For those who decry government entering the lives of individuals in a country that boasts about individualism and unlimited freedom of choice, a short review of regulation might be informative.  Please forgive me if I am not excessively encyclopedic in this review.

A former colleague of mine (he still labors in academia’s vineyards) informed me yesterday that the reason for the stock market collapse in Bush IIs' federal stewardship could be traced to Clinton’s experience of the explosive stock market growth which he understandably did not try to curtail. He did not fully understand why, but his mantra was “It’s the Economy, Stupid” and it seemed to work.  Thus, it was his fault that in the 2002s we are beginning to understand the excessive power of CEOs who have overseen this present “BUST” after the 1990’s “BOOM”. We now are witness to the crooked accounting practices that allowed unchecked growth and obscene rewards for CEOs who urged the process on – their remuneration by contrast to workers – to obscene heights. But, of course this was Clinton’s fault.

It was back in Civil War times when one of the first intrusions into private life by the federal government began. Abraham Lincoln’s Congress decided to launch the first Tax on Income to fund the “War Between the States” or some other name assigned by descendants of those who favored slavery and “nullification” and who still resent the “Northern Aggression” by the Yankee government in Washington, D.C. 

In the late 1800s out west a new political and economic philosophy was born called “Populism.”  The Populists were farmers who resented the eastern banks and railroads. These had the ear of the government and received permission to rape the countryside along the path of the new transcontinental railroad lines and charge whatever they wanted to the people who raised the food and were subjected to uncertainties of weather.  Interest, excessively high interest, had to be paid even if it didn’t rain and crops withered.  There was much agitation to go off the Gold Standard and printing a lot of paper money to pay the costs driven upwards by people called “Robber Barons”.

The resultant “Anti-Trust“ legislation proved very hard to enforce and is still around today when federal lawyers try to break up some companies.  The idea was to give small companies protection and the philosophy was to favor and encourage small companies to prosper.  There was never any intent to abandon small businesses but the cannibalistic tendencies of great computer program companies, cereal makers, oil and automobile companies and so on to “MERGE” with and “TAKEOVER” others of their ilk became the modus operandi of those whose future seemed locked only to the trading services of the Stock Market. Illegal and improper accounting practices were noted.

There was great regulation of workers from the time of Knights of Labor in the last years of the 19th century to the AF of L and the CIO “giant” unions of the 20th century when the answer was to send the military to break up strikes and break heads. The Great Depression of the 1930’s saw legislation enacted to give strikers the right to protest and the right to bargain collectively under National Labor Relations Act.  This was pushed by the Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.  In the Post World War II period we had a cooling interest in giving labor a piece of the pie and along came the Taft-Hartley Act that provided for cooling down periods and severely restricting the power of some unions that had become the tools of some gangsters.

Does anyone remember the photograph of a company head being carried out of his building by soldiers?  He resented and refused federal orders to get going on the war effort during World War II, wishing to do it his way.

Then we come down to today when there is foolish fiddling with good monopolies (such as telephone) and the unlicensed greed of CEOs.  One of my pet peeves is that workers get regulated to the point where they live at the bottom of the earning pyramid.  They have no power at the bargaining table today unlike the days of John L. Lewis who was so frightening as a union powerhouse that it scared the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) into action and U.S. legislation was enacted to restrict the rights to work.  It is curious that the “Right to Work” movement was a cover to shield resistors who didn’t want to pay union dues. The budding Conservative Movement then began its brilliant efforts to restrict the rights of unions by “freeing” workers from the clutches of restrictive union management and then championing the rights of Company Management (the CEOs) and then rewarding them shamelessly with gifts of money and elevating their images to that of Gods of the Stock Market with the bottom line being the mantra of success.

The Stock Market needs to be regulated and not be the way for small investors to prepare for their retirement. Efforts by these unfeeling financiers to end Social Security are tied to the myth that business should be allowed to do as it pleases. The CEOs greed should be curtailed by limits – the same limits that press down minimum pay standards.  They provide a service and should be compensated fairly just like everyone else.  They are managers of production and commerce and should not be confused as miracle workers. Like teachers who provide a service, and secretaries who provide another service, and like the plumbers, carpenters and electricians without whom our society would shut down – the managers of companies should be subject to regulation.

Why workers in unions or workers who are unprotected should have to struggle to live while managers of companies live lavishly is a question that should be answered.  This may be old-fashioned Populism, but it is also a question that should be answered today and greed put to rest. It should be made a crime when it exceeds norms established by the market-place of workers and not by the managers of capital.