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

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How is selling goods obtained legally ill-gotten gains?

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Both the thief and the unscrupulous business remove the application of moral justification. It imposes a level of price discrimination that could become life-threatening for people without the means to purchase life-sustaining goods. These blind justifications and adherence at all costs to "free-market" forces ignore the reality that certain segments of the population can't pay the jacked-up, price-gouging prices under any circumstances, and thus are exacerbating the dire conditions and creating more problems.

Aside from that, not that any of you adhere to scripture, but Proverbs 1:19 states:

"Such are the ways of all who gain profit unjustly; it takes away the life of those who obtain it!." So strictly from a moral compass, unjustly rewarding yourself at the expense of others is morally wrong, at least in biblical teachings.

I understand the rationale behind the economics of the price increases, but blind adherence to unbridled, immoral price-gouging for the sake of "free market" is incorrect in a disaster area that can no longer be sustained by a natural free market. And in my opinion, those of you whose heart is so black as to not understand this are in need of some soul searching.