Capitalism hasn't worked is the story we hear across the Democratic Party, their newly crowned socialist wing, and even some Republicans who have begun to turn on the foundational pillar of free market capitalism. And yet the data has never supported that argument.
A chart using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracked prices from the year 2000 to 2025 across wages, housing, healthcare, college tuition, and everyday goods like televisions, phones, software, and toys. The data revealed a truth that should be ingrained in the mind of the public: everything the government has touched, regulated, subsidized, or promised to make more affordable has done the opposite, exploding in price while quality quietly declined. And yet, everything the government left alone, the goods and services deemed too unimportant to warrant its attention, did exactly what free markets have always done. Prices fell. Quality soared.
Like so many other stories in politics, the perception of greedy, profit-driven corporations engaged in price gouging and looking out only for their bottom line turns out to be a story that belongs on government's record, not the free market's.
This chart is insane.
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) July 7, 2026
Government-heavy sectors (healthcare, college, childcare) exploded in price... and got worse.
Competitive free market sectors (TVs, toys, phones, software) crashed in price... and got dramatically better. pic.twitter.com/1a8jiAhoci
Here's the meat section revised, followed by a closer: Revised meat: If conservatives need a single point to drive home against Democrats, and against the socialists specifically, this is it. Because it is damning for their entire governing ideology.
According to the chart, hospital services are up 281.4 percent since 2000, childcare and nursery school costs are up 158.8 percent, and medical care services are up 147 percent. Health-related spending now accounts for nearly a quarter of the federal budget by some measures, and expanding it further remains a stated priority of Democratic officials at every level, from state legislatures to governors to leaders in Congress. They have funded public health insurance, imposed price controls, regulated providers, and layered subsidy on top of subsidy. The explosion in cost isn't a coincidence it's the result of government policy.
The same pattern holds everywhere else on the chart. Housing costs are up 111.4 percent, college tuition is up almost 200 percent, and even food and beverage prices are up 105.7 percent. Every one of these markets carries the same fingerprint: heavy government regulation. Washington subsidizes American farmers who, in many cases, simply can't compete on the world stage. It has spent decades regulating student loans and expanding programs like FAFSA that make tuition hikes consequence-free for universities. And it has restricted zoning for decades, subsidizing housing demand while doing almost nothing to encourage the supply needed to meet it.
Capitalism did not fail, government did.
Every sector that collapsed in price while quality improved is proof of what the free market does when it's actually allowed to operate; every sector that exploded in cost is proof of what happens the moment government decides it knows better.
The DSA wants to hand government control over the sectors already ruined by government control. Europe already tried it, and stopped producing anything the world needs in the process. Twenty-five years of data, and the conclusion is not complicated: the sins piling up on that chart were never the free market's. They were governments all along, and it is long past time that bill got sent to the right address.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy Townhall's conservative reporting that takes on the radical Left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member