The United States is no longer a true capitalist system. Although many of its citizens regard it as the peak of market freedom, analyzing our current situation brings us to a different conclusion. We aren’t a pure capitalist system because we are surrounded by monopolies and current legislative processes perpetuate this.

When is the last time you ate at a nonchain restaurant? Or shopped at a local grocery store? How many different retailers can you actually name? Simply answering these questions shows that a majority of industries have concentrated power. There are many conglomerates that own vast portions of several different markets. We might have had a pure capitalist system at one point, but we are stuck in a monopoly or oligopoly. Only a certain few hold the majority of the market share in any given industry. I can count the number of competitive airlines on my hand. This isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it isn’t the classical definition of a free market.

Our current legislative process does not allow for a free market to occur — at least, not for a long time. A free market can only truly form a pure democracy.

Why does this matter? Because rent-seeking is present in almost every industry. This is when a company, instead of improving a product or service, decides to go to the legislative branch to lobby for different regulations or special privileges. This roadblocks the democratic process and gets rid of any chance of a free market. The companies with the majority of market power self-impose costly standards that they can absorb because they have so much wealth. The threat of new entrants is lowered because the barriers to entry were raised by the companies in the industry.

The mixture of undemocratic processes and rent-seeking creates a market environment that is allergic to competition. Incumbents don’t want competition. They are constantly looking for ways to raise the barriers to entry. Take Artificial Intelligence, for example. Google and other technology companies have been pushing for regulation in order to monopolize the industry. The automotive industry did the same thing. Ford is notorious for pushing safety standards to push out foreign car competition. None of these situations are indicative of a free market system.

Overall, the United States should not be referred to as a free market system. We have several issues with our markets and the barriers to entry in almost every industry keep getting higher. This isn’t necessarily good or bad, but we are using the wrong words to describe our current system. We are in an oligopoly, and every market is becoming more centralized.