In the Public Interest

By Ralph Nader February 3, 2023 The word “inequality” is everywhere in the media. It usually refers either to race, gender, rich vs. poor, or other differences between human beings. Absent from the public debate is the biggest perpetrator of “inequality” against human beings – the corporate entity itself. Ever since 1886 when a U.S.…

By Ralph Nader January 27, 2023 It is showdown time. Senator Bernie Sanders, new chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee versus Big Pharma. The self-described “democratic socialist” from a safe seat in Vermont has long been a Big Pharma nemesis. He has issued detailed critiques of what others have called a…

By Ralph Nader January 19, 2023 The super successful mega-investor, Warren Buffett, CEO of the giant conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, was heard to say: There are only 535 members of Congress, why can’t 300 million Americans control them? That’s a pretty fundamental question since our senators and representatives are given their sovereign power by the people.…

By Ralph Nader January 14, 2023 Every Sunday about a dozen high school teenagers gather without their iPhones on a little hill in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, USA. They form a circle and quietly start to read serious books (Dostoevsky, Boethius) (paperbacks or hardbacks), or draw in sketchbooks, or just serenely sit listening to the wind.…

By Ralph Nader January 6, 2023 What follows is an encore for a column I wrote in 2018 for the new progressive Democrats elected to the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party won control of the House in 2018, and again barely in 2020. There was no response nor adoption of any of these power-enhancing…

By Ralph Nader December 28, 2022 Give the New York Times its due. Its teams of reporters produce more investigations of wrongdoing by entrenched vested interests than does the entire recess-rich, Tuesday-to-Thursday U.S. Congress with all its Committees and Subcommittees. The Times should promptly publish some of its exposes as small books. Their on-the-ground series…

By Ralph Nader December 22, 2022 It is that time of year when generous people make donations to civic organizations that are the bedrock of our democratic society. Some are worthy charities. Others are advocates for change through advancing justice. Below are many nonprofit groups working for causes furthering environmental and consumer health and safety,…

December 19, 2022 By Ralph Nader The Democratic Party can’t cease congratulating itself about the mid-term elections results defying the pundit’s predictions of a red wave. (Newt Gingrich even predicted that Herschel Walker would win the Georgia senate race without a runoff.) This is a self-serving, self-destructive standard by which Democratic operatives measure their performance.…

By Ralph Nader December 12, 2022 The following recent books invite the application of the aphorism, Readers Think, Thinkers Read. They also make good gifts for this Holiday season. 1. Fashionopolis: The Secrets Behind the Clothes We Wear by Dana Thomas (Dial Books, 2022). I learned much from this eyewitness story of the textile and…

November 30, 2022 Dear Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, On July 23, 2022, twenty-four prominent civic advocates and leaders, many of whom you know, made a Zoom presentation for congressional candidates and staff about how to readily defeat the worst GOP – by numerous measures – in history. These presenters were brought…