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Analogy to drug safety makes no sense - FDA regulates drug safety and 'fake' generic drugs are very much allowed, so customers may choose generic drugs without needing to distinguish safe/unsafe themselves.

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Counter to your point, pretend Apple is the FDA and the drugs are apps. Now pretend the government wants to get rid of Apple/FDA.

Right. And to add to the scenario: in this world the FDA is a for-profit corporation that owns the only drug store and uses its regulatory power to prevent any others from existing.

does the FDA not get a fee to review and approve drugs? is it not the exclusive arbiter of approved drugs in the US?

ignoring the for-profit corp vs govt regulatory body statutory difference, there isn't much different in operation.

Pretend that Apple is a federal agency, not a corporation? Then its monopoly power would be legitimate and antitrust laws would not apply.

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