slavery and involuntary servitude were banished except for those who had been convicted of committing a crime. enter convict labor. where imprisoned americans could literally be leased to industries who needed workers. the prison convict leasing system of involuntary servitude filled the labor supply shortage in the southern plantations and in growing businesses like the railroad monopolies who were connecting the nation east to west. it became a huge industry, which relied on incarcerating as many black people as possible to essentially reenslave them. you could get arrested for anything. vagrancy, speaking too loudly in front of white women, true story, or even for just being unemployed. among other work, prisoners were tasked with the deadly work of railroad construction. now, the historian i mentioned, scott reynolds nelson, says that john henry was one of those men. the new york times review of his book details how henry was
years ago. we have a new base infrastructure for the way that we live whether it s amazon or for that matter facebook. the reason teddy roosevelt stepped in with antitrust was not because the railroads were bad. amazon is not bad, it s incredible. it s something that needs to be shifted in a way such that it s less abusive to parts of our economy, much the way the railroad monopolies were. that s why the president is right to talk about this, and that s why it s tragic that it s lost in the idiocy of these personal vendettas. appreciate you being here. thanks very much. ohio governor john kasich showed up today in a totally not surprising state, in new hampshire. more on what that could mean for the presidential race coming up. with t-mobile, get the fastest network ever, now on the fasters samsung ever. because fast should be fast.
for that matter facebook. the reason teddy roosevelt stepped in with antitrust was not because the railroads were bad. amazon is not bad. it s incredible. it s something that needs to be shifted in a way such that it s less abusive to parts of our economy, much the way the railroad monopolies were. that s why the president is right to talk about this, and that s why it s tragic that it s lost in the idiocy of these personal vendettas. appreciate you being here. thanks very much. ohio governor john kasich showed up today in a totally not surprising state, in new hampshire. more on what that could mean for the presidential race coming up.
to look at the antitrust laws that are written at the turn of the century in response to the railroad monopolies and say it is a different world and a different economy. we want to be sure that we are promoting competition and we are addressing some of the issues that these big mega mergers present. so just to make sure i understand you, you actually agree with the president on this? well, i don t know what the president s position is. i think he seems to be attacking, you know, an individual and one company. we need to look at this in terms of policy, of public policy. is our current antitrust law doing the job? do we need to modernize and look at the impact not just on consumer price but on the impact on jobs, on the impact on wages which have traditionally not being the things that antitrust analysis has looked at. we need to recognize the economy is different. it s not working for lots of folks. we re seeing a tremendous concentration of economic power that s hurting working pe
concentrated in too few people at the top. gadhafi maintained political power by brute force. but he also accumulated immense economic power by commandeering the vast natural resources of libya. the result was abject poverty in most quarters of libya and excessive wealth among the autoplutocrats at the top. there s a warning in there for us. our american democracy was founded on the principle that power must be separated and diffused between different branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, and all power ultimately originates with the people. that s enshrined in our constitution. but starting in the early 20th century, we evolved to apply this concept of diffusing power to our capitalist market system as well. in the wake of oil, lumber, and railroad monopolies, the trust-busters like teddy roosevelt pushed through new laws that redefined the rules of the road in capitalism. economic power, like political power, cannot be concentrated in