We’re in a cost of living crisis in this country. In far too many cases, honest work no longer pays enough for young people to get a start, or for Idahoans of any age to take care of a family. Our economic system is failing our people. This is a hard truth to say, but it’s just unavoidable. Disillusionment with our economy has led many of our young people to turn to socialism because they think it’s the only other option. I’m here with a better alternative - what if we gave actual free-market capitalism a try?
Why isn’t free-market capitalism what we’re doing now? Because genuinely free markets are where workers and consumers have many viable choices, competition is fierce, and new firms can enter the market to enhance competition further. This is the economic system that built American prosperity, provided for the good lives and well-being of generations like mine and my parents’, and made our country the superpower that won two world wars, then went to the moon for an encore. Today, corporations and billionaires buy off enough lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians to let them do whatever they want. They gut regulations for things like worker safety and consumer protection, throw up new regulations if needed to keep competitors out of their market, gut unions, and get their companies as many taxpayer subsidies and trade treaty carveouts as they can possibly manage.
I am a capitalist. This isn’t capitalism. It’s corruption, clear as day. It’s cronyism. It’s the perverse conversion of a once-free market into a captured, corporatist system that maximizes billionaires’ profits at everyone else’s expense. There’s a term for all of this government support for big business - it’s called “corporate socialism.” Corporate socialism is the worst of all systems - all of the inefficiency, bureaucracy, bullying, and institutional failure of socialism but without benefits or protections for workers, all the deprivations of greed from capitalism but none of its dynamism, innovation, or rewards for success. Anytime a competing product, system, or idea appears, the big players crush it or swoop it up and take it for themselves - either to ensure the idea never sees the light of day, or to jack up the price and make it another part of a bad system.
Monopolies and oligopolies crush competition, strangle innovation, refuse to pay their workers living wages or provide good benefits, and make the taxpayer make up the difference, all while showering Wall Street shareholders with their profits. Oh, and what happens when it all goes belly-up? These bloated, “too big to fail” monopolies go to Congress, hat in hand, and ask for massive taxpayer bailouts - which they inevitably get. Free markets aren’t free of consequences - you can have one or the other, but not both. We have abandoned free markets in favor of consequence-free markets. It’s no wonder, then, that this system has failed to produce decent lives for working people. It’s no wonder that Americans are looking for alternatives. And it’s no wonder it needs to be replaced.
How do we fix this? With a government that actually works for people, not corporations. This means electoral reform, campaign finance reform to end legalized corruption, and - though this should have been done decades ago - banning Congresspeople from trading individual stocks while in office! Everyone elected to Congress should place their assets in a blind trust and not touch them again until they leave office. People serving in leadership roles in the executive and judicial branches should be under tight restrictions too - individual FBI agents are incredibly restricted in what they can do with their money so as to prevent even an appearance of corruption, so it’s ridiculous that their bosses can do whatever they want.
It also means corporate responsibility - making major companies responsible for providing fair, livable wages, as well as good benefits to their employees. It means an end to shell companies - no more escaping taxes or responsibility through legal sleight of hand. It means closing the loopholes that lobbyists wrote into the tax code, and making sure the corporations and billionaires that profit most from this country pay what they fairly owe to maintain it. The roads, the courts, the schools; the legal system and national defense that enable business’ growth and global prosperity - none of this is free, and when we put the bill on the credit card instead of paying for it honestly, we’re effectively stealing from our grandchildren to have it a little bit easier today. And it means right to repair laws - the fact that we need laws guaranteeing our right to repair our own property is crazy, and the fact that these laws haven’t been passed despite the fact that we need them proves how absurd corporate power over government has become.
It also means returning economic power to workers by bringing bargaining power back to unions. History and economics both show us that unions are essential for ensuring Americans’ prosperity - unions put workers on an equal footing against the immense power of billionaire bosses, and we will not be able to get back to a position of true prosperity without workers’ free ability to unionize and unions’ ability to bargain. Government needs checks and balances in order to function effectively and not oppress people, and capitalism needs checks and balances too. Healthy unions make a healthy economy, and a healthy economy makes a better life.
Corporate socialism is killing us. It has to end. Both parties are guilty of building it, and neither of them can be trusted to tear it down. This is one of the major reasons why I’m running as an independent. Multimillionaire lawyer and landholder Jim Risch is unquestionably part of this corporate socialist elite. His campaign has raised millions of dollars more than I ever will, and his billionaire buddies will make sure he has all the money he needs. But Idahoans are tired of the same old story over and over again. We see that the system is clearly working for people like Risch and his “friends,” and clearly not working for Idahoans. We know we need, and deserve, better. This time around, we actually have a chance to get it.
There are reasons why Risch has out-fundraised my campaign 8:1 so far. But these are the same reasons why I’m going to beat him. We’re going to make political history this November. Then we’re going to start writing a new chapter of economic history in January.
In Service,
Todd Achilles
Paid for by Todd Achilles for Idaho / J. Patrick Riceci, Treasurer. Copyright (C) 2026 Achilles for Idaho. All rights reserved.
Very well written, Todd. I agree, 100%! As you know, my family runs Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps - the #1 selling organic soap in the world, and a B-Corporation that is the gold standard for what our grandfather called “constructive capitalism.” He was a fierce capitalist who believed in sharing his profits with the Earth and the workers from whom it came. Too many corporations practice destructive capitalism — overpaid CEOs receive bonuses for destroying the Earth, cutting corners and selling out to the lowest bidder, all in the name of the bottom-line. Thanks for using your voice to highlight an overly corrupt corporate culture that we can change.
I’m just a (non traditional 32 year old dad) nurse practitioner student in Lewiston right now have really been considering moving out the second i graduate but your run is giving me a modicum of hope I’m broke so I can’t pledge this month but I’ll for sure vote for you. Thanks for trying we’re better off if we get rid of the octogenarian in office currently