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The Corporate-Hating Left's 2020 Lockdowns Destroy Small Businesses, Give Industry Giants a Huge Advantage

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If Democrats hate big corporations so much, why are they helping them flourish at the expense of America’s small businesses?

Although there are serious questions about whether lockdowns are effective in combatting COVID-19, leaders in the Democratic Party nevertheless stand by the harsh restrictions.

While these lockdowns continue to devastate small businesses, they actually have created a financial benefit for many of the industry giants that progressives purport to hate so much.

Democrats often try to paint Republicans as corporate shills for supporting free-markets absent of burdensome regulation.

Ironically, the Dem-led lockdowns have offered major industry leaders a bigger advantage over their small business competition than any Republican proposal in recent memory.

According to ABC News, while as many as one-third of American small businesses could be closed for good during by coronavirus pandemic, a handful of larger companies are actually benefiting.

Big Tech giants — namely Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Netflix — have made “significant gains” financially, ABC reported.

Additionally, columnist, reporter and marketing specialist Samuel Scott pointed out in piece for The Drum, a marketing news website, that “only existing market leaders” have benefited from the lockdowns.

“If consumers can get the same product delivered on the same day from a range of different retailers, they will always go with whoever will do it for the cheapest price. And that only benefits the market leaders who compete on volume and low margins,” Scott wrote.

Should pandemic lockdowns continue?

“Online ordering and new distribution models are only accentuating and reinforcing existing trends. They do not lower the barriers to entry for additional competition.”

“Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus may become a retail duopoly just as Google and Facebook have created an online advertising duopoly.”

Scott went on to explain that lockdowns are creating dominant monopolies that “violate the basic principle of capitalism.”

“An often-stated idea today is that the western world is experiencing a ‘K-shaped recovery’ – meaning that people who can work from home on computers are doing reasonably well under lockdown while everyone else is hurting terribly,” Scott wrote.

“But another unintended consequence of the coronavirus pandemic is that the situation is helping a few at the expense of everyone else. Inequality is increasing on many fronts.”

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If Democrats truly want to keep corporate America from amassing even more capital, they would end the coronavirus lockdowns.

In a study conducted back in April, political scientist Wilfred Reilly compared lockdown policies and COVID-19 fatalities among US states.

His findings refuted the left’s argument for lockdowns.

“The question the model set out to ask was whether lockdown states experience fewer Covid-19 cases and deaths than social-distancing states, adjusted for all of the above variables,” Reilly wrote. “The answer? No. The impact of state-response strategy on both my cases and deaths measures was utterly insignificant.”

Does Reilly’s study unequivocally prove that lockdowns don’t work? No, and he admits as much.

However, it does highlight the lack of empirical basis behind such policies.

Despite this, left-wing progressive will continue supporting stringent COVID restrictions.

Not because they actually believe in lockdown effectiveness, but rather because it is to their political advantage.

This advantage is two-fold.

First, it gives progressive leaders the appearance of caring about their constituents’ health (although lockdowns themselves have been linked to many deaths). Second, those left-wing leaders can then point at Republicans who want the economy to stay open and claim that conservatives don’t care about saving people’s lives.

In reality, lockdowns aren’t helping the little guy and there’s a legitimate question about whether they’re saving lives.

But they are, without a doubt, giving the rich elites in business a huge advantage over everyone else.

Through their dogmatic support of these arbitrary and unnecessary regulations, left-wing politicians are proving themselves to be hypocrites by abandoning every principle they pretend to stand by.

But when it comes to the modern-day left, what else would you expect?

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Michael wrote for several entertainment news outlets before joining The Western Journal in 2020. He now serves as Managing Editor, which involves managing the editorial team and operations; helping guide the editorial direction of The Western Journal; and writing, editing, curating and assigning stories as needed.
Michael Austin graduated from Iowa State University in 2019. During his time in college, he volunteered for both PragerU and Live Action. After graduation, Michael went on to work as a freelance journalist for various entertainment news sites before joining The Western Journal as an intern in early 2020.

Shortly thereafter, Michael was hired on as a staff writer/reporter. He now serves as Managing Editor, which involves managing the editorial team and operations; helping guide the editorial direction of The Western Journal; and writing, editing, curating and assigning stories as needed.
Birthplace
Ames, Iowa
Nationality
American
Education
Iowa State University
Topics of Expertise
Cultural Politics, Entertainment News, Christian-Conservatism




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