An Obligation

It's Labor Day. A day for appreciating all that's been sacrificed in order to give Americans a fair shake in factory jobs. In order to recognize what was truly gifted to the American people through the industrial revolution's unions, we take a day off- something that was far less acceptable back then.

I think part of the problem with modern rhetoric is that we look to the past for guidance about some issues, but not others- and when we do look to the past, we often look to an irrelevant past that holds no analogical significance to current situations. In particular, I'm referring to Libertarians today.

Now, don't get me wrong- I think Libertarianism has a lot to offer to the national discussion. Ending the drug war, dropping indefinite detention, and keeping free speech unregulated (both on the internet and in the physical world). There's the messy war issue too. They aren't fond of war.
However, today's subject is the biggest reason I fear Libertarianism- they have a fetish for unbridled capitalism in its purest form, confident that the free market will drive down prices, drive up competition, and allow the consumers to use their money to sway corporate images and accepted policy.
That's all awesome on paper. If it worked. Unfortunately, human nature is to fear competition. So, what happens is that a wealthy person with a company, let's say it sells chairs, will purchase other chair companies that pop up in order to reduce competition. In doing so, they're also spreading their own brand and image. Soon, this chair company becomes synonymous with the word "chair," such that most people would rather buy from them than a store that they've never heard of. At this point, the chair company has the means and influence to receive chairs or chair parts from anywhere in the world- a third world country that uses slave labor, more often than not- at the cheapest price possible. This gives way to the chair company selling chairs for less than would otherwise be possible.

Local startup chair business opens across the street, but they can't compete. They don't outsource their work either because they think it's wrong or they don't have the resources to do so. They also don't have the selection or convenience of the big chair company, so they're more expensive, less convenient, and less of an attraction for consumers. Big chair company doesn't even have to buy them out at this point because the smaller business simply cannot survive in this economic climate. Short of another independently wealthy person starting another huge chair company, the original big company has no "real" competition.

What we wind up with is a few mega-companies controlling all (or nearly all) of the business in a specific field, using unbeatable prices, selling shoddy merchandise, and offering it more easily and conveniently than otherwise possible.
Examples:
Wal-Mart, Kroger, K-Mart (currently dying), Target, Meijer
Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, Taco Bell, KFC
BP, Sunoco, Mobile, Speedway
Tyson, Banquet
Nike, Adidas
Microsoft, Apple
Monsanto

These companies have the money and reach to place themselves in nearly every American's life, such that we're forced to deal with them. What's more is that these companies are also harmful on the supply side of the chain! These corporations are the companies to do business with. If you aren't supplying to them, you aren't making enough money (because no one else is in the business). So, if you're a local farmer, you have to be selling to just a few potential people. What this means is that those companies can hold you to whatever regulations and fines they want, and if you fight back, they can terminate your contract, putting you out of a desperately needed job that cannot be filled elsewhere.
Even if you're not distant from the process, you're still treated like garbage. The individual employees for these companies more often receive minimum wage and no working benefits, largely because the companies can get away with it thanks to a lack of competition upholding higher standards. Wal-Mart doesn't have to give you a living wage or benefits because there's always a line of hungry potential workers available and willing to work for minimum wage- because as sucky as minimum wage is, it's better than being unemployed. For the same reasons, these companies can start to slowly destroy the other working conditions we've fought so hard to obtain in the past. More and more, illegal wages are being offered, people are working more than 40 hours a week (often at one job, but also often at multiple because they need to in order to survive), and people are working in increasingly unsafe conditions, whether in this country, or in the countries providing labor FOR our country.

The end result? These companies do nothing but grow, allowing them access to even cheaper labor, offering even cheaper prices, forcing competition even deeper underground.

This situation is possible in such a state as a result of globalization and the increased ability to transmit goods and information over distances more easily. However, the situation is still reminiscent of America's own industrial revolution when factories were allowed to make whatever demands they wished of their employees because, much like today, there was an excess of unskilled labor and a lack of available jobs for everyone. As a result, work could be 14 hours long for a dollar a day, where you had to run the risk of cutting off limbs each time you were around heavy machinery.

Unions. Enter Unions. The power of the people manifested in a single-function group that could bring a factory to a standstill by collectively refusing to work so as to obtain better benefits. Of course, they couldn't technically stop non-union workers from taking their jobs, but they could apply all of the collective shame they had at their disposal to these interlopers. With enough empathetic support from the community, any union strike could destroy the profit potential of a factory, forcing the mega-rich owners to rethink their business practices.
What followed next in history was the creation of minimum wage laws, child labor laws, safer working conditions, a reasonable scheduled work-week. Regulations to prevent the abuse of the common man by people in power.

I know I've made a super-circle around the topic, so I'll get to the point here-
Libertarianism's favor for unbridled capitalism is an encouragement of the behavior and attitudes that led to the original factory problems of the industrial revolution and indeed, the problems we face today with mega-corporation that monopolize their respective sectors.
Libertarianism encourages the removal of strict regulation on corporations, again, ensured that the free market itself will prevent abuses of power.
Perhaps I'm jaded by history, but I'm convinced that most (certainly not all) people who obtain power do so out of an ambition that is complemented by greed. This greed distances them from the moral obligation to avoid abusing their power. Instead, they do whatever props them up higher in the economic world, stepping on anyone in the way.

It's Labor Day. And I'd just like to remind all three of my readers that the corporate world is currently unstable as a result of poor regulation. We faced a $700 billion bailout because of it, followed by a recession the likes of which America hadn't seen in decades. Even still, we face corporations owning tight monopolies, while smaller businesses are unable to compete thanks to the double-edged sword of globalization.
It's distinctly possible that we can't do much, if anything, about this in our lives, but I'd just like you to keep in mind this state of affairs. Don't let yourself forget that there was an ideal forged by the unions that America is starting to leave behind in favor of the very thing that caused unions to exist in the first place.

Those who are unfamiliar with history are doomed to repeat it.

-
Waddles