Mickey Mouse protection, the TPP and why America remains unequal: Don Pittis

According to a new book calledSaving Capitalism,what's wrong with the American economic system has a lot to do with the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act."

And rather than rescuingcapitalism, the newly announced Trans-Pacific Partnership deal may simplyperpetuate the problems identified by the book's author, public intellectual and former U.S. labour secretary RobertReich.

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Reich's Mickey Mouse actis actually called theCopyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Reich notes thatunlike theoriginal purpose of copyright rules, the law does nothing to encourageauthors by protecting their efforts during their lifetime. It extends copyright so that a work'srights expire another lifetimeafter the author.

The idea of a free market... distinct from government has functioned as a useful cover for those who do not want the market mechanism fully exposed- Author Robert Reich

Instead, he says, the new law was created because under existing rules, Mickey would have gone into the public domain in 2003 at a huge cost to the giant Disney Corporation.

From the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shieldsthe firearms industry from lawsuits by bereftfamily members, to laws that let companies charge high rates for slow internet, Reich offers a depressing litany of rules made by governments for the solepurpose ofprotecting richcorporations at the expense of the American public.

"Contrary to the conventional view of an American economy bubbling withinnovativesmall companies,the reality is quite different," Reich writes.

• WATCH: Capitalism for the few
• Robert Reich is out to save capitalism from itself

And although we are only beginning to understand the details mostly because the Trans-Pacific Partnership was negotiated away from the prying eyes ofvoters one of the main criticisms of international trade deals like the TPP is that the main beneficiaries are large corporations, not ordinary citizens.

"Negotiators worked overtime on terms to please multinational corporations under closeconsultation with those same corporations. But there was no consultation with labour or civilsociety groups," says a release from the Trade Justice Network, a group that opposes thedeal.

Rigged game

In left-leaning circles, theconventional view is that creating equality requires redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Reich says the real problemis something he calls "pre-distribution."

By lobbying for laws such as thosethat make life-saving pharmaceuticals expensive and technological patents unbreakable, large corporations and their teams of lawyers rigthe game in their favour long before the issue of redistribution arises.

Drug companies are rewarded not for inventing drugs but for extending theexclusivity of existing drugs. (The TPP does exactly that.)Companies like Google, Amazon and Apple capture the value of patents and then are rewarded for "strategiclitigation" to prevent anyone else fromusing them.

Because these advantages are constructed into the very fabric of the government and its rules, advocates of the "free market" fail to realize the winners have already been selected by the process of pre-distribution.

"The idea of a free market separate and distinct from government hasfunctionedas a useful cover for those who do not want the marketmechanismfully exposed," Reich writes.

This weekend a dearfriend dragged me to see the Magna Carta exhibition at Toronto's Fort York. Much was made of how the document, signed in1215 to prevent King John from stealing all of his country's wealth for himself,was the foundation for the rights Canadians have today.

But the lesson I took was something different. It wasnot that once signed, the Magna Carta magically preserved ourrights for all time.In the years since, modern equivalents of King John have tried to take more than their share.In fact, King John repudiated the document shortly after the barons whoforced him to signleft London with theirtroops.

It struck me that, then and now, the only way to keep ourrights is to keep fighting for them.

Reich says it is not just the power and influence of corporations that has given them their advantage. The problem is that ordinary people no longer have champions to fight back.

In the past, he says, U.S. presidents Andrew Jackson and Franklin DelanoRoosevelt stepped forward to save capitalism from its own excesses and make it more inclusive.

"The question isn't really the -ismsor the label.The question is, Does the system work for the benefit of most people? Does it create upward mobility, equal opportunity? Or is it rigged?" Reich saysin an interview with CBC's AmandaLangthatairsthisweek.

However, as the pre-distribution advantageofcorporationsbecomes more entrenched in domestic laws and international deals, it may be thatNorth Americais not theplace where inclusive capitalismwill be reborn.

Convinced that the free market will solve our problems, we complacently wait, repeatedlyvoting for the status quo,not realizing the problem ismore complexand thatre-creating a truly free-market capitalismfor the many, not the few, will require more than a Mickey Mouse effort.

You can watch Amanda Lang's entire interview with Robert Reich onThursdaybetween 7and 8p.m. ET on CBC News Network. An interview with Reich can also be heard in this recent episode of CBCRadio's The Current.

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