Price gouging laws shouldn’t exist

Agree.

One of the quickest ways to tell a statist from a free man.

Eh, they should only apply if a disaster area has been declared

Your premise is correct. The problem is we don't have pure capitalism. We have crony capitalism where government picks winners and losers through legislation and subsidization. Get the government out of all markets and do away with silly EPA requirements then we can talk about real capitalism.

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Eh, they should only apply if a disaster area has been declared

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No A disaster area is exactly where you want supply/demand to work.

Keep the price of water low, and people don't value it. There's no incentive for entrepreneurs to bring water to the area.

Price fixing is the problem, not the solution.

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Sould extortion laws exist? How about antimonopoly laws?

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Nope

what a small thought from a small mind

WTF!!!!!!!

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What happens to the value of a product if demand triples and the price remains the same?

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In a disaster isolated market, or nationally. Disasters create local, defacto monopolies. Monopolies are not healthy capitalism.

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Eh, they should only apply if a disaster area has been declared

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You’d think this both wise and compassionate, but you’d be wrong.

True story.

Friends wife is diabetic and one of her devices ran on batteries. Hurricane Katrina coming, and she thinks she had enough to evacuate and survive for a few days until she can reach a normal supply. But she wants more for safety.

She goes to Walmart to get batteries and other emergency supplies. Battery bin shows normal prices, and it’s totally empty.

Stopped at 5 other drug and dollar stores. Same story.

They pull into a small gas station to top off tank while evacuating. Behind the counter hangs batteries of the correct size. Above them is a hand written sign stating they are over 10 times the normal price! She complained to the Middle Eastern man behind the counter. He won’t budge despite her sob story and righteous anger.

She buys 2 packs of 2, and complains all the way to Memphis about the “dirty rotten Arab SOB”! She’s really bent out of shape that she still had 7 hours of life on her last normally priced battery. She didn’t need them.

Until this day she’s not upset at Walmart, the drug, and discount stores for NOT having the batteries she needed. And she still complains about getting ripped off, but in the last few years she grudgingly acknowledges the safety afforded by the available “price gouged” batteries.

Without the price gouging, someone would have bought them just in case for a radio or something unimportant. Her safety was dependent upon availability not price! And her health would have been endangered in a few short hours. She should thank that the Arab SOB for prioritizing the batteries for important needs through price!!! Also she left several pack for other desperate people. You know she would have bought them all at the regular price.