians and Teddy Roosevelt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u2019t have created the widespread prosperity, safety and health most of us generally enjoy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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\u2019s missing most or all of the five guardians.<\/p>\n

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Guardian No. 1: Labor<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Woo-hoo! Labor tops the list! (Of course, I\u2019m a labor guy, and I had the only vote, but still, I\u2019m thrilled with the ranking). Labor is indeed one of the top, if not the top, reasons we have a middle class. It\u2019s also the reason we have safe workplaces, overtime, weekends, health care (for union workers, at least), whistleblower protections and retirements.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not in a union, if you\u2019re in an industry that has good labor density, you still benefit every day of your life. Even if you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Guardian No. 2: Anti-Trust laws (read: competition)<\/span><\/p>\n

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To channel the spirit of Yogi Berra<\/a>, 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\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When Albertson\u2019s took over Raley\u2019s in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, many of us expected slightly lesser service but better prices. Guess again. Albertson\u2019s raised the price of organic milk by 25 percent overnight \u2013 and it\u2019s not like organic milk was cheap to start with. (By the way, Albertson\u2019s wins Corporate Cluster of the Week for its slimy policies).<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fortunately, in this setting, there is competition, and I\u2019ve started shopping at a Smith\u2019s several miles further away.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But can you imagine if Albertson\u2019s bought Smith\u2019s? Yikes \u2013 prices would go way above market, because there wouldn\u2019t be a market. They wouldn\u2019t just take it out on organic milk drinking tree-huggers like me, either. All y\u2019all who like KC Masterpiece Ruffles, Banquet frozen pot pies and Kraft American singles (oh wait, that\u2019s all me, too) are gonna get hit awfully hard.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s where our pro-competition laws come in. Albertson\u2019s can\u2019t buy Smith\u2019s, or at least couldn\u2019t during an administration that believed in enforcing anti-trust laws.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Thankfully, great leaders like Republican Teddy Roosevelt<\/a> worked to ban predatory business practices and monopolies, and people in the other party still work to preserve his legacy today.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Guardian No. 3: Regulators<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Have you given your dog poisoned food lately, and your name\u2019s not Michael Vick<\/a>? Have you given your kid lead lately, and your name\u2019s not Susan Smith<\/a>? You were on the receiving end of unregulated markets at their worst. Our trade deals with China<\/st1:country-region> are so bereft of any kind of standards, and China<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> itself is so laissez-faire, that we are now seeing the inevitable results of highly deregulated markets.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You want quality, safe products? Demand that all our trading partners have to have an FDA<\/a>, an OSHA<\/a> and other similar entities to protect consumers. Only vote for politicians who demand it, too. America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> thrived for nearly a century under basic health and safety regulations, when we and our major trading partners all played by the same rules. China<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> should, too.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Guardian No. 4: Lawyers<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

OK, so little Princess bought the farm because the Chinese and Bush governments couldn\u2019t be bothered to regulate Chinese cat food. What are your options? Lawyers. That\u2019s it. For all the ribbing lawyers take (\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between a dead lawyer and dead snake in the road? Brake marks before the snake.\u201d), they\u2019re the last line of defense when corporations abuse and governments neglect Americans.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What John Edwards<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Guardian No. 5: Non-profit advocates<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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<\/a> and the Sierra Club<\/a> give the most voiceless in our society a voice.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

They appeal to the better angels in all of us. They\u2019re always outgunned and outspent by corporations wanting to pillage families and the planet, and they often lose, but they\u2019re out there fighting, and winning more often than you\u2019d ever guess possible. And they get $14 haircuts like the rest of us.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Geez, do I dare make two Teddy Roosevelt references in one column? Here goes: Non-profit advocates are also carrying on much of Roosevelt<\/st1:place>\u2019s legacy of social justice and environmental conservation, and we should all be grateful.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This Labor Day, we should be happy to live in a country where we\u2019re not only free, but we\u2019re 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!<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. The opinions in his column are personal and in no way reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t have created the widespread prosperity, safety and health most of us generally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}