Ralph Nader is wrong ("Where Left and Right Converge,"
op-ed, Aug. 18). The big problems in the world today are not due to
corporate power but rather to the concentration of power, period. Why is
it that so many of Mr. Nader's mindset can see the problem of a
corporation having too much power, but they seem oblivious to the
problem of a government having too much power?
Time and again we voters
are sold the idea that with just one more regulation or law, new
government department or "czar," everything will finally be fixed.
Nonsense. All it does is give more power to Washington, which in turn
draws even more lobbyists like pigs to a trough. And not just corporate
lobbyists. That power draws activists like Ralph Nader too. And after
decades of their mischief (all in the name of the little guy, of course)
we're left with an incomprehensible tangle of laws and regulations that
serve none but the well-connected, and create an environment that has
driven investment, jobs, companies and the wealth they create far, far
away. I am so over activists like Ralph Nader telling me that some
corporate bogeyman is lurking everywhere. The only bogeyman I fear is
the one he helped to create.
Mark Pearson
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
While Mr. Nader rails
rightly at military waste and corporate greed, he never once mentions
another great force and drain on both our liberty and our treasure. That
is the big union and labor influence over government. He also ignores
the far-left environmental lobby. It is only the military and corporate
America that are a problem to Mr. Nader. A true convergence of left and
right may be possible, but it won't happen until both sides of the coin
are up for discussion.
John Batte
Jackson, Miss.
Mr. Nader says both the
left and right agree on cracking down on corporate crime, fraud and
abuse against consumers, taxpayers and investors. Mr. Nader is only half
correct. I have never heard anyone on the left denounce the Obama
administration's confiscation of private investor equity in the
automobile industry and handing it over to the labor unions.
Dave Culver
La Candada, Calif.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 