Harris: Competition is the life-blood of our economy

Does anyone else remember that time back in the mid-80s when Ben & Jerry's ice cream started an ad campaign titled "What's the doughboy afraid of?" Here's what happened:

By 1983, the little ice cream company from Vermont was distributing their frozen treats to grocery stores...the same stores that sold Häagen-Dazs.

Häagen-Dazs was owned by Pillsbury at the time, and their distributor had been given an ultimatum by Pillsbury: stop selling Ben & Jerry's or we'll stop selling all Pillsbury products through you.

Guess what the distributor did? Kept his biggest account and dropped Ben & Jerry's.

Much to Pillsbury's chagrin however, the innovative campaign from the small start-up worked. 

Prior to that, not many of us knew that Haagen-Dazs was owned by Pillsbury. But the fact is that 10 corporations own almost all of the world's food.

That's part of the reason why the FTC recently found that price-gouging became a post-pandemic problem (emphasis mine).

Notably, consumers are still facing the negative impact of the pandemic’s price hikes, as the Commission’s report finds that some in the grocery retail industry seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further raise prices to increase their profits, which remain elevated today.

“As the pandemic illustrated, a major shock to the supply chain can have cascading effects on consumers, including the prices they pay for groceries,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC’s report examining U.S. grocery supply chains finds that dominant firms used this moment to come out ahead at the expense of their competitors and the communities they serve.”

Apparently, the editors of the Washington Post missed that report. Their op-ed is titled "The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks." But the tag line says it all: "‘Price gouging’ is not causing inflation. So why is the vice president promising to stamp it out?"

Rather than "gimmicks," Harris is proposing to take on those "dominant firms" who used the excuse of the pandemic to increase their profits. Here's how she explained it: 

Vice President Harris: As president, I will work to pass the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food pic.twitter.com/NE4t50hpfc

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 16, 2024

It was especially powerful when, at the end, she said, "We will help the food industry become more competitive because I believe competition is the life-blood of our economy. More competition means lower prices for you and your families."

Contrary to those who claim that Harris is proposing socialism, the fact is that the life-blood of capitalism is competition. When dominant firms use their power to control markets, they stifle the ability of small businesses to compete. That might line the pockets of people like Jeff Bezos - the owner of both the Washington Post and Amazon - but it means higher prices for the rest of us.

VP Harris is serious about tackling that issue head-on. Obviously the "dominant firms" won't like it one little bit, as Bezos just demonstrated.