The U.S. capitalist system is the purest form of Darwinism on the planet, in my opinion. Forget the grisly NatGeo video of a lioness taking down a baby impala, or of sharks taking down pretty much whatever they can get their teeth into. It doesn’t compare to the bloodshed in a bare-knuckled corporate battle.

I respect our capitalist economy’s ruthless efficiency, begrudgingly; I hate the fact that the biggest losers in a corporate cage match invariably are employees, their families and the towns they live in.

But if the federal government is going to allow one industry to operate according to capitalist, free market rules (food retail), it ought to allow other industries to do the same (meat processing). What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Let’s look at this more closely: The consolidation of the meat processing industry into a handful of mega-corporations is the natural consequence of how our capitalist system and its capitalist consumers have arranged their priorities. It’s driven costs down to the point where small operations can’t stay in business, yes, but the paltry percentage of their income that Americans pay for food, compared to any other country on the planet, is a major factor in keeping our economy afloat.

Yes, those priorities have created weaknesses elsewhere in the system: There are vast areas of the country where producers can’t get their livestock harvested without spending more than they’d ever make on the meat. And gaping holes in the supply chain laid bare when the pandemic swept through those mega-facilities that are such a key factor in those relatively low food prices.

But consider another industry subject to long-term consolidation: food retail. Supermarkets for decades have grown bigger, choking the life out of locally owned stores. The trend was well underway when Walmart supercharged it by adding groceries to its mix in 1988.

Why aren’t D.C. politicians losing their cool over the prospect of the two largest (by some measures) supermarket chains in the country becoming one? Where are the millions in grant money from the Biden administration to support retailers in small towns and urban “food deserts,” where families are held hostage to relatively high-priced, often low-quality shopping options, as has been well-documented in the research?

The impending merger of Kroger and Albertson’s has drawn opposition, including from some Democratic lawmakers, and several legal challenges. But there has been nothing like the hue and cry over the meat industry’s “oligopoly.” No effort to subvert the grinding wheels of capitalism with infusions of funds.

To be sure, the four largest food retailers command about half of the U.S. brick-and-mortar retail market, a figure that does not include Amazon or other e-commerce food channels. But, when pundits complain that four meat processors command 80% of the market, they’re only talking about the beef industry. Like Kroger and Albertsons, who have lost market share to online sales, beef has been losing ground in domestic per-capita consumption to other species, particularly poultry, for decades.

So I shake my head at the dozens of new, or long-shuttered and now re-opened, facilities turning on the lights in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Vermont, Tennessee and many, many other places. In some cases, these plants are on their third or fourth owner in the last 10-15 years. What about their business plan will enable them to succeed where many others have failed?

I’m cheering for these companies to grow, provide good-paying, skilled jobs to their towns, and see a family’s future generations continue the tradition. But what happens when the grant money runs out?

Sadly, I think the administration’s cash infusion ultimately will do more damage than it does good. The White House ought to just let its capitalist system operate as freely as is legally possible, in the meat industry as well as the food retail industry.

That’s better for the goose and the gander.

Good for the goose?

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