The author, a former Labor Department and current industry official, surveys an American society in which the interest and aims of special groups have come to predominate over the nation’s general welfare. Government efforts to meet special group interests often have unforeseen negative results; for example, cost-saving welfare laws with “man-in-the-house” provisions that destroy families and increase welfare costs. Arbitrators and the parties at arbitration are encouraged to be agents of reconciliation in the face of growing conflict among special interest groups.