How do we feel about price gouging? (Watching hurricane coverage...)

With demand comes higher prices. I'm generally okay with it. If a store goes too far with it, people will remember and boycott it in the future (if they don't burn the place down first).

Laissez faire? wrote:

Free market? Or criminal?

Is it actually illegal during a State of Emergency? Or just frowned upon?

Its illegal.

Of course you are!

you believe every Pre-digested bit of nonsense that you hear, Jamin

Here is what people do not understand about raising prices during an emergency. Let's talk hotel rooms. People are fleeing the shores and heading inland. Let's say a hotel regularly has a room with 2 double beds for $100/night. A family of 4 shows up and looks at the price and says give us two rooms so we are not on top of each other. That happens dozens of times until the hotel is booked and no rooms are left.

Now the hotel raises the price of that room to $150. The family says that is too much for 2 rooms so they pile into 1 room. The hotel can then accommodate more people.

Same with water. If you keep the price of bottled water low then people may buy way more than they think they will need. Raise the price and people will get just what they need and others will have it.

Big Pharm / Healthcare flourishes on this gouging every day.

raise the price and some people will not get what they need.

That's a wonderful example of how things would work out perfectly for everyone. Now let's try one that doesn't, hotel raises price to $500 per room and a family shows up who just can't afford that and is forced to stay in their car because they don't have enough money to buy enough gas to get some place where the hotel isn't gauging. But it's okay, the next family that comes to the hotel is rich so they take two rooms and the hotel is booked! hooray for the free market!!

Oddly, life doesn't always happen the way it's described in econ text books. nothing in a perfect market is perfect for everyone.

I'm okay with caps on hotel room prices. Maybe 3-4X the normal price.

What is wrong with staying in your car in the short term? I don't see a problem.

they are a family of 12...

Government safety net for those who fail to plan ahead, against those who do.

point missed... wrote:

they are a family of 12...

They can afford a car that seats 12, but can't afford a hotel room? Hell, $500 for 12 people is a great deal anytime of year.

So?? wrote:

point missed... wrote:

they are a family of 12...

They can afford a car that seats 12, but can't afford a hotel room? Hell, $500 for 12 people is a great deal anytime of year.

did i say car? it's a small pickup truck....

point missed... wrote:

So?? wrote:

They can afford a car that seats 12, but can't afford a hotel room? Hell, $500 for 12 people is a great deal anytime of year.

did i say car? it's a small pickup truck....

They have a small pickup truck and don't even have the tools to build a structure that can withstand a natural disaster? What kind of blue collar poser is this guy?

There is no such thing as "price gouging." The term was invented by anti-capitalists to vilify something they don't like, but that there is nothing morally wrong with. Look at what happens in countries with price controls on food an other basic necessities and see what kind of results happen when politicians try to defy the laws of supply and demand.

jjjjjj wrote:

raise the price and some people will not get what they need.

Don't raise the price and a greater number of people will not get what they need.

Mr E wrote:

point missed... wrote:

did i say car? it's a small pickup truck....

They have a small pickup truck and don't even have the tools to build a structure that can withstand a natural disaster? What kind of blue collar poser is this guy?

Damn, great point! I never considered that... thanks for making me look at things differently.

Priorities Priorities wrote:

Obama just stole the homes of thousands of Semitic Muslims inside of the West Bank area of US Occupied Palestine, and you are worried about price gouging in Florida? At least Floridians have freedom in their own homeland.

I want you to take your Koran, turn it sideways, and shove it straight up your candyass.

The Union Army raped Geogia, South/North Carolina, but left Florida alone.