Here's something we need more of - American Ingenuity!
Carl E. Person has a website called Law Mall. He's written a book called Saving Main Street and its Retailers, 20 Things You Should Know - and 3 Plans - to Protect Your Town, Local Property Values, Local Employment and Business Opportunities.
His premise is that, by establishing the office of Town Attorney General and going after corporate villains like Wal-Mart and Best Buy and Home Depot, small towns and villages can protect their "independent retailers" (and subsequent higher prices) while collecting cash (a.k.a. bribes or extortion) from the aforesaid corporate villains.
Sounds like interesting reading. Conceptually it may even be brilliant! Economically speaking it's unworkable on a large scale, but it might work for a small percentage of hamlets.
2 Comments:
I tried to sign up and get a username and failed miserably. So here is my post "anonymously".
The idea by Carl Person of "Saving Main Street..." is, as I'm sure you know, not new. I presently live in a section of the city that was once the little town of South Wayne. What Carl is suggesting was actually being done here before annexation. People who didn't cooperate or broke the rules were in some very interesting and innovative ways coerced into complying to the benefit of the whole town and neighborhood (so sad - no chance of providing broadband for everyone in the early 1900s).
I am Carl Person and want to comment on the comment. Trying to get a community to follow the law of the community or land is not new. We call that process law enforcement, and generally law enforcement is entrusted to officials at the top of government (the US Atty Gen and the 50 State AG's and various state and federal agencies such as the FTC, Justice Department, Department of Consumer Affairs, Securities and Exchange Commission).
The problem I am addressing is what happens when law enforcement at the top is bought off by political contributions needed to put elected officials at the top into office. When this occurs, the law enforcement activity against the political contributors ceases or at least slows down demonstrably, which then results in excessive or unequal law enforcement against the smaller, non-contributing individuals and businesses, and enables the largest corporations to get larger and the smaller corporations and the public generally to lose ground in the American economy.
What I have developed is a political technique for changing this situation, by regrouping law enforcement at the lowest level of government, which at this moment does not have the skills to do the job, and needs a new official, which I call the "Town Attorney General" (with the skills of Eliot Spitzer or, modestly, someone with my skills in antitrust and civil r ights litigation) to be able to compete effectively in court against the major corporations that are almost always represented by the top law firms in the US.
Eliot Spitzer raised 2.3 billion dollars in 2003 through settlements in his lawsuits against major internationally-operating corporations, and more of this could and should be done by town attorneys general, each working to protect his/her own community from the wrongdoing that is going on with the permission of the politically-sponsored persons now at the top of our governments.
If this is done, the small community can expect a refund of some of the stolen money to the extent of about $5,000 to $10,000 per year per family, which is why any town or village should appoint a town attorney general in the first place.
If enough towns and villages appoint a town attorney general, we will have the effect as if the federal government were still enforcing the nation's laws against major corporations, and this would change their conduct for the betterment of the country, its citizens and its small, independent businesses.
This has never been done or suggested before, as far as I can determine.
Carl E. Person
212-307-4444
carlpers@ix.netcom.com
I invite any comments directly and through this website.
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