Amy Klobuchar The Trust Buster?

Klobuchar Threatens the Tech Giants. But they're Not Scared Source

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

In the early part of the 20^th Century, US president Theodore Roosevelt went after big business, or the “Trusts” as the certain monopolies were called. I use the term “certain” because Roosevelt was not opposed to corporations, he made it very clear there were good corporations and bad ones. FDR, who was Theodore’s cousin also went after corporations that threatened monopoly and the stifling of competition among capitalists. They both basically believed that the government through legislation and anti-trust laws should curb the excesses of capitalism and corporations that didn’t play by the rules.

They couldn’t have imagined the concentrated power and control of the market that some corporations have today. As Michael Roberts pointed out on this blog recently, “Alphabet (Google) – the world’s largest search engine; Amazon – the world’s largest online distributor; Apple – the world’s largest computer and mobile phone manufacturer; and Facebook – the world’s largest social media…” earned a staggering $39 billion in the second quarter of 2020 in the midst of a global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The global mining company Vale SA based in Brazil has just been fined $7bn as compensation for the collapse of the Brumadinho dam in that country that killed 270 people and, “….destroyed almost 300 acres of native forest and polluted 200 miles of the local Paraopeba River, rendering it useless as a water supply for the state.”. (New York Times, 2-04-2021) The company had ignored warnings from its own employees that the dam was leaking. There was the usual negligence; these things are never accidents.

Four years earlier, Vale was ordered to pay $1.55 billion compensation for the collapse of the Mariana dam that spilled contaminants in to the river that was the main drinking water for cities downstream. The environmental damage was even worse than Brumadinho according to reports.

We don’t have to look or think very hard to see that capitalism is driven to monopoly by its internal dynamic and cannot be restrained by government or legislation, certainly not to the point where poverty or environmental destruction is significantly curtailed. And any halting of abuse is temporary at best.  These giant global concerns have more power than the state in many of the countries in which they operate, certainly in the case of former colonial countries like Brazil where the rainforest, critical to human survival on this planet, is being destroyed on a daily basis to make room for private farming particularly beef production.

Amy Klobuchar is the new Democratic head of the Senate Antitrust subcommittee and like both Roosevelts she’s going after the big guys, the bad ones that is. She’s introducing new legislation that will prevent companies, “…that, dominate their sectors..”, from merging with or buying other companies if it stifles competition..

The Wall Street Journal points out that this means it is now  the government’s responsibility, “…. to prove that a merger substantially lessens competition.”. One might ask how a company that dominates a sector and buys another company in that sector cannot but increase its market power over others therefore stifling competition. But one thing I do know is that the corporation will have the proof that it doesn’t and the government will be satisfied. Even if it can’t prove it, the capitalists involved will find a way to make it work.

Klobuchar’s bill will cost taxpayers $484 million by increasing funding for the antitrust division of the Justice Department and another $651 million for the Federal Trade Commission. This is more wasted funds to the tune of $1 billion because, as history shows, capitalism cannot be reformed to the point that it works in the interest of workers and the middle class or that it can ever safeguard and protect the environment. The overriding factor in the capitalist mode of production is profit.

As for fines for wrongdoing, anti-competitive activity, or illegal practices as is normally the case, even if they amount to billions of dollars like those at Vale SA and BHP, the Anglo Australian mining company involved with Vale, or BP in the Gulf of Mexico, these global giants factor these things in and in one way or another the costs will be passed on to the workers as workers and consumers.

The root cause of the problem is the private ownership of these giant concerns, what are best referred to as the commanding heights of a national and/or global economy. As privately owned companies, production is set in motion on the basis of profit for the small sectors of society that own them rather than the needs of society as a whole. There is an inherent contradiction here.

The only solution that can ensure such disasters  can be avoided, is taking the productive forces that produce the necessities of life in modern society out of private hands and in to the collective ownership, control and management of the working class as a whole. In this way, what we produce and how we produce it can be determined in a planned, rational way based on the needs of society as a whole and in harmony with the natural world rather than in conflict with it. Our continued existence on this planet depends on it.

So Senator Klobuchar’s efforts are nothing new and will in the main achieve nothing of any consequence other than to create a new layer of bureaucracy through a $1 billion infusion of taxpayer cash. As a representative in one of the two parties of capitalism, a way to maintain the status quo as far as profits go will always be found.

Nothing proves that more than what I wrote about the present situation with the tech giants earlier. The Tech companies are being investigated by the US Congress for illegal activity but as they are being investigated they are handing over millions in bribes (lobbying) to the investigators. Facebook spent $20 million bribing politicians in 2020 an 18% increase from 2019 and Amazon, spent $18 million in 2020 an 11% increase from 2019. More on this here.

They don’t throw money around like that for nothing.

The working class in the US has no political voice and no political party. Millions of U.S. workers for multiple reasons do not see themselves as a class with our own distinct culture and economic interests and the obsession with identity politics adds to this confusion.