Sean Dengler. PHOTO BY SOREN M. PETERSON

No matter what happens in this election, the government should work for the people. The government may not be perfect, but it should be here to help us on a federal, state, and local level. While the federal government can feel far away, a little-known part of the Biden administration is helping the working and middle class. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) led by Lina Khan is helping the public win against large corporations.

In September, the FTC sued three drug middlemen, accusing them of inflating insulin prices according to NBC. “These three companies oversee around 80% of all prescription drug plans, which the FTC alleges that they created a rebate system prioritizing high rebates from drug manufacturers, which led to inflated insulin prices.” Bringing down insulin prices helps those in need of this drug and keeps more money in their pockets.

Earlier this year, the FTC also banned noncompete agreements according to NBC. “Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism,” Lina Khan said in a statement. “The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.”

The FTC estimated nearly one in five Americans are subject to noncompetes. While the rule is still working its way through the courts, this will allow employees to keep working in the field they are trained in. More competition for workers could mean more benefits to attract future employees.

The FTC also sued Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power. According to the FTC, “Amazon violates the law because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging. The FTC and other states allege Amazon is using anti-discounting measures that punish sellers and deter other online retailers from offering prices lower than Amazon, keeping prices higher for products across the internet. For example, if Amazon discovers that a seller is offering lower-priced goods elsewhere, Amazon can bury discounting sellers so far down in Amazon’s search results that they become effectively invisible.”

The FTC and other states also allege Amazon extracts enormous monopoly rents from everyone within its reach. “For example, charging costly fees on the hundreds of thousands of sellers that currently have no choice but to rely on Amazon to stay in business. These fees range from a monthly fee sellers must pay for each item sold, to advertising fees that have become virtually necessary for sellers to do business. Combined, all of these fees force many sellers to pay close to 50% of their total revenues to Amazon. These fees harm not only sellers but also shoppers, who pay increased prices for thousands of products sold on or off Amazon.” This boils down to while we all love Amazon, Amazon is actively hurting the wealth of us and our fellow community members. Amazon deserves to make as much money as possible but not at the expense of future competitors and overcharging customers.

If you are still not convinced, I hope you enjoy a McDonald’s ice cream cone soon. Chances are the machine might not be broken as much thanks to the FTC. According to the Today show, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the FTC filed comments in support of the petition regarding an exemption granted by the United States Copyright Office which allows McDonald’s to fix its own ice cream machines. The Taylor Company holds the copyright on these machines as McDonald’s exclusive milkshake machine supplier. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act prevented McDonald’s from fixing these machines until now due to the exemption. McDonald’s now has the “right to repair.”

For farmers, this might sound familiar. Do not worry, the FTC is helping. According to Reuters, in October, the FTC is probing Deere over the company’s repair policies. “The FTC is probing whether Deere violated the Federal Trade Act’s section 5, according to the filing. The law prohibits unfair or deceptive practices affecting commerce, and the FTC has recently used it in a broad array of cases, including against Amazon and pharmacy benefit managers.”

No matter where you end up politically, the FTC is helping. They are fighting to help people live a better life. What they are not doing is trying to control businesses. They are trying to prevent large businesses from controlling consumers and small, independent businesses. If you like sports, you want the referees to call it down the middle. Everyone wants a fair game. This is what the FTC is doing. This is where the government is working for the people. They are doing what is good for our pocketbooks, and what is good for society.

Sean Dengler is a writer, comedian, farmer, and host of the Pandaring Talk podcast who grew up on a farm between Traer and Dysart. You can reach him at sean.h.dengler@gmail.com.