Finding Common Ground Between Progressives and Business Is Essential

Workers' Rights: It is good business to treat workers well, but when a few bad apple businesses in the US and many overseas use unfair labor practices, they can gain a competitive advantage. Establishing uniform fair labor laws while at the same time taking the weight of health care off the backs of business will do wonders to improve competitiveness both within the US and abroad.

Tort Reform We need reasonable tort reform to prevent the abuses currently practiced, while at the same time protecting individual and corporate rights to justice.

On the other hand, there are some areas where I'm not sure we can meet eye to eye with big business. I believe we need to take back some of the industries that have been privatized, and return them to the public commons, including health care, electricity generation utilities, water purification and distribution, waste disposal and the airwaves used by the media. There can still be utilization of businesses in providing services to these areas of our life that belong in the public commons, but we need to take these back. Businesses have proven, for the most part, that they do a poor job at managing these and providing the needs of humans at fair and reasonable prices.

Overall, there are many ways that progressives can come to agreeable terms with businesses doing trillions of dollars annually. We need to find those common areas and build long term visions and plans that establish reciprocally valuable and useful relationships between us. It will take some money to make this happen. Progressive leaders must get together with industry leaders in structured meetings with a long term plan aimed at building concrete plans, policies and identifying legislation that both sides will be enthusiastic to endorse and support. Failure to do this is not an option if we are to intelligently move the progressive cause and vision forward.

reprinted from an article I wrote and published in Opednews.com before 2005.