There is a real challenge to American capitalism, but it doesn’t come primarily from progressives or “socialism.”  The current threat to American capitalism comes from big corporations and the favors our government grants them as major political donors. 

Anti-competitiveness -- the outcome of government working for its big corporate donors -- is no friend to capitalism or the consumer.  The Founders warned about this, and presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to FDR fought against this.  Political leaders -- at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue -- who indulge an anti-competitive juggernaut may be the biggest enemy to long-term economic success.  

Take giant mergers, of the sort the both Roosevelts fought against -- do those serve the average American?  Most recently, a Sprint/T-Mobile merger has been approved by the Justice Department.  Who is served by the creation of three mega-carriers instead of four?  That question is not political -- it is economic.

Monopoly and oligopoly (which is a market controlled by the few) always and everywhere raises prices, lowers quality, and eliminates the incentives which attach to competition. Indulging crony politics, reducing competition, and favoring oligopoly -- from left or right -- hurts the consumer. 

Megamergers, when they result in declining competition, traditionally cause consumer price increases, less innovation, decreased investment, and slower wage growth. Let’s only hope that the ten state AGs fighting the merger will prevail in court, before the next conversation is how to re-inject competitiveness into the cellphone industry. Influence pedaling, political interference with market economics, and corruption of free markets run deep in today’s Washington.

Anti-competitive impulses and decisions are not the only challenge to capitalism posed by our government.  Another comes from insufficient oversight over the process of deregulation.  Consider the Boeing 737-max, now grounded after two fatal incidents.  Federal regulators at the FAA appear to have relaxed oversight of new aircraft, with catastrophic results.  Who was hurt?  Not just the flying public but employees of the company. 

By all appearances, the FAA gradually handed off key elements of aircraft oversight to manufacturers, leading to potential conflicts of interest, unjustified assumptions, and insufficient scrutiny over a key flight safety system.

Unbridled capitalism, without consumer vigilance and government oversight, can lead to material errors in judgment, elevation of shortcuts, and quarterly profits over the public interest.  Even Ronald Reagan believed that government had a role in assuring the public good in the context of free markets, and that when that role is amputated -- or minimized to the point of insignificance -- we all lose. 

Of course, common sense is not limited to one or another economic sector.  This applies to air safety, air quality, fuel efficiency, auto safety standards, and a variety of other industries.  When regulation is removed arbitrarily, risk jumps and the public often suffers. When corporate greed prevails, our country loses.  Greed is no friend of capitalism -- or the consumer.

The message for Democrats should be clear.  They should not demean capitalism, but make it function in a way that is fair, guided by quality and price competition, with attention to public safety, and delinked from political interests.  Contrast this vision with the approach of the current administration. America is about individual promise, a free nation that benefits from free markets, not monopolies and oligopolies -- which always reduce choice, raise prices, resist quality improvements, and turn to politics for protection.  They are inherently the enemy of the hardworking middle class. 

When government favors big corporations over small businesses and consumers, it is really not pro-business or pro-capitalist at all.  From breakneck aviation and to the aggravation of subsidizing agribusiness, government coddling of big corporations is never good for the individual.  If that sounds like common sense, we see the world the same way -- and so do most Americans.

Perry Gershon is a widely recognized business leader and national commentator on business, trade, policy and politics. A congressional candidate for New York’s first district, he holds a B.A. from Yale and an M.B.A. from the Univ. of California, Berkeley.