Biden and Dems say they still believe in capitalism. Appointees like Lina Khan at the FTC prove they don't

Americans are certainly no scholars when it comes to economic theory. In fact, a quick perusal through TikTok reveals a solid majority can’t even define the term correctly. And this economic illiteracy is by no means limited to the laymen of our political sector.

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Which explains why Democrats like President Joe Biden and Senator Amy Klobuchar can get away with claiming to be capitalists while simultaneously working to destroy capitalism.

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Newsflash to these jokers: placing high taxes on businesses, or using the government to break up companies—is NOT capitalism.

These anti-market beliefs and policies run deep throughout the DNC, all the way from the top of the food chain (Biden) to his appointees at various government agencies. One of the best cases in point is the work currently being undertaken by FTC chair Lina Khan, a radical anti-capitalist who has dedicated her tenure to pursuing goals like antitrust.

Antitrust is a vastly misunderstood policy by Democrats and Republicans alike because it sounds like capitalism. Free markets do require competition, naturally the presence of monopolies prevents competition, so in order for capitalism to work the government must break up monopolies. Right?

Hardly. Here’s the fatal flaw in that logic: capitalism doesn’t need the government’s assistance to work. That’s one of many components that make it so brilliant. In a truly free market, monopolies are naturally self-destructive. They invite competition, success of one company spurs innovation and more efficient processes by another. That’s why you’d be hard pressed to find an actual example of a monopoly that existed for more than a couple years unless it’s a situation where the government is giving an unfair market advantage to one company.

The government can do this through various mechanisms, from corporate welfare handouts, to selective tax breaks, to protectionist regulations and barriers that make it hard for smaller companies to enter a market and compete with existing businesses. You’ll find these types of initiatives are actually typically the pet policies of many Democrats. As a few examples, Democrats have all largely supported things like Certificate of Need laws in healthcare, the bailout of car companies, subsidies to sports stadiums, Section 230 reforms, and many occupational licenses.

So if the government is mostly creating the monopolies, why does the FTC need to expand antitrust laws to break up the big bad companies threatening capitalism?

It doesn’t track, does it?

And that’s because antitrust is a trojan horse. It’s as anti-capitalist as it gets and basically creates a loophole for the government to control the market. Again folks, government control of private business is NOT capitalism.

Agencies like the FTC use the threat of antitrust to make companies do what they want. Don’t like the free speech of a business owner? Threaten them with antitrust unless they censor themselves or their platforms. Want companies to have to pay employees more? Threaten them with antitrust unless they comply.

Antitrust is merely a way of holding companies hostage and forcing them to comply with policies that Democrats can’t actually get passed legislatively. The beauty of this scheme is the business leaders are left with little recourse other than to comply. They can’t petition lawmakers to change the laws they’re being forced to comply with because they don’t exist. They can’t sue and challenge the demands in the courts, because they don’t exist on paper.

The one recourse businesses currently have against this corruption is something called the Consumer Welfare Standard, a legal precedent baked into the law by conservatives throughout the 1980s that instructs judges to only rule in favor of antitrust if three conditions are met. One, that the company actually is a monopoly (which again, is almost never the case). Two, that the company has used its power as a monopoly. And three, that the usage of the company’s monopoly power has actually harmed consumers (again, very rare).

That’s why people like Amy Klobuchar have been working overtime to take out the consumer welfare standard in order to place companies even more under their thumb.

None of this is to benefit you. None of this is capitalism. True free markets can handle monopolies on the rare occasion they pop up, and bad businesses will eventually go under if you simply give the market time to work.

Stop falling for the lies of the Democrats. They aren’t capitalists (neither are many Republicans), and if you don’t educate yourself they will continue to spread actual disinformation to further erode our market economy.

Hannah is a Consultant for NetChoice, a free market tech trade organization, that works on these issues.

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