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Concentrated Corporate Power Is Holding Back Our Economy and Undermining Shared Prosperity

Evidence shows that increased corporate concentration over the past several decades has harmed small businesses, consumers and workers and reduced economic growth. Large corporations have swallowed up America’s small businesses at an unprecedented pace, and even as corporations earn record profits, the consolidation of corporate market power in the United States is associated with reduced investment and lower productivity. 

Amid declining competition, consumers pay higher prices, and in the labor market, workers have fewer potential employers, undermining their ability to bargain for higher wages and better working conditions. The negative effects of consolidated corporate power have been particularly severe in rural areas and have disproportionately impacted Native American, Black and Hispanic communities, exacerbating entrenched inequality.The erosion of competition costs U.S. workers more than $1 trillion in lost income each year, a drop in living standards of more than $5,000 per year for the typical American household.