> If your point is that without surveillance pricing legislation, people selling us essentials will milk us for the last dime we have, that simply isn't happening today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_price-fixing_in_Canada

They don't even need surveillance pricing, they already try to do it. This wasn't some 1920's scheme, this was very recent.

It seems to me that the level of surveillance we're talking about, with dynamic pricing, would make it both easier for them to gouge and harder for price fixing to detect. Win win for slimy capitalists.

Edit: so maybe you're right that given the opportunity, no one is trying to milk you for literally every dime you have. Still, we should probably not allow businesses to milk the average person for every dime they can get away with, either. That's still bad for society.