Competition in commodities is great for consumers. The huge problems appear when the "commodity" isn't -- when some offering is inferior in some usually hidd

Competition in commodities is great for consumers. The huge problems appear when the "commodity" isn't -- when some offering is inferior in some usually hidden way (including externalities). Keeping prices high doesn't protect against that - a counterfeiter will happily sell at a high price, and a traditional supplier might cut quality in theory supply chain to increase profit. The only solution is to have vendor and supply chain transparency (buying local, and supply chain offering video monitoring of their operations, maybe some Blockchain for tracking shipments end-to-end?), and to be willing to pay for the monitoring and for the quality you ask for. But at the end of the day must consumers talk a good game and then would buy whatever is cheapest or slickest marketed regardlesss of inherent quality or externalities, so it's more efficient to skip the charade.