With deregulation the cutthroat battle for market share is often waged via steady erosions in pay, working conditions, and job security. Union workers with decent incomes are played off against casual labor. Consumers also suffer. The recent Verizon strike was not primarily about pay scales but about job speedup and the company's war on unions. What is true of telecommunications is also true of the airlines, hospitals and nursing homes, trucking companies, and public utilities.
Deregulation guts good jobs.
Deregulation of global commerce is also a form of class warfare. It puts pressure on rich and poor nations to shred their social safety nets in order to reassure investors and bankers. Lamentably, many Democrats as well as Republicans embrace the formula. You don't hear much about this form of class warfare because it is never advertised as such. I began by observing that it is hard for American politicians to address the plight of the poor in a largely middle-class country.