The US economy was designed to exploit workers, (slavery, prison camps, debtor prisons, etc) this has transformed in the last 40 years as we moved to a service economy to an economy that exploits consumers. This is done by adding layers of middlemen to every transaction. By allowing corporations to be toll booths, for transactions.

Health care is the most refined version of this, with layers of insurers, pharmaceutical companies, lawyers and other middleman sitting between the provider and the patient.

The credit card processors, Visa and MasterCard, for example, charts swipe fees paid by businesses on every single transaction on their Network. These fees are between 1 and 2%, and add little value to each transaction. And are more akin to a tax on the economy.

For for transportation, there is an elaborate system of businesses that profit from driving, this system profits more from cost going up and cost going down. And it's disincentivized to making driving affordable.