The BEZOS Act Is Bad Policy

Ryan Cooper has a good column on why the BEZOS Act is misguided. As someone recently noted in comments, the fly in the chardonnay is that it’s virtually a parody of the kind of neoliberal kludge that has rightly fallen into disfavor — using counterproductive and needlessly complex mechanisms to accomplish ends much better addressed by just raising the minimum wage and passing better labor regulations. I thank it also reflects a certain sentimentality about smaller businesses, as if it’s only the very biggest corporations that underpay workers or otherwise treat them badly.

I also agree that this where the hack gap actually works in favor of the Dems. Obviously, the policies that emerge from the congressional sausage factory are often supoptimal, but it’s important to go in understanding what you’re tying to do and what it likely to work. And Bernie’s shakiness on policy detail is one reason that all things being equal I’d rather have someone like Warren or Gillibrand running on a solidly liberal platform than Bernie himself.