A Simple Proposal

In his landmark book, Move Fast and Break Things, author Jonathan Taplin quotes a letter of Thomas Jefferson from Paris where he was stationed back to James Madison who was serving at the Constitutional Convention.  Jefferson was concerned that there was no bill of rights proposed.  He wrote:

I will now add what I do not like.  First, the omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly, and without the aid of sophism, for freedom of  religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies [emphasis added], the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land, and not by the laws of Nations.

This shows clearly Jefferson's concern that among the other  rights, a restriction against monopolies was necessary.  Jefferson had witnessed the monopolies of the English companies in the new world and knew how excessive power from monopolies as such was as great a threat as restrictions on freedom of the press or religion.   But Hamilton, representing as he did the big New York financial interests, objected strenuously and the "restriction of monopolies" was not adopted.  It was not until the anti-trust laws more than one hundred years later that protections against trusts and combines were written into law.

Sadly, more than anyone else, Robert Bork helped to enshrine a new doctrine of supposed "consumer welfare" as the test by which all proposed anti-trust actions would be judged.  That is, as long as prices were falling, Wal-Mart could take over the whole retail economy, as far as he was concerned.   Left out of his procedure was any concern for over-concentration of political power or predation.*

So, the anti-trust laws have essentially been put on the shelf, only trotted out from time to time for the biggest mergers, and even then only in the context of "consumer welfare."

The relevant portion in Chapter 6 of Move Fast and Break Things is well worth the reading.

But this problem could be taken care of by simply adopting an Amendment to the Constitution which would do little more than restore Jefferson's original proposal to restrict monopolies.  But this time, said restriction would be in the Constitution itself.  We could do this.  In fact, we must do this or its equivalent.   Otherwise, corporations will increasingly run rough-shod over our laws and the Constitution itself.  



*see quotation of Robert Reich, p. 112