re: $99 for a case of water: Texas officials report price gouging post-Harvey

I think this discussion has been centered around goods.

Be obtuse somewhere else.

Edit: sorry thought you were being sarcastic. Lol

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My system will eventually provide for the poor,

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Now you are King... of dick heads.

No. I was being serious. I have a friend that closed on a house a week before the storm and hasn't moved in yet. He is thinking about putting it back on the market for significantly more and staying where he is currently living.

Is that wrong or smart?

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All you free-market types aren't taking into account the mass of variables in the discussion IMO

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Yes they are. The definition of economics is scarcity of resources, and all of the different drivers and permutations associated with it. There are morons (Trump fans and Bernouts) on both sides who don't understand this.

If you don't like gouging, stop using uber you pussies.

BOOOOOO










actually, that's pretty badass

Hopefully they are prosecuted but we know how this site ends. Nothing will be done.

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EA6B

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Everyone of these poster that want to punish merchants for raising prices on goods that are in demand would sell their house at post storm market value.

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Buying a home =/= buying critical products or goods that impact human life/survival. Trying to say the purchase of a home is the same as having water to drink or food to eat in the first 36-72 hours of a major catastrophic disaster where you may not readily have access to liquid assets to pay for essential goods and services is a perfect case study in apples and oranges comparison.

If a Plant Manager in Port Arthur making $375,000 year can't afford water because he doesn't have enough cash on hand because he uses debit and credit cards mainly and there's been a temporary spike in basic essentials like food and water he's in the exact same shape as someone at the poverty line who likewise has little-to-no access to liquid capital to pay for those goods in a situation where their prices spike.

There is inevitably a lag between the increase in price and the demand issue being resolved and that resultant delay in a catastrophic emergency is where human suffering and potential loss-of-life and social order can break down.

In these potentially life-altering situations market intervention is absolutely warranted.

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Economics has more to it than a supply and demand graph.

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Trumpwrong.gif

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Price gouging arises in cases of temporary monopolies. In this case, because of a natural disaster acting as a barrier to entry/force of exit for other suppliers. In a monopoly, there will be monopoly rent collected. Especially if the demand is inelastic. This is accompanied by shortages and scarcity. 

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It is extremely rare to witness a true monopoly in a natural disaster with any sort of duration. Even then, let's assume a gas station is the only one available to a subdivision for a week. If the gas station is limited from being able to adjust the price, not only will a shortage ensue, it has little incentive to try to get additional inventory in adverse supply chain circumstances, which would also likely be at a higher price, inherently. Further, artificially creating a ceiling allows some dicknose to buy up more than he actually needs for his family in the week st the expense of his neighbors, instead of buying what he really needs to get through the week.

Absent some form of arbitrarily managed pricing and rationing managed by the government (which would likely obviate the ability to "gouge" anyway), allowing the free movement of pricing and distribution against the constraints of the storm is the most efficient way to manage scarce resources.

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Uber isn't a natural monopoly. The surge pricing you are eluding to is still setting the marginal cost in perfect competition. They haven't gouged anything. The demand curve just shifts right during "surge" times, so of course price has to go up to clear the market. With hurricane price gouging, a monopoly arises and businesses maximize profit by setting the price above the intersection of marginal demand and marginal supply.

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Neither is a convenience store in a storm. The analogy is that surge pricing is imposed in order to incentivize drivers to get on the road and also manage the sheer demand spike that happens on a bar strip at 2am in most God-fearing cities in America.

It's not a direct comparison in that there are other alternatives and it's more centrally managed, but the main point of bringing it up is to cite how consumers and "producers" respond to incentives.