Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "laws"

Saving Capitalism For the Many Not the Few by Robert B. Reich, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.

In the coming elections we face both confusing realities and difficult choices. However, there are clear options, illustrated in great detail in Robert Reich’s new book Saving Capitalism. Odd agreements between Tea Party members and liberal Democrats tell the tale. Both seem to understand the dangerous positive feedback loop between money and politics. They both oppose subsidizing Big Oil, Agriculture and Pharmaceutical businesses.

Reich emphasizes that our choices are not between Big government and a “free market.” There is no such thing as a free market. All markets are defined by laws of some kind. We need to re-organize our markets for “broadly based prosperity, [not] one designed to deliver almost all of its gains to a few at the top.”

I see in this coming election that our choice is not so much between Republicans and Democrats, not even between “establishment and anti-establishment, as Reich suggests, but between changing how we redefine and regulate our “free market.” Not voting in public elections is actually voting to let the wealthy continue to warp the defining laws and practices in their favor.

Reich goes into great detail describing what laws have been warped to favor the wealthy at the expense of the working middle glass, whose median wage has been dropping since 1970. Even young college graduates’ hourly wage has gone down since 2000.

Examples of laws that should be changed (I counted 27 in Reich’s book, aside from “reinventing the corporation.”) include reversing the Supreme Court’s decision “Citizens United” or amending the constitution so Congress can regulate campaign spending. Others: ban the gerrymandering of districts and voting restrictions, require disclosure of all outside sources of public domain testimony, revise patent and antitrust laws to undo power-grubbing tactics, resurrect Glass-Steagull to separate commercial and investment banking, ban forced arbitration and insider stock trading, restore bankruptcy law to give labor or students higher priority and most importantly require congress to fund the enforcement of such laws that benefit the working and middle classes. Other suggestions deal with international trade agreements and local school funding.

Reich provides a readable litany of how big money has redefined capitalism, noting that in 1874 the Supreme Court in Trist vs Child that persons could not be hired to lobby Congress. In 1920 the Tillman Act banned corporations from making paid contributions, now allowed by the Citizens United decision.

He tells us that insider trading is still rampant, antitrust laws no longer keep monopolies from dominating markets. The stories continue. The 300:1 ratio of executive-to- worker pay is due only in small part to globalization, technology, lobbying, subsidies and loopholes.

He reminds us that things are different in Europe. That we could once again have a truly “free market” if we would take command of how Congress, agencies and judges write the laws that define what the market is. Bankruptcy laws favor corporations by giving low priority to paying off labor costs. Student loans, now 10% of the total, are not allowed bankruptcy protection. In Germany education through college is free to students.

We can recover who we were, a country where the middle class grew and thrived, and common sense, not money drove our ideals.

The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando DeSoto, New York, Basic Books, 2000.

A must-read! This book cites rave reviews by thirty-one significant people in government and the press, and its simple message has been taken seriously by some countries determined to help the 80% who fail to rise above poverty levels—most because they stay trapped in extralegal ways of obtaining a place to live and a barely adequate living.

The formula for lifting the 80% out of poverty is simple to understand but difficult to enact —governments must legalize and enable (through low enough prices and short time requirements) the assumptions and dealing practiced extra-legally by the poor. Only when property ownership is guaranteed—its value secured by legal government procedures and filed papers—can it be used to better ones position and grow the economy for all.

Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, Boston, Beacon Press, 2012.

In reviewing Billionaires' Ball I'm tempted to quote from the book Zoobiquity: by Barbara Matterson-Horowitz, MD and Kathryn Bowers. Chapter 5 is a fascinating tale of why we all--humans and animals alike--are subject to addiction. Evolution has provided us with nerves and brain chemicals that interplay to create emotions. Survival tactics are rewarded with hits of natural feel-good narcotics like dopamine. Accumulating wealth is a survival tactic, hence it can be addictive--a scary observation for these times.

The authors of Billionaires Ball remind us of the Crash of 2008 and provide a detailed history of “Chapter 5. Why Bill Gates Doesn't Deserve His Fortune, Chapter 6. Why Other Billionaries Are Even Less Deserving...and Chapter 10. Why Billionaires Are Bad for Democracy."

The authors compare the U.S. and Sweden. They observe that most Americans think that we are similar in the distributions of wealth. We are not. Our differences in wealth are currently much higher than the Swedes. In America the average wage has slid downward since the 1970’s, while exorbitant wealth has accumulated to a very low percentage of Americans.

The answers are simple. It is up to Congress to reinstate reasonable leveling measures. Trickle-down economics has been debunked as a myth. I come back again and again to the Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant: Rome, faced with hungry people and unequal wealth, chose a ”hundred years of class and civil war," while in the Athens of 594 B.C. Solon, an aristocratic businessman, “…eased the burden of all debtors…established a graduated income tax...reorganized the courts on a more popular basis, and...educated at the government’s expense..." sons of the military. “The government of the United State, in 1933-52 and 1960-65, followed Solon's peaceful methods and accomplished a moderate and pacifying redistribution…"

Why is this so hard to understand? People need to feel some basic respect as part of society, not as lackeys.

The author is President of the Nonpartisan Policy Alliance and has worked as a policy analyst for a Washington DC think tank. He advises representatives and lobbies Congress on behalf of American workers.

A critical point he makes is that “It is imperative that we enact the Secure Elections Act as as soon as possible. It makes clear that every state retains authority over their election process. A note by Sarbanes was posted online in February that the SAFE bill passed the House. But  ”For months, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have refused to allow a vote on any of these critical election security bills.”A Google search found that nothing else has been done.

Lorenz notes that there is the Problem Solver Caucus within the House of Representatives, founded in January of 2017 to “seek common ground between the parties.”The news this month indicates they have not been successful.

The author of this small book ends by listing “Actions You Can Take” He urges moderates in both parties to work to counter the active faction of extremists in both parties” He concludes: “…we must abandon our misguided allegiance to candidates and political parties. As Americans we pledge allegiance to our flag, not our leaders….they must always be questioned, criticized and held accountable. Our loyalty must be to our country and to the policies that will advance our economic, technological and financial security, not to any individual or party.”