BOB: Powerful corporations are taking away your freedom — and you probably don’t even know it! To explain, here’s one of the great anti-monopoly champions, former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.

LINA: How “free” we feel is often tied to how we experience the economy — and whether big businesses can get away with depriving us of choice, access, or affordable prices.

Are you really free if your groceries are so expensive that you can’t afford them? Or if your boss can change your work schedule on a whim or block you from getting a new job? Are you really free if you have to ration your medicines because they’re too expensive – or if they’re not available at all?

For too long, government stopped vigorously enforcing laws that protect our basic economic freedoms by keeping Corporate America in check. These laws were created to promote fair competition–which prevents companies from getting so dominant that they become “too big to care,” where they can get away with harming their customers, their workers, and making us less safe.

So what does it mean when just a handful of corporations have concentrated control of markets across our economy?

First, extreme concentration results in you paying more and having less choice.

Take the grocery store. When you scan the cereal aisle, it may seem like there are dozens of different brands to choose from. But in reality over 70% of the cereal consumed by Americans is made by just three corporations. 

Want to buy a bottle of soda? You could buy Pepsi. Or Mountain Dew. Or even Starry. It seems like you have plenty of options. In reality, these brands are all owned by PepsiCo, which is one of three soda makers that control over 90% of the soft drink market. 

How about a roast for dinner? Well, it would likely come from one of three meat packers that dominate roughly 70% of the beef market. 

In fact, each part of America’s food supply chain — from agricultural markets to the grocery store — is dominated by just a handful of powerful corporations.

The lack of competition gives dominant players across our food supply the ability to bully and coerce small farms and manufacturers. It also gives them the power to overcharge you simply because you have fewer options of where to buy from. 

This isn’t just a problem in the food industry. It’s a problem throughout the entire American economy. In 75 percent of U.S. industries, fewer companies now control more of their markets than they did twenty years ago. And less competition means more power for corporations to rip you off.

Second, extreme consolidation can result in less power for you as a worker. 

That’s because when corporations dominate their markets, workers have less freedom to take their skills and find a better job at a competitor — simply because there aren’t that many competitors.

A 2022 Treasury Department study found that wages were roughly 20% lower in heavily concentrated markets compared to markets with more competitors.

And we saw this dynamic play out when Kroger and Albertsons tried to consolidate in what would have been the biggest grocery merger in US history. 

When investigating the deal, the Federal Trade Commission found that because Kroger and Albertsons had to compete for their workers, they had to offer their workers better pay and benefits. And that eliminating this competition would mean that workers would have fewer options and less bargaining power – including over their pay, their working conditions, and their ability to organize on the job. That’s why we sued to block the Kroger/Albertsons merger–and won.

It’s not just mergers. Tens of millions of workers across America — ranging from security guards to fast food workers to doctors — are stuck with a noncompete clause. This is a contract that bosses make workers sign that limits an employee's ability to take a job with a competitor or start their own business. Noncompete clauses trap workers in abusive workplaces and stifle innovation, resulting in workers losing out on hundreds of billions dollars in earnings per year. 

Many workers in heavily concentrated industries already have fewer employment opportunities, and noncompetes suppress their economic freedom even more. That’s why the FTC passed a rule banning these noncompete clauses—though big business groups are now fighting back.

Third, extreme market consolidation can endanger your life.

When industries are dominated by just a few corporations, a single disaster can lead to major shortages. That’s because concentrated markets also concentrate risk. Take the production of something as simple, yet vital, as medical IV bags.

Just two corporations — Baxter and B. Braun — supply 85% of IV bags and solution to our nation’s hospitals. The manufacturing facilities of these companies were hit by hurricanes in 2024, leading to widespread shortages. 

That meant that if you got sick or into an accident, you might not be able to get the lifesaving treatment you need because of supply shortages. 

It’s not just IV bags. In recent years America has seen major shortages of key medicines, affecting everything from cancer treatments to antibiotics. And as consolidation and abusive business practices let big pharma companies and middlemen jack up prices, millions of Americans are left rationing the medicines they need — or even skipping them entirely.

Consolidation is literally a matter of life or death. 

We hear a lot about how corporations growing more powerful and dominant in their industries is just a natural byproduct of the so-called “free market.” But having fewer and fewer corporations control more and more of their markets is not some inevitability –it’s a result of policy decisions that our enforcers and regulators make.

That’s why, during my time as chair of the FTC, we sued to block mergers that would have undermined competition, and we cracked down on unchecked corporate power and abusive practices that for too long resulted in you paying more for everyday essentials — while earning less.

These were important strides, but there’s much more work to be done. And that’s why we need to keep demanding that our leaders vigorously enforce anti-monopoly laws to tackle unchecked corporate power — and to make sure all Americans can enjoy real freedom… 

Freedom for consumers. Freedom for workers. And the freedom for all of us to live safe, healthy lives.