The problem is the consumer. Consumers are ultimately enablers for this behavior. They just keep buying shit, no matter how expensive it gets. And there’s often cheaper alternatives, but no, the consumer keeps buying grossly inflated things.

As long as we’re discussing ridiculous things like price controls, let’s perhaps discuss consumption controls where consumers can only be allowed to purchase certain things at specified amounts and frequencies. In a society that eventually transitions entirely to digital payments, this kind of control should be easy to implement through a centralized authority.