It's a combination of people taking advantage of things, peoples' hands being forced, and trying to make sure only certain people get the stuff.

I remember there was enormous backlash because people keep raising the prices on medical supplies such as insulin and inhalers. One day I discovered there was actually one place a friend of mine could get medical supplies for a reasonable price, but alas, people who didn't even have the medical condition would buy it all in bulk... all before selling it at a separate location for the normal insane price.

It's clear that you cannot totally follow both prosperity and freedom.

1. Some people know people will buy what they have to offer, so they ask for more in return. I will say what I object to is people killing the competition, for example the same YouTube we currently know was responsible for the Tiktok gossip.

2. If money is a priority, you take your mind off a lot of subtleties. Going back to the topic of medicine, the mafia tried selling insulin cheap in some places, at least before they ran out and started selling unassuming random assortments in it. This trend, which you can actually blame Reddit for, didn't last.

3. The biggest thing to remember is this thing we call currency is regulated and is dependent on uniqueness. It must be balanced with things like population and conflict. And note a part of this implies how non-automatic its existence is. If I began a civilization somewhere, the closest I'd do is go commodity, possibly with a services system, which I can already hear people bringing up my currently-faulty subreddit in response to (needs a few systemic fixes, I know).

No matter what country anyone mentions here, there's a 100% chance it has a system that doesn't work. If it's not equal opportunity, it's an unequal opportunity, and if it's not flexible/independent, what you describe is inevitable, and things snap in two or get dragged down.