> The capitalist's answer is that regulating companies to prevent them from steering to the most profitable items is both impossible to be adequately done and p

> The capitalist's answer is that regulating companies to prevent them from steering to the most profitable items is both impossible to be adequately done and prohibitively costly. True, but only because that’s the wrong approach. The correct regulations are the ones that result in more competition. That’s treating the cause rather than the symptom. If Amazon had to seriously worry about competitors, they wouldn’t be focused on selling overpriced garbage. Why? Because customers will notice that Amazon sells overpriced garbage, and will instead buy from somewhere else. I don’t know what those regulations might look like, but I do know that pretty much every single “evil” behavior in the market can be solved by throwing in competition. It’s not always possible (e.g. maybe someone is locked in to a single vendor due to a bad contract), but when customers are given choices, the choice that offers the best value will survive in the long run.