Think logically for one more second. Very similar logic applies for health insurance/cost of college/rent, because those are “unavoidable” in some ways if you want to live (with dignity, because homeless people are still alive I guess).

The only reason health insurance/college/rent costs near infinite dollars rather than actual infinite dollars is because price hikes work best when they are hiked slowly every year instead of all at once. Health insurers/bloated college admins/landlords would (rationally) love to have infinite dollars, as they have a stranglehold on a necessary resource, except that’s probably a quick path to the guillotines coming out.

> those are “unavoidable”

This myth has been reviewed by economists over and over. You can always economize and it naturally occurs on both the demand and supply side. I'm not saying these outcomes are good, but people WILL do them.

Housing demand: live in a smaller place, live with more people, live further away than you want to, live in a van

Housing supply: rent out your extra room, try to build a rental (collect sweet premium)

College demand: community college + transfer, alternative education, maximize credits/minimize time

College supply: offer online degrees, price discriminate (financial aid) ,make cheaper offerings (undergrad only universities, etc).

Health Demand: don't go to the doctor, follow insurance incentives (urgent care vs ER), seek alternative treatment (chiropractors, neighbors, etc).

Health supply: maximize services can be performed by less trained workers (nurse practitioner vs MD, Offer lower end services (Telehealth, etc).

> "unavoidable"

When you see how many choices you have this starts to sound like "I have become accustomed to my quality of life, and I am unwilling to accept economic reality and consider alternatives." This is a natural response to declining standards of living.

So our choice is to either legally discourage rent seeking behavior in certain necessary parts of our life (health, housing, education) OR “live in a van… don’t go to a doctor … go to community college” just so the overlords could keep making profits on their investments. I wonder why not more people are signing up for the latter.

No. The point is that these actions at the margin put pressure on prices. People do have an alternative and will not just pay any price. I suspect you're feeling what I described at the end.