Report on State’s Competitiveness

The report of the Council on California Competitiveness, reviewed in your April 27 editorial, fails to be helpful because of the same faults the report finds with government, political parties, labor and business; the drafters vacillated between sound public policy and self-interest, and business self-interest is the bottom line of the report.

The problems that were identified, impacted government, workers’ compensation insurance, education, over-lawyering and retaining and fostering business, are all very real. Most of the solutions are one-sided based on a notion that what’s best for business is best for all Californians. Worker safety, consumer rights, tax fairness and the environment be damned.

We cannot throw out years of carefully evolved social progress just because business turns bad. Isn’t free enterprise supposed to have ups and downs, winners and losers? Our business leaders want profits on the upside and social reform on the downside.

The list of reforms this report recommends would free businesses from government regulatory oversight, lessen their liability to pay for injuries they cause and eliminate criminal punishment when they refuse to give warnings about dangerous products. They also want to keep cases secret when they have to pay for hurting or defrauding people. No accountability for damages, no criminal sanctions, no government oversight, not even any public information when they are forced to pay for wrongdoings. And, they want tax breaks. Wait just a damned minute.

We need to have change, improvement and experimentation to help Californians and our economy. But, changes need to be balanced and fair. The business community didn’t start a dialogue, they started a diatribe. Just what they accuse politicians and “government” of doing.

HARRY SNYDER

Director, West Coast Regional Office

Consumers Union, San Francisco