Well, that’s how markets work; suppliers charge what they can get away with, according to what consumers are able and willing to pay.

The real culprit is lack of competition. Theoretically, competitors should jump in and grab some of that market share by undercutting the price, until it reaches a natural equilibrium at the cost of production. But because of runaway mergers and acquisitions, enabled by a lack of antitrust enforcement dating back to the Reagan ’80s, there aren’t enough (or any) competitors to whittle down the market price. Virtually every market sector is an oligopoly dominated by a small handful of suppliers, who can pump prices up artificially high.

Conservative ideologues are always conflating market competition with laissez-faire, but they are not the same thing. Leaving suppliers to their own devices leads to anti-competitive consolidation or collusion. Markets need to be regulated to maintain healthy competition.