Re: Re: Nader

["Justin Schwartz" <jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

.
> >
> > Nader is sort of a New Deal (FDR) liberal who used to believe in
> competitive
> > markets, anti-trust, and some kinds of deregulation (e.g., breaking up
> the
> > Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Interstate Commerce Commission,
> the
> > old government cartels in airlines and ground transport). He's been
> moving
> > away from this for awhile, seemingly in the direction of those on this
> list.
> > I'll have to read his book to find out more. JD
> >


Actually the old New Deal (pre 1937) was opposed to competition and very
much in favor of corporativist planning. The New Dealers were very impressed
by the successes of the WWI War economy and the apparant successes of the
USSR in those days in avoiding the ravages of the Great Depression, and if
you read the histories of the period, they utterly rejected the invisible
hand ideology that is dominant today. This is reflected, e.g., in the
National Recovery Administration, struck down by the SCt in the last
Lochner-era decision, the early interpretation of the SEC Acts, the
expressly pro-labor (pre-Taft-Hartly) NLRA, which made unionization a
prefered option, and in the earlier interpretations of antitrust law by both
the FTC and the New Deal SCt--antitrust law didn't go aggressively
pro-competitive as opposed to anti-trust until the 1970s. It's a legacy of
the early (pre-liberal) Justice Stevens.

Nader may be a New Deal liberal when it comes to social programs. But he's a
believer in free markets and competition. That's not a criticism from me--I
am too. Nader is not a leftist in the sense of being anticapitalist--as I
am, btw, anticapitalist, that is. He's anticorporate and proregulation, but
unlike me and most of us, here would not advocate public ownership of
productive assets. He's about as far left, however, as anyone could be and
not be considered utterly insane in terms of normal American political
discourse.

Insanely yours

jks

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