"We view with pride and satisfaction this bright picture of our country's growth and prosperity, while only a closer scrutiny develops a somber shading. "
"We discover that the fortunes realized by our manufacturers are no longer solely the reward of sturdy industry and enlightened foresight, but that they " are largely built upon undue exactions from the masses of our people. The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor."
And what was causing this crisis for America's 19th century working-class families? President Cleveland laid it out with a surprisingly blunt vehemence in the next sentence:
"As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters."
The people -- and Congress -- were listening. America was outraged at the way corporations and the morbidly rich were behaving, and President Cleveland gave voice to their anger. A mere two years later the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was passed, criminalizing monopolies (called "trusts" back then).
The law opens with:
"Every contract, combination in the form of trust or other-wise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal.
"Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, at the discretion of the court."
A short two decades later progressive Republican presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were using that same law to break Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust into almost 30 pieces.
While Reagan abandoned enforcement of the 1890 Sherman Act (and its successors, including the 1914 Clayton Act and the 1976 Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act), most other developed countries around the world continue to protect their towns and consumers by defending the small and medium sized companies that make them vital.
Up until about two decades ago, India even had a law on the books making it illegal for a single corporation or family to own more than two of any kind of retail store or over a certain threshold of farmland in the country.
Walmart and Monsanto, among others, came in with piles of cash to get that law changed. Now small businessmen and farmers in India routinely commit suicide as they're pushed into indigence by giant transnational corporations.
Trader Joe's, in rejecting at least one aspect of efficiency in favor of humanity and local employment, has taken a great step forward. It's an example for all.
Now we need to reverse Reagan's policies and, like Richard Nixon did when he initiated the breakup of AT&T in 1974, start forcing the monopolies and oligopolies that have seized control of America's retail and other sectors to break themselves up into smaller companies to allow for competition.
We need to reset our economy so it serves We The People, rather than just the morbidly rich and their massive corporations.
For those concerned about their 401Ks invested in these giant companies, a share of AT&T stock before the breakup grew substantially in value when it became seven shares of stock in the six "Baby Bells" and Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies. And it led to an explosion of telcom innovation.
Inefficiency, it turns out, has considerable upsides. Only the morbidly rich lose out when nations return to slightly inefficient but fully competitive marketplaces.
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