re: Price gouging laws predictably lead to shortages

quote:

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What about those who need it but can't afford it?

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What about those who can afford it, but can't find it?

At best, you're talking about a "six one way, half dozen the other" type of situation.

Charity exists. And decent, morality-bound individuals exists as well.

Y'all act like just because the price is allowed to rise, that everyone will uniformly do it without question. Many store owners will choose to keep their prices stable based on their own notions of right and wrong. Others will maintain stable prices because they don't want to threaten their long-term customer loyalty. And on top of that, many concerned, caring souls will send crates upon crates of charitable donations just because they have the capacity and the heart to do so.

But also allowing for the price of the good to rise, for those who choose to do so, allows more of the product to be shipped into the affected area. Preventing any price rise necessarily means that less product will be available.

Neither side presents a perfect solution obviously. That's the nature of a disaster. But if we're worried about getting water to the highest number of people possible, in the shortest amount of time possible, removing price controls will provide the relatively favorable outcome 100% of the time