Democracy Journal - Antitrust And Labor Movements Return to Their Roots

Chief economist Brian Callaci animates the current state of congress in their progressions with antitrust laws. New bills being passed are a focal point of this discussion.

With Congress gridlocked, hopes for progressive legislation has turned to state and local governments. True to form, the traditional leaders, California and New York, are considering landmark legislation to raise wages through sectoral councils: tripartite employer-worker-government bodies empowered to regulate competition in the fast food and nail salon industries, respectively. The California bill, the FAST Recovery Act, would create a council with worker and employer representatives empowered to set minimum wage and safety standards for the fast food industry. The New York bill, the Nail Salon Minimum Standards Council Act, would create a similar council for the nail salon industry. Both bills harken back to a Progressive Era movement, driven by small businesses, trade unions, and antitrust reformers, which called for the negotiation of similar fair competition codes to govern competitive practices in specific industries. While modern antitrust reformers are preoccupied with the amount of competition—the more competition the better—early twentieth century antitrust activists argued that the quality of competition mattered too: Were companies competing on the basis of superior efficiency and innovation, or were they unfairly pricing below cost, reducing quality and engaging in ruthless wage-cutting?

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