The real grand bargain, coming undone

[groovedaddy]

(a few weeks old, maybe already posted, but absolutely worth posting again in any case - gd)

Despite all the recent talk of “grand bargains,” little attention has been paid to the unraveling of a truly grand bargain that has been at the center of public policy in the United States for more than a century.

That bargain — which emerged in stages between the 1890s and 1930s — established an institutional framework to balance the needs of the American people with the vast inequalities of wealth and power wrought by the triumph of industrial capitalism. It originated in the widespread apprehension that the rapidly growing power of robber barons, national corporations and banks (like J.P. Morgan’s) was undermining fundamental American values and threatening democracy.

Such apprehensions were famously expressed in novelist Frank Norris’s characterization of the nation’s largest corporations — the railroads — as an “octopus” strangling farmers and small businesses. With a Christian rhetorical flourish, William Jennings Bryan denounced bankers’ insistence on a deflationary gold standard as an attempt to “crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” A more programmatic, and radical, stance was taken by American Federation of Labor convention delegates who in 1894 advocated nationalizing all major industries and financial corporations. Hundreds of socialists were elected to office between 1880 and 1920.

Indeed, a century ago many, if not most, Americans were convinced that capitalism had to be replaced with some form of “cooperative commonwealth” — or that large corporate enterprises should be broken up or strictly regulated to ensure competition, limit the concentration of power and prevent private interests from overwhelming the public good. In the presidential election of 1912, 75 percent of the vote went to candidates who called themselves “progressive” or “socialist.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-real-grand-bargain-coming-undone/2011/08/19/gIQA8wYiQJ_story.html

[BridgeTheGap]

1. This was a very good article. The rich were forced into accepting the bargain. They've never given

up on getting their power back. During WWII, they rolled back the hard-won gains the working class had organized for during the depression. When workers returned home from the war (many, now combat veterans), they were pissed at what had taken place in their absence. There were more strikes and labor actions during from 1945 to 1950 than in any other comparable time span in U.S. history. The ruling class legimately feared for their hold on power, hence their willingness to "bargain." The Taft-Hartley act was also part of the "bargain." The "red scare" was also a reaction to labor's new found power. Commies and socialists, whose credibility made great strides in the depression, were marginalized and muzzled. At least Bernie Sanders is a real voice for progress in the Senate.

[yurbud]

2. incredible that this ran in the Washington Post. Some part of the rich know what they will reap

if they don't change their ways, but seem to be powerless to stop the bankers and Wall Street from running the financial elite off a cliff like lemmings sniffing for ever greater profit margins.