Ralph nader's achievements and contributions.

Nader is also considered as the father of the modern American consumer movement. In the past few decades, he has been single-handedly, persistently improving the self-protection awareness of American consumers and calling on the government to standardize industrial production and improve product safety. Under Nader's impetus, the US Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Law in September with 1966, stipulating that automobile manufacturers are obliged to publicly release the information of automobile recalls and carry out free maintenance. This is the car recall system that the world pays attention to. Nader is therefore considered to be the founder of the car recall system.

As early as his student days, Nader showed a maverick character. He doesn't have much time for class. He spends most of his time in the library or immersed in meditation, allowing his eager and eclectic mind to roam freely. He was strongly disgusted with the narrow intellectualism and moral complacency of Harvard University at that time.

For the first time in his life, Nader challenged the famous automobile manufacturer General Motors with his own strength because of an unorthodox legal topic: the legal responsibility involved in automobile safety. As we all know, America is a car kingdom. The more cars there are, the more accidents there will be. So, what are the reasons for frequent car accidents? Most people will think that drivers are careless and drive too fast. But Nader, a law student, has a different view. He believes that the crux of the car accident problem lies in the congenital deficiency of automobile engineering design.

Nader first raised this question shortly after he graduated from Harvard. 1In April, 959, Nader published an article entitled "The Safety Car You Can't Buy". In his article, he claimed that it is obvious that Detroit pursues fashion, cost, performance and calculated retirement age when designing cars, rather than safety. Although there are 5 million car accidents every year, 40,000 people die from car accidents, 65,438+065,438+000,000 people are permanently disabled and 65,438+0.5 million people are permanently disabled. This article is the first of its kind, which introduces the issue of automobile safety into the public eye.

After several years of investigation and deliberation, Nader published the book "No Speed is Safe: The Danger of American Automobile Design" in 1965. This book not only gives full play to his previous views, but also exposes how Detroit manufacturers habitually put safety under fashion and market considerations, and focuses on bombarding Cowell, a product of General Motors, the largest American automobile manufacturer. The defect of the rear suspension system of this car will make the car slip violently, leading to rollover. Nader believes that the defects of Cowell car caused by GM's negligence are the most serious irresponsible behavior of industry in the 20th century. Nader clearly pointed out in the book that the main cause of the car accident was not the madman sitting behind the steering wheel accused by the automobile industry, but the inherent engineering and design defects of the Cowell car that did not hit at all.

Nader's works directly threatened the interests of automobile manufacturers, and those who were frightened and angry tried to silence this bold young man through action. General Motors with deep pockets once hired private detectives to follow Nader, trying to find clues that might damage his reputation, and even set up a honey trap to lure him into the bait. However, stealing chickens does not make mistakes. The private investigation of General Motors was exposed by the media, which caused great repercussions in the society. Eventually, a committee led by Senator Ribicoff summoned James Lohi, president of General Motors, to give a speech to Congress, asking him to explain this harassment behavior taken by the company and apologize to the victims.

This unusual event made the car safety issue quickly become the focus of American public attention, and the book "No Speed is Safe" became an instant hit and became a best seller. More importantly, the incident also made Nader, 3 1 year-old, like many people who became famous overnight.

Young Nader, who just turned 30, was greatly encouraged by his fame and determined to make persistent efforts to expand the spoiler effect and solve the safety problem of Cowell's car from a legal perspective.

With the joint efforts of Nader and Washington Senator Warren magnuson, a new federal law was passed, forcing Detroit to invest its huge resources in the research of automobile safety (in 654.38+0964, General Motors only had a profit of $65.438+07 billion to study the causes of car accidents). For the first time in history, the American government has influenced the investment decision, priority research projects and technical independence of automobile manufacturers, stipulating that they must spend more engineering talents and funds on the research and improvement of vehicle safety issues. Nader also plans to let the public know the relevant knowledge, widely spread the technical facts that a few people in the automobile industry have mastered-car accidents are not necessarily fatal or disabled, and cultivate a more competitive market.

Nader is well versed in law. He predicted that Detroit manufacturers would resist federal control laws, so he persuaded his friend Lawrence Scalise, the attorney general of Iowa, to hold a car safety hearing in June1966+1October. This is a very clever tactic, which has gained double benefits: first, it has attracted national attention and prompted Senator Ribicoff to hold an important hearing two months later; Secondly, the position of automobile manufacturers against the state government's supervision of automobile safety has been recorded, so that at the hearing of Ribicoff, they could not overturn the federal supervision with the sophistry that only the state can deal with this issue.

1966 in March, the hearing in Ribicoff began under the close attention of the public, and a new federal government management agency, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, was established. Under Nader's lobbying and promotion, a series of standards and regulatory documents on automobile and traffic safety that Americans have become accustomed to have been born one after another. 1966 In September, the US Congress promulgated the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Law. According to the law, if the automobile production enterprises find that the cars put on the market are defective due to design or manufacturing reasons, which do not conform to relevant laws, regulations and standards, and may cause safety and environmental protection problems, they must report the existing problems, causes and improvement measures of the products to the relevant state departments in time, and apply for recall. After approval, the vehicles in use will be refitted and maintained free of charge to eliminate hidden dangers of accidents. Manufacturers also have the obligation to let users know the situation in time. This is the so-called car recall system that people are familiar with today and has been implemented in many developed countries. Now whenever people talk about this system, Nader's name will be mentioned.

A detail of that year is worth mentioning here. At that time, Henry Ford II, a famous automobile manufacturer, complained on behalf of many of his colleagues in Detroit that the new automobile safety standards were unreasonable, arbitrary and technically infeasible ... If we failed to meet the standards, we would have to close the door. But in 1977, Henry Ford admitted that without that federal law, our cars would not have the current safety performance. From this point of view, Nader, the mother of law and troublemaker in the eyes of automobile manufacturers, obviously contributed. Nader has participated in the presidential election five times. Although he knows that he can't run for president, he still has to "know what not to do" because he wants more people to know his political views, the greed of big American companies and the importance of protecting consumers' rights and interests.

Democrats believe that Nader's election divided some of the Democratic Party's votes, which made Gore lose to George W. Bush, the party's presidential candidate, by a narrow margin in the general election. If the sensation caused by the automobile safety dispute is only the opening work of Nader, the great role and influence of Nader in the consumer protection movement is a wonderful chapter to show Nader's spoiler energy.

In America, Nader is called the father of modern consumer movement, but he is not the first person to put forward the idea of consumer rights. People regard him as the founder of the consumer protection movement because he, his colleagues and students have really changed the meaning of the concept of safeguarding consumer rights and interests. Before Nader, the so-called campaign to protect consumers' rights and interests was only a superficial concept, and the content was nothing more than trivial things such as buying the cheapest goods and using supermarket vouchers with discounts of a few cents. It does not propose to analyze and study the power of the company or the government, nor does it form an independent confrontation force against the huge power of the commercial industry in market and government decision-making.

Before Nader appeared, there were some people of insight who cared about social affairs and public interests. For example, Upton Sink, a writer, once wrote an influential novel "Jungle" based on the situation of the meat processing industry in Chicago. After the book was published, it caused great repercussions in the society, which led to the establishment of the US Food and Drug Administration from 65438 to 0906. From 65438 to 0962, after the book Silent Spring was published by rachel carson, a female ecologist, her amazing prediction about the harm of pesticides to human environment was not only severely criticized by the production and economic departments, but also strongly shocked the general public. However, these behaviors are only sporadic individual behaviors, which are not enough to form a general climate for safeguarding consumers' rights and interests. The ambitious Nader intends to fundamentally change people's concept of consumer rights and make it a movement.

Since he is concerned about car safety, Nader has no intention of stopping at the sensation of a book. With the passage of the new "Automobile Safety Law" of 1966, Nader, who has set up defense centers, traffic safety centers and other institutions one after another, began to get busy again and began to investigate and expose other unhealthy trends that harmed public interests. Nader believes that it is not good to live in a cold and irresponsible bureaucratic era and just be the silent majority praised by Richard Nixon.

Although most political activists of that era were concerned about the Vietnam War and racial injustice, Nader was concerned about those injustices that were obvious but imperceptible in American economy and law. He used his so-called recording intuition to investigate and expose a large number of annoying and unreported scandals of American enterprises and governments over the past few years. During the period of 1966 ~ 1969, Nader's discovery prompted the adoption of some new laws to supervise unsanitary practices in meat processing and poultry product production-the first major reform in these industries since 1907. Nader's investigation also involves many other issues that harm the public interest, such as the danger of natural gas pipelines, the radioactive radiation of TV and X-rays, and the poor working conditions in coal mines. Each of his surveys will prompt the government to formulate corresponding safety regulations or force an industry to take improvement measures, adding a lot of tangible content to the consumer protection movement.

Nader believes that true patriotism should be based on sincere concern for one's own country and do some practical things to make one's country more humane, more moral and more concerned about one's own people. He has been single-handedly, persistently running and shouting for improving American consumers' awareness of self-protection, calling on the government to standardize industrial production and improve product quality and safety. Nader constantly warned people to abandon the narrow consciousness of regarding individuals as unimportant and strive to become a public citizen with participation consciousness and good at questioning (that is, a citizen with civil rights and obligations). These views still have universal practical significance. By 1969, Nader had become a well-known figure who was trusted and admired. Thousands of idealistic students are competing with him. Nader also realized that only by one person's efforts, after all, the impact is limited, and only by attracting more participants can a big climate be formed. Among the fans, Nader began to hire a few dedicated young people to strengthen his work-these people were later called Nader Commandos.

1in the summer of 969, Nader decided to set up a fixed institution for his special civil litigation. With the support of several foundations, Nader established another organization-Coping with Law Center. A reporter called it a mixture of the headquarters of the political movement and the fraternity of college students. The next summer, Nader decided to let young people take the lead, so he began to recruit volunteers from college students in the summer vacation to form a special group.

As soon as the recruitment notice came out, candidates flocked to the scene, and the enthusiasm at the scene was simply amazing. In the words of Harrison wilford, the director of the center at that time, about13 of students enrolled in Harvard Law School. Nader selected 200 commandos from 30,000 applicants and formed a special team. His task for these young people is to investigate and expose all the problems related to environmental pollution or government scandals and write investigation reports.

In a short period of one or two years, Nader commandos have achieved brilliant results. Here are only some reports: the negligence of the Interstate Commercial Committee (exposing the corruption and inefficiency of the Interstate Commercial Committee, which was originally responsible for setting truck transportation and train fares), the disappearance of air (recording the health hazards caused by the deterioration of air pollution caused by irresponsible enterprises and political accomplices), the chemical feast (exposing the negligence of the Food and Drug Administration on the food industry), and.

Because Nader's funds are limited, he mainly does not reward everyone with actual income. The survey report is published in the name of students themselves, and students can hold a press conference to give full play to their specialties and improve their popularity. Therefore, students are very motivated.

At that time, the content of mainstream media in the United States was limited, which made Nader's investigation very attractive. Most daily newspapers rarely report investigative news, and few legislators seriously study the performance of federal agencies from the perspective of ordinary citizens. Nader's report is clear and profound. They are not only named by names, but also supported by detailed materials, so these reports have become popular books (the first four reports of Nader Commando 197 1 have just been published and have sold 450,000 copies). In particular, a group of fledgling students have repeatedly exposed the momentum of government procrastination, collusion between privileged interests, lawlessness and blatant corruption in enterprises, making these reports more attractive and extremely popular.

Nader is different from previous scandals. They are only content to expose it and let it go. On the other hand, Nader wants to try a new strategy of citizen action. He introduced the report he presided over as a model of exercising civic duty and set up an organization that can exercise the power of small people to encourage others to take the same action. Nader believes that this is a social initiative that will bring just and lasting benefits to the country. Practice has proved that the efforts of Nader and his supporters have not been in vain. It is because of their fruitful efforts that consumers, as a group, have become a force that can have a significant impact on government decision-making and company market operation.

Heroes create times, and times also create heroes. Nader, who is committed to counterfeiting and safeguarding the interests of citizens and consumers, has also become famous. Nader, who later served as the chairman of the American public affairs organization, was once considered by Time magazine as the most difficult consumer in the United States, and was selected as one of the most influential Americans in the 20th century by American News and World Report 1979. Nader has been an active figure in American society since he became famous at the age of 3 1. He is like an energetic hound with a keen sense of smell, tirelessly searching for and chasing unfair and unreasonable prey. His evaluation is also mixed. No one knows what earth-shattering and shocking things this eccentric old man, known as the first citizen of America, will do. However, in the first two or three decades, Nader's spoiler was generally confined to the field of safeguarding citizens' rights and interests. What really made him a political show stopper in the eyes of some people was after he participated in the US presidential election several times after he was over 60 years old.

When a person has a certain economic strength and social status, he will naturally become interested in politics, and Nader, whose reputation in the United States rose sharply in the second half of the 20th century, is no exception. Nader became a famous citizen activist because he revived the consumer movement. Since then, he has actively participated in American political activities.

After the 1960s, the global ecological crisis and environmental deterioration have attracted the attention of all countries in the world. Organizations spontaneously formed by some people to protect the ecological environment, oppose and prevent environmental pollution have emerged in the United States and some countries in Western Europe. These organizations developed rapidly, they pursued a new political program and established a political party organization-the Green Party. Nader's thoughts and actions of paying attention to consumers' interests and promoting environmental protection are highly sought after in society, and are also favored by the Green Party, which is becoming more and more famous.

The quadrennial presidential election is the most lively event in American politics, and it is also a stage for various political parties, factions and figures to compete to show their strength and talents. When the 1996 general election began, political actors appeared in black and pink. Just like an audience who is obsessed with Beijing Opera and wants to shout for a long time, he has witnessed the changes in American politics. Although Nader, who has been a spectator for decades, is unwilling to be lonely, he also wants to be a fan in the farce of the presidential election, and the Green Party, eager to expand its influence, also hopes to find a political spokesperson. The two hit it off. 1996, Nader participated in the presidential election of that year as a candidate of the Green Party. However, Nader, who participated in the election for the first time, got off to a bad start. He only got 685,000 votes in 22 states, and the vote rate was less than 1%.

After being elected for the first time, Nader had no intention of giving up. He always wants to try again, just like a fanatical sports fan, who lost in a certain game but felt exhausted. So, in the 2000 general election, he made a comeback.

Since the middle of19th century, the United States has been ruled by democracy, * * * and the two parties alternately. Over the years, in the political chess game in the United States, the two major political parties have been vying for the presidency. Because the American general election adopts the winner-takes-all approach, to win the votes of a state, it is necessary to win the majority of voters in that state. In this case, those small parties or independent candidates called the third party are doomed not to win any electoral votes.

Some people may wonder why an old urchin like Nader, knowing that he can't win at all, will show off again and again. The answer is simple. In the words of Laurent Tommet, an AFP reporter, the existence of these candidates is the need of American-style democracy. They make Americans feel that the Democratic Party and communist party are not the only political parties in this country. Some people regard democracy, * * and the two parties as two rotten apples. They didn't vote for anyone, but for the third party to show their dissatisfaction. On the other hand, although alternative candidates have no hope of winning the general election, they have the energy to muddy the water. When the two major parties are close in strength in the general election, they will play a role and tilt the balance. Analysts said that in the general election of 1992, it was precisely because of the appearance of Texas billionaire Perot (who won 19% of the votes that year) that he robbed * * * and many votes in the party, which led to Bush's defeat. Eight years later, Nader reappeared Perot's spoiler effect.

The contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore in the 2000 general election was the fiercest since the founding of the United States, and the election result was the most abnormal. * * * And the Democratic Party and the voters who support them are also the most controversial. In this general election, Nader, as the presidential candidate of the Green Party, was eligible to run in 43 states and Washington, D.C., and finally won 2.7% of the votes. At that time, a national survey showed that if Nader did not run, 50% of those who voted for him would vote for Gore, only 20% would choose Bush, and the remaining 30% would not vote. Therefore, Democrats believe that if Nader does not intervene, Gore can defeat Bush by a big margin. It was because he pulled away some votes in Florida and New Hampshire, which involved Gore's energy and financial resources that Bush defeated Gore by a narrow margin. Since then, Nader has won the title of political program host.

Nader, who lost again, was a little relieved that his election cost was not high-he spent $8 million, while Buchanan, a conservative political commentator who competed with him, spent $6.5438+0.2 million as a reform party candidate to participate in the presidential election, but unfortunately he only got less than 654.38+0% of the votes.