I find ideas like this one pretty damn compelling. Given that I matured during a time of neoliberal ascendance, I'm a bit skeptical that truly heavy-handed corporate regulations will a) work or b) pass. What concerns me is that, for so many in the party, that's the conversations stopping, rather than starting, point. But creative solutions needn't be so complex. Why not enact incentives for businesses willing to follow a code of good behavior? Call it the Better Business Compact, and give employers who join access to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, tax breaks, and favorable regulatory treatment in return for full contributions for their employee's health insurance, a living wage, environmentally sustainable practices, good labor practices, and increased transparency?
Right now, the incentives point in precisely the wrong direction. Since Wal-Mart doesn't allow unions or offer high wages and sufficient health care, retailers who do are at a competitive disadvantage -- they're absorbing expenditures that Wal-Mart is not. Add in the stock market's obsession with quarterly profits, and you've got the roadmap for a race to the bottom. Government, with its different set of incentives and powers, can't disallow that competition, but it can change its direction, or offer alternative pathways. If corporations don't want to participate, so be it. But make sure the American people know which businesses are proving responsible, and make sure enlightened employers have some set of actual advantages. Competition is healthy, but only when it's fair.
