Page 38 - 1619 Project Curriculum

The 1619 Project

years before he was salaried workers carry union cards.
Future:
A couple of Mortgaging the

convicted of securities fraud, Mar- The O.E.C.D. scores nations along a
tin Shkreli was the chief executive number of indicators, such as how The North-South rift led

of a pharmaceutical company that countries regulate temporary work

acquired the rights to Daraprim, a arrangements. Scores run from 5 to a piecemeal system of

lifesaving antiparasitic drug. Previ- (‘‘very strict’’) to 1 (‘‘very loose’’).

ously the drug cost $13.50 a pill, but Brazil scores 4.1 and Thailand, 3.7, bank regulation — with

in Shkreli’s hands, the price quickly signaling toothy regulations on

increased by a factor of 56, to $750 temp work. Further down the list dangerous consequences.

A

a pill. t a health care conference, are Norway (3.4), India (2.5) and

Shkreli told the audience that he Japan (1.3). The United States scored

should have raised the price even 0.3, tied for second to last place By Mehrsa Baradaran

higher. ‘‘No one wants to say it, no with Malaysia. How easy is it to fire

one’s proud of it,’’ he explained. ‘‘But workers? Countries like Indonesia

this is a capitalist society, a capitalist (4.1) and Portugal (3) have strong

system and capitalist rules.’’ rules about severance pay and rea-

This is a capitalist society. It’s a sons for dismissal. Those rules relax

fatalistic mantra that seems to get somewhat in places like Denmark

repeated to anyone who questions (2.1) and Mexico (1.9). They virtual- At the start of the Civil War, even change regulators if

why America can’t be more fair or ly disappear in the United States, only states could charter they become unsatisfied

equal. But around the world, there ranked dead last out of 71 nations banks. It wasn’t until the with the one they’ve cho-

are many types of capitalist soci- with a score of 0.5. National Currency Act of sen. Consumer-protection

eties, ranging from liberating to Those searching for reasons the 1863 and the National Bank laws, interest-rate caps and

exploitative, protective to abusive, American economy is uniquely Act of 1864 passed at the basic-soundness regulations

democratic to unregulated. When severe and unbridled have found height of the Civil War that have often been rendered

Americans declare that ‘‘we live in answers in many places (religion, banks operated in this coun- ineffectual in the process —

a capitalist society’’ — as a real estate politics, culture). But recently, his- try on a national scale, with and deregulation of this sort

mogul told The Miami Herald last torians have pointed persuasively federal oversight. And even tends to lead to crisis.

year when explaining his feelings to the gnatty fields of Georgia and then, it was only law in the In the mid-2000s, when

about small-business owners being Alabama, to the cotton houses North. The Union passed subprime lenders start-

evicted from their Little Haiti store- and slave auction blocks, as the the bills so it could establish ed appearing in certain

fronts — what they’re often defend- birthplace of America’s low-road a national currency in order low-income neighborhoods,

ing is our nation’s peculiarly brutal approach to capitalism. to finance the war. The legis- many of them majority

economy. ‘‘Low-road capitalism,’’ Slavery was undeniably a font of lation also created the Office black and Latino, several

the University of Wisconsin-Mad- phenomenal wealth. By the eve of of the Comptroller of the Cur- state banking regulators

ison sociologist Joel Rogers has the Civil War, the Mississippi Val- rency (O.C.C.), the first feder- took note. In Michigan,

called it. In a capitalist society that ley was home to more millionaires al bank regulator. After the the state insurance reg-

goes low, wages are depressed as per capita than anywhere else in the war, states were allowed to ulator tried to enforce its

businesses compete over the price, United States. Cotton grown and keep issuing bank charters consumer-protection laws

not the quality, of goods; so-called picked by enslaved workers was the of their own. This byzantine on Wachovia Mortgage,
unskilled workers are typically nation’s most valuable export. The infrastructure remains to a subsidiary of Wachovia

incentivized through punishments, combined value of enslaved people this day and is known as the Bank. response, Wacho-

In

not promotions; inequality reigns exceeded that of all the railroads and dual banking system. Among via’s national regulator, the

and poverty spreads. In the Unit- factories in the nation. New Orleans all nations in the world, only O.C.C., stepped in, claiming

ed States, the richest 1 percent of boasted a denser concentration of the United States has such that banks with a nation-

Americans own 40 percent of the banking capital than New York City. a fragmentary, overlapping al charter did not have to

country’s wealth, while a larger What made the cotton economy and inefficient system — a comply with state law. The

working-age people (18-
share of boom in the United States, and not direct relic of the conflict Supreme Court agreed with

65) live in poverty than in any other in all the other far-flung parts of the between federal and state the O.C.C., and Wachovia

nation belonging to the Organiza- world with climates and soil suit- power over maintenance of continued to engage in risky
tion for Economic Cooperation and able to the crop, was our nation’s the slave-based economy of subprime activity.

Development (O.E.C.D.). unflinching willingness to use vio- the South. Eventually loans like those

Or consider worker rights in lence on nonwhite people and to Both state regulators blew up the banking system

different capitalist nations. In exert its will on seemingly endless and the O.C.C., one of the and the investments of many

Iceland, 90 percent of wage and supplies of land and labor. Given largest federal regulators, Americans — especially the

salaried workers belong to trade the choice between modernity and are funded by fees from most vulnerable. Black com-

unions authorized to fight for liv- barbarism, prosperity and poverty, the banks they regulate. munities lost 53 percent of

ing wages and fair working condi- lawfulness and cruelty, democracy Moreover, banks are effec- their wealth because of the

tions. Thirty-four percent of Italian and totalitarianism, America chose tively able to choose reg- crisis, a loss that a former

workers are unionized, as are 26 all of the above. ulators — either federal congressman, Brad Miller,

percent of Canadian workers. Only Nearly two average American or state ones, depending said ‘‘has almost been an

10 percent of American wage and lifetimes (79 years) have passed on their charter. They can extinction event.’’

32