If there were not huge health and safety concerns, you could put a refinery in your back yard. You could actually make bio diesel in your back yard right now and charge whatever you wanted for it.

Competition regulates gas prices based on the actual cost of crude, it does not need regulation or a social program... thats the point, just because gas gets more expensive than you are used to paying doesn't require the government to step in and ensure your comfort level, it requires you make adjustments in your life to adapt and overcome.

Of course you cant just adapt and overcome cancer or pneumonia but a simple act of regulation would prevent extortion by health care providers, medical suppliers and pharmaceutical companies and in turn allow insurance companies to be more competitive, driving premiums down. Pharm companies, health care providers, medical supplier and the like don't care for that idea, they prefer to be more like defense contractors... hand over fist tax dollars that you never know the details of.

What we ended up with (once again) is retarding the whole country to the pace of the lowest common denominator... rewarding mediocrity and hailing personal responsibility as optional or even discouraged. They want you to be at the level of the idiot that will pay $20 admission to get the "free" pen and pencil set.

Same with most industries in the US we retard them to the lowest common denominator and expect them to be competitive in a "world economy" where everything is unregulated.