Opinion: Getting corporate America to work for America

Also: Remembering George Bush’s greatest accomplishments and his mistakes. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, December 3, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist I was doing some research in the Library of Congress recently when I came across a fascinating article in the October 1944 issue of Fortune magazine. The article was written by William B. Benton, the co-founder of a major advertising agency. And by today’s standards, the article seemed almost socialistic — with Benton calling for a corporate America that paid good wages and accepted the need for labor unions and regulation. But Benton was no radical in 1944. He was mainstream. Many other executives shared the same ideas. In the decades after World War II, most corporations followed those ideas. Chief executives didn’t try to earn every last dollar — and the incomes of their workers rose at a healthy rate. [My column today]( starts by telling the story of Benton’s article and the postwar American economy. The column ends by talking about a new bill from Senator Elizabeth Warren that’s intended to change how today’s more selfish version of corporate America works. I think her proposal is the most intriguing idea yet to emerge from the likely 2020 presidential candidates. I’m interested to hear other ideas about how corporate America might again serve the country’s interests. If you have any such ideas — or have read about any from other people — write me an email at leonhardt@nytimes.com, and I’ll mention some responses in a future newsletter. Remembering 41. The post-war period that created a broadly prosperous America also molded George H.W. Bush, who died this weekend at 94. “He was a patrician, but of a very particular sort, a throwback to a time when elites felt a profound sense of public obligation,” [The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne](. Bush’s greatest achievement, by far, was the successful conclusion of the Cold War. “Make no mistake,” writes [Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein](. “When Bush took office in January 1989, there were more ways that things could’ve gone wrong than anyone today can readily imagine.” Bush’s measured, alliance-oriented approach to diplomacy became a model for Democratic presidents, [argues Derek Chollet]( a former senior Obama administration official. “The question before America today is whether President Donald Trump’s vision of the world, or that of former President George H.W. Bush, will prevail,” [writes Michael Fuchs]( of the Center for American Progress in The Guardian. “I’ve said a lot of mean things about Bush 41 and I stand by all of them,” [tweeted the progressive writer David Klion](. But “it would be churlish of me not to acknowledge that he really did handle the end of the Cold War well, and it could have been a lot worse.” In Politico, [David Greenberg]( of Rutgers says it’s a mistake to whitewash a president’s record after his death and makes the case against the Bush presidency. “Respect for the dead must coexist with respect for the historical record,” Greenberg writes. In FiveThirtyEight, Perry Bacon runs down the long list of how the Republican Party [has changed since Bush’s presidency](. [In The Atlantic, Peter Beinart]( points out that Bush was the last president who first won office with a popular-vote majority; was white; and governed before the media widely reported on presidents’ personal conduct. As a result, Beinart says, Bush was “the last person to occupy the Oval Office whose opponents saw him as a fully legitimate president.” And don’t miss my colleague [Maureen Dowd’s]( much-discussed account of her relationship with Bush — or, she calls it, “the screwball story, spanning decades, mystifying everyone, of the patrician president and the impertinent reporter.” The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including [Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser]( on how they overcame their Twitter hatred by meeting in real life. [Can You Like the Person You Love to Hate?]( JooHee Yoon By BARI WEISS AND EVE PEYSER Bari Weiss and Eve Peyser were Twitter enemies. Then they met. From Our Columnists [When C.E.O.s Cared About America]( By DAVID LEONHARDT Not so long ago, corporate leaders understood they had a stake in the country’s prosperity. [What Happens If ...]( By CHARLES M. BLOW The possibilities ahead in the Russia investigation suggest we are not reaching the end of a nightmare, but rather entering one. George H.W. Bush 1924-2018 Op-Ed Columnist [The Patrician President and the Reporterette: A Screwball Story]( By MAUREEN DOWD My faithful correspondent, Poppy Bush, scribbling and typing notes through decades of history. Op-Ed Columnist [George H.W. Bush’s Uncommon Grace]( By FRANK BRUNI “I have found happiness. I no longer pursue it, for it is mine.” In Case You Missed It [George H.W. Bush, Public Servant]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD He made his share of mistakes, but he worked for a safer, more democratic world. [Reject a Raise for New York Lawmakers]( [Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in Albany earlier this year.]( Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in Albany earlier this year. Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Carl Heastie told a state committee on pay that he won’t tie a salary increase to limits on outside income. Readers Respond [A Mother’s Right to Life]( By RACHEL L. HARRIS AND LISA TARCHAK Parents and medical professionals respond to an essay on America’s rising maternal mortality rate and the competing interests of mothers and doctors during childbirth. ADVERTISEMENT LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up here. More in Opinion [Twitter’s Caste Problem]( By THENMOZHI SOUNDARARAJAN Dalits and other Indian gender, religious, tribal and ethnic minorities are regularly harassed on Twitter by right-wing troll armies. Sunday Review Op-Ed Columnist [Under Trump, the Swamp Is Draining]( By ROSS DOUTHAT A grifter president has inspired an elite housecleaning. [The Hypocrisy of Hanukkah]( By MICHAEL DAVID LUKAS It’s a holiday that commemorates an ancient battle against assimilation. And it’s the one holiday that most assimilated Jews celebrate. [The Most Wonderful Smelling Time of the Year]( By DAVID GEORGE HASKELL The season’s scents of fir and pine evoke primal experiences, and remind us what we may lose. [America Didn’t Always Lock Up Immigrants]( By ANA RAQUEL MINIAN Our current detention policies have very specific historical roots. [The Race to Dam the Himalayas]( By SUNIL S. AMRITH Hundreds of big projects are planned for the rivers that plunge from the roof of the world. We’ve got more newsletters! You might like Frank Bruni’s newsletter.  Go beyond the headlines and behind the curtain with Frank Bruni’s candid reflections on politics, culture, higher education and more every week. [Sign up for Frank Bruni’s email.](  ADVERTISEMENT letters [George Bush: ‘An American Hero Has Left Us’]( Readers pay tribute to the former president and a bygone era, and one recalls how gracious he was when they met at a restaurant in Kennebunkport. HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. 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