Let's talk about a community that needs water, but doesn't have the capital to drill a deep enough well. Private company comes in, drills the well, and the peo

Let's talk about a community that needs water, but doesn't have the capital to drill a deep enough well. Private company comes in, drills the well, and the people rejoice. But then the price-gouging comes, and it's not exactly simple for anyone to "compete", because if another corporation has deep enough pockets to drill a well in the first place then a) they aren't likely to have gotten that way from generosity, and b) in terms of profit it's much easier to go dig another well elsewhere and just start squeezing a different community. Exactly how much and for how long do we want to let the company squeeze people since they are "entitled to monetize their property"? What if they give the water away for free, but the "price" to the community is that they are subject to medical experiments without their knowledge or their informed consent, or just without any real ability to opt out? What if every well in every town looks like this, so that people can't vote with their feet? This is clearly a problem in the limit.. anyone who thinks this general scenario is fine, or that it automatically works itself out somehow is not being serious. Water just makes this a simple story to understand. There's more nuance and less urgency in a different setting, but most of the basic issues remain the same.