“Wealth and Poverty” Class 5: Monopoly, Organized Labor, and Antitrust

Friends,

Our fifth class begins our focus on power — and on the weakening power of workers and the increasing power of big corporations.

In case you missed them, here are the classes that have been released so far: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, and Class 4.

For Class 5, just double-click on the video below, and you’re in the fifth week of class.

Background: It’s one of the oldest struggles inside the American economy and within capitalism worldwide: between labor and capital. And it has a direct effect on inequality.

Today we’ll look at antitrust laws designed to contain the market power of corporations, and labor laws designed to increase the market power of workers.

Both sets of laws have been altered over the last 40 years, contributing to a huge power shift. Corporations have gained greater market power, while the power of organized labor has been dramatically reduced. We’ll examine why these changes have occurred.

Questions:

• What happened to antitrust in the United States over the last 50 years?

• What happened to labor unions?

• Why are antitrust (anti-monopoly) laws stronger in Europe than they are in the United States?

• Why is a higher percent of European (and Canadian) workforces unionized than in the United States?

• What’s the relationship among degrees of monopolization, levels of unionization, and inequality, and why?

Readings for you —

On organized labor:

• Louis Uchitelle, “How the Loss of Union Power Has Hurt American Manufacturing,” The New York Times.

• Steven Greenhouse, “How Walmart Persuades Its Workers Not to Organize,” The Atlantic.

• David Madland, “Wage Boards for American Workers,” Center for American Progress.

On monopolization:

• John Cassidy, “The Biden Antitrust Revolution,” The New Yorker.

• Kate Bahn, “McDonalds, monopsony, and the need for joint employer standards,” Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

• Peter Thiel, “Competition is for Losers,” The Wall Street Journal.

• David Dayen, “Special Investigation: The Dirty Secret Behind Warren Buffett’s Billions,” The Nation.

• Dipayan Ghosh, “Don’t Break Up Facebook — Treat It Like a Utility,” Harvard Business Review.

For a full list of readings and the student handout for today’s class, you can visit the course website here.

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A huge thanks to the Wealth and Poverty team — to Michael Lahanas-Calderón, Kyle Parker, Dan Davis, and Emmett Tjen — as well as Coro Fellows Ammar Ansari and Meagan Turner for preparing these course materials to be shared with all of you. And to Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse for making all this happen on this page.