Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

New countervailing power will help to end the upward pre-distributions that are currently embedded in market rules. Some of the possible reforms that Reich elaborates on in Chapter 20 include shortening the length of patent and copyright protection and not allowing patents to be extended for small, cosmetic changes. Antitrust laws would also be reexamined and returned to their original purpose, and the size of Wall Street’s biggest banks would be limited “so that none could hold more than 5% of the nation’s banking assets, have any role in the pricing of commodities, or play a dominant role in initial public offerings of stock” (193-94).

In terms of contract laws and regulations, corporations would be prohibited from “binding their employees, contractors, or franchisees to forced arbitration” (194). Additionally, fraud would be redefined to prohibit any form of insider trading, including buybacks, which artificially boost stock prices. Most importantly for Reich, the minimum wage “would be raised to half the median wage and thereafter adjusted for inflation,” and workers in low-wage industries would be able to unionize by a majority up-or-down vote (194). The enforcement mechanism would be resourced properly to ensure full implementation, including fines and penalties high enough to deter future corporate law breaking.