Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence)

When Thomas Jefferson wrote these words, he wrote them with the intent of establishing a new government that would not give anyone favoritism over others. After 224 years, this idea is still believed in by the citizens of America, but not practiced by their government. As the years passed, the values of America have slowly altered to materialism. The people trusted our government to make the best decisions for the entire country, but some decisions seem to favor the wealthiest citizens rather than all of the citizens. Not to say

Lembcke, Jerry. Capitalist Development and Class Capacities: Marxist Theory and Union Organization. New York:Greenwood Press, 1988.

The free market of America is one that claims that everyone is free to gain power, but what happens when business owners decide to be a monopoly? Competition is good, but there are competitors that are so powerful that they are willing to crush any smaller competition. The government's role in this situation can be seen as unfavorable for the smaller businesses and favorable to the wealthier businesses. The government chose to minimally involve itself in this situation under the pretext that the citizens of this great country did not wish to have the government to get involved. They knew that monopolies were being created by the big businesses but that fact did not get them to involve themselves. Their lack of involvement in situations such as these where the wealthy are conquering the poor shows that they are siding with the wealthy business owners by not fighting against them. This is not to say that they government never involved itself in such instances, but they nevertheless do little for the smaller businesses with their policies. The Sherman Act of 1890 prohibited "conspiracies in restraint of trade" and other monopolistic practices, but these acts were too outdated for our economy. Therefore, congress established the Federal Reserve System as a reaction to the power that the financial monopolies had in America. It was "headed by a board with 'fair representation of financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests, and the geographical divisions of the country." All these laws and systems have not done much to keep the economy from monopolizing, however.

This oath was mandatory for recognition by the National Labor Relations Board of the union. This shows how the government went to extremes to keep unions in line, and to not interfere with the businesses' production and the revenue that the businesses will bring in for the government. The governments of each state are so money hungry that they even fight over who will have the next corporation building or factory in their state.

Joel Roers and Joshua Cohen, On Democracy, (Penguin, 1983), Chapter Six, "Democracy", pp146-183.

The discipline that the unions managed to achieve in the factories was one victory for them with the management of the factories, because the managers could not complain about the production rate. This however kept the businesses from taking the workers as seriously as before because they do not pose such a threat anymore with strikes. Also, the government put their foot down when it came to when the unions actually did strike. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 took away many of the rights that were granted to the unions by the Wagner Act of 1935.

Peterson, Robert A.,Gerald Albaum, and George Kozmetsky.Modern American Capitalism. New York: Quorum Books, 1990.

The unionization of the United States seemed to be a great idea by factory workers, but instead managed to give them less power than they had hoped for. "Factory workers had their greatest influence and were able to extract their most substantial concession from the government during the early years of the Great Depression before they were organized into unions." The reason for this loss of power is very simple. Before the workers were organized, they had millions of individual voices that caused much disruption in the economy. Strikes were forever taking place where politicians were forced to listen to them. Politicians were forced to comply with what the workers demanded and this ended in a fake victory for the workers The government granted the workers the right to organize, which would seem to be a victory, but in reality this right to organize just caused the workers to lose their political power. Since the workers found that the government was supporting the unions, the membership rates have increased tremendously. Even though it s

Some common words found in the essay are:
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