If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you know something’s going on with the price of eggs. You’ve probably heard horror stories about bird flu and debated whether or not $18 for a dozen and a half eggs is worth it on top of the rising cost of every other basic necessity. While Trump ran on “fixing the economy” and making life affordable for working people, his first months in office have consisted of massive attacks on huge sections of the working class, with no end in sight to the pain of a trip to the grocery store. The truth is, Trump and the far right have no solutions to the cost-of-living crisis. 

The underlying reasons for the skyrocketing price of eggs and cost of living in general run much deeper than one flu outbreak or seasonal shortage. Because of the way production under capitalism prioritizes profit over anything else—production of eggs, other groceries, or any other good or service—it can’t respond to emergencies or other disruptions in the supply chain with safe and efficient solutions. Big business always finds a way to profit off of every disaster while working people pay the price, whether with our wallets or with our health. Trump has no intention of changing that.

All Eggs in One Basket 

Factory farming, where huge numbers of animals are kept in confined spaces to maximize production and reduce cost, is the most profitable way to farm under capitalism, but it’s also wildly unsustainable. Thousands of hens crammed into tight spaces is an ideal breeding ground for the spread, and mutation, of diseases. Instead of treating cases of avian flu, over 100 million poultry have been culled (in other words, killed) since the beginning of this outbreak. What does it say about the way production runs under capitalism if killing off the hens that lay the eggs is more profitable than doing anything to address the inhospitable conditions that are breeding ground for disease outbreaks?

Survival for a business under capitalism requires ever-expanding profits that the capitalist must reinvest into ever-expanding production, or risk losing out to a competitor and going out of business for good. So when big agribusiness has to kill entire factory’s worth of egg-laying hens, meaning their egg production is severely cut back, they jack up prices to maintain profits and growth. And then they’ll double down on investing in more factory farming techniques, likely pumping hens full of even more antibiotics (which have disastrous downstream effects for our health), because in the long run, it’s still more profitable. 

Under a socialist, democratically-planned economy, production of goods and services would be based on the needs of society, not the profit of a few billionaires. If the profit motive was removed, we could completely reorganize the agricultural industry to sustainably produce food with smaller and free-range farming that provides airflow, uncontaminated water supplies, and more workers able to manage waste efficiently—all of which could drastically decrease the spread of diseases.

Monopoly Money

So who are the billionaires playing puppet-master with egg prices? One company, Cal-Maine, controls 20% of the egg market, and spent 2023 acquiring the assets that other big agriculture companies were selling off during the bird flu outbreak. They now own 75% more hens than the next largest egg company. According to The Guardian, despite not experiencing an outbreak in 2023, Cal-Maine “sold conventional eggs at inflated prices—2.8 times higher compared with 2021—pocketing almost $1 more a dozen, even after taking into account expenses such as feed and energy.” All evidence points towards a few companies in control of the egg market using the bird flu outbreak as an opportunity to hike prices and rake in mega profits.

Some Democrats are now joining an NGO called Farm Action in petitioning the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to investigate the “non-competitive” egg market. The petition calls out how egg companies have taken advantage of a potential public health crisis to raise prices and conspired to keep flock sizes low to restrict supply. After Joe Biden closed his administration by touting how the economy was “stronger than ever” for Americans, Democrats’ current futile attempts at curbing the cost-of-living crisis are falling flat.

The petition correctly points out that the highly concentrated nature of the supply chain, with two European corporations controlling the breeding of approximately 90% of the world’s egg-laying hens, makes it extremely difficult for new competitors to enter the market. But where they miss the mark is believing that more companies competing and increasing supply would stabilize prices. Competition in the market is what led to these monopolies forming in the first place. 

Competition is supposed to be the lifeblood of capitalism—in its early stages, this had a large element of truth, with firms being forced to develop new labor-saving technology and efficient methods of production to keep up with their competitors and keep costs down to be able to undercut them. But each company’s success comes directly at the expense of another as they compete for market shares. At a certain point, the large successful firms are so large and successful that they drive their competitors out of business, who either sell off their assets or shutter their doors. 

A once competitive landscape develops into its opposite: a barren field where a few giant monopolies can conspire to raise prices without the threat of other companies being able to lower the market prices. “Market forces” won’t drive prices back down to equilibrium. It’s market forces, the inherent qualities of competition under capitalism, that gets us to a point where prices can be inflated artificially by big businesses. And if a new competitor does arise, monopolies can afford to sell their products for slightly less for a short time to drive them out of business, due to the superprofits they amassed during a period of price gouging. Neither Trump nor the Democratic Party has any real intention of taking on the system that leads to high prices for working people.

A Way Forward

The Democratic Party might talk about fighting price gouging by fighting monopolies and encouraging “competition.” But it’s not industries being controlled by a single entity that’s the main problem with monopolies. It’s that those entities are multibillion dollar corporations driven entirely by the profit motive. 

Socialist Alternative calls for taking the top 500 companies into democratic public ownership as part of a transition to a socialist society, where working people could take advantage of the already highly centralized nature of production and use it to efficiently serve the needs of working people. Until then, the government will continue to bail out big business, like the $44 million Cal-Maine has received in government handouts that helps maintain its grip on an incredibly volatile market. The kinds of crises like disease outbreaks or natural disasters that can unexpectedly disrupt supply chains aren’t flukes, but will increasingly become the status quo as capitalism continues to ravage the planet with no concern for human or animal life. 

Socialist Alternative calls for:

• Massively increase SNAP benefits – bail out working people, not big business
• Increase precautionary measures to prevent disease outbreaks 
• Establish price controls – keep basic necessities and all goods affordable
• Take big agriculture into democratic public ownership – produce food to feed people, not for profit