It is a truism that in Washington, no good deed goes unpunished. And so we have the Biden Justice Department’s lawsuit against Apple for being a smartphone monopoly. It’s like a dystopian scene from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

Has any invention so far this century contributed more to America’s economic prosperity, and our health, safety, and convenience than the iPhone? Steve Jobs’ once seemingly utopian vision that soon nearly everyone in America and on the planet would have access to this life-changing device has come to the fore. Nearly everyone – rich and poor – has a smartphone – with a price that is continually falling.

If this is the evil work of a “greedy monopolist” – we need an “Apple disruptor” in every industry.

Apple and its brilliant visionaries, engineers, scientists, and investors created this incredible device and industry. Not Al Gore. Not the federal government. Not taxpayers. There is no shortage of competitors that have come and gone.

The Biden lawyers object they have illegally  achieved “market power.”  The government now wants to regulate and dictate what apps and other services from rival companies must be available on the iPhone.

Of course, Apple has market power. So did Henry Ford. They CREATED the market. They are being called a monopolist on left and right even though Apple continues to lower the cost of phones and a multitude of other digital services – from games to maps to restaurant reviews to cameras, videos, and music. As the graph below shows, every time they introduce a new version of the iPhone – and build as it were, a better mousetrap – Americans scramble to buy them.

If consumers want a cell phone that carries certain apps, then the solution is to buy an Android.

This lawsuit is a toxic assault on property rights, economic success, innovation, and our system of free market capitalism that gives the world life-changing products like smartphones in the first place.