The market isn’t an independent force

There’s an assumption among some members of the public that the market is an abstract, independent force governed by natural economic laws and that corporations are merely victims to this force.

In economics, this force is sometime called the invisible hand.

However, the economy isn’t natural in the same way that rivers or mountains or birds are natural. The economy was created by humans.

Economics is a field of research that humans made up to study other things that humans made up, such as capital, markets, and expenditures.

There’s no invisible hand. There’s no neutral force dictating what choices corporations should make.

Corporations don’t just operate within the market—they are the market. They shape its rules, dictate its flows, and influence the very conditions under which all economic transactions take place.

The rules of the market—what can be traded, who can participate, and under what conditions—are dictated by the most dominant players within it.

Corporations influence the market at every level. They do so through lobbying efforts, regulatory capture, and direct political influence.

They lobby governments to craft laws in their favour, and they spend a lot of money to do it. Whether it’s tax policies, labour laws, or environmental regulations, corporations work to ensure that the market is structured to maximize their profits.

Instead of corporations responding to the market as passive players, they’re designing the market to serve their interests.

For example, multinational pharmaceutical companies push for extended patent protections that prevent cheaper generic drugs from entering the market. Oil companies fund campaigns to weaken environmental regulations, ensuring that pollution costs are borne by the general public rather than cutting into their bottom lines. Tech giants lobby for lenient data privacy laws so they can continue monetizing user information without meaningful restrictions or compensation.

Corporations don’t just respond to market demand—they create and manipulate it.

By controlling supply chains, they dictate what products are available, at what prices, and under what conditions. A handful of agribusiness giants, for example, control global food distribution, ensuring that farmers and consumers alike depend on their pricing and supply decisions.

Similarly, Amazon doesn’t just compete within the market; it dominates the logistics infrastructure that other businesses rely on. It sets the terms for e-commerce, controlling what products are visible, how they’re shipped, and how sellers can operate. The notion of a free and open market is undermined when a single entity holds so much sway over how transactions take place.

Contrary to how some economists might depict prices and wages as the outcome of supply-and-demand forces, large corporations play an active role in determining both. By engaging in price-fixing, market consolidation, and anti-competitive behaviour, they ensure that market outcomes benefit them.

For example, major grocery chains have been caught colluding to keep bread prices artificially high. Similarly, tech companies like Apple and Google have engaged in no-poaching agreements to suppress wages by ensuring employees can’t easily move between firms.

When corporations control both pricing and labour costs, the supposed neutrality of the market evaporates.

If the market were truly an independent force, consumers would make rational decisions based on available information. However, corporations spend billions on advertising and psychological manipulation to create demand where none naturally exists.

Corporations don’t just participate in the market—they engineer it. Fast food chains, for instance, shape dietary habits through aggressive marketing, not because of any neutral market demand but because they have the power to manufacture desires and influence cultural norms.

One of the most enduring myths of capitalism is that corporations compete on a level playing field. In reality, markets are increasingly dominated by monopolies and oligopolies—an inevitable outcome of capitalism—that stifle competition rather than encourage it.

Instead of a diverse marketplace of small businesses and innovative startups, we see industry after industry consolidated into the hands of a few powerful corporations.

A handful of media conglomerates, for example, control the majority of news outlets. The financial sector is dominated by a few massive banks. The tech industry is run by the same few companies that buy out or crush competitors before they can pose a serious threat. This isn’t a market of independent actors responding to impersonal forces—it’s a system where the biggest players dictate the rules.

As a result of this concentration of control, the public loses out in 4 main areas:

1. Inequality worsens
   Wealth accumulates at the top as corporations extract more profits while wages stagnate. Rather than serves the broader public the market instead enriches the few who control it.
2. Innovation is stifled
   Large corporations often suppress new competition by acquiring startups or using predatory pricing to drive competitors out of business.
3. Political power is concentrated
   When economic power is concentrated in corporate hands, so is political power. Governments become more accountable to corporate interests than to their own citizens.
4. Environmental destruction escalates
   Because corporations externalize costs like pollution and environmental damage, the market fails to address long-term sustainability.

If corporations are the market, then changing the market requires changing corporate power. This means:

1. Stronger antitrust laws
   Breaking up monopolies and ensuring genuine competition is crucial.
2. Democratized workplaces
   Expanding cooperative ownership and worker-led businesses can create a more equitable economic structure.
3. Public investment in essential services
   Taking critical industries like healthcare, utilities, and communication out of corporate hands can ensure they serve public needs rather than profit motives.
4. Regulatory overhaul
   Ending corporate lobbying power and reasserting democratic control over the economy is essential to shifting market priorities.

Corporations don’t respond to the market—they are the market. They create, manipulate, and dominate the economic landscape, ensuring that market forces work in their favour rather than serving the broader population. Recognizing this reality is the first step toward challenging the myth of the free market and building an economy that prioritizes people over profit.