No, this is what the world was before globalization, which has dampened such regulatory capture effects - people just don't remember the bad old times. Price l

No, this is what the world was before globalization, which has dampened such regulatory capture effects - people just don't remember the bad old times. Price levels of e.g. medicines have always varied between countries and continents. Some people (often in a privileged position, possibly resulting from corruption) made lots and lots of money from things like monopoly selling rights of a particular brand in a country. Think of telecommunications infrastructure, for instance. With POTS (plain old telephone system), each and every country had their own voltage and current level specifications, ringing cadences and whatever. Companies were able to extort ridiculous amounts of money for a simple telephone connection, and you maybe had to wait years before you could even get a phone. Then came a globalized system where mobile phones bypassed this regulatory capture.