re: Price gouging in a temporary supply crunch like the Colonial situation should be allowed

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I want price controls to be a seldom used arrow in the arsenal. Because it keeps (say a Mitt Romney hedge fund type) from forcing a shortage

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There’s a severe housing shortage right now. Should the government set prices on those too, comrade?

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I want price controls to be a seldom used arrow in the arsenal. Because it keeps (say a Mitt Romney hedge fund type) from forcing a shortage, as a reason jack prices up, in order to make bank. Off a false narrative that they created as a way to make bank

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Cool, so we'll give the government the ability to set prices for goods when they "deem it necessary". I can't see that being an utter fricking disaster that they abuse like crazy.

We should set policy to protect hypothetical people from hypothetical scenarios instead of maximizing who it helps and allocating resources most efficiently emergency situations. Genius stuff.

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You just skipped right over the words 'seldom used

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You must have missed where we asked you how you define “seldom” and under what criteria the government m would set prices. Honest oversight on your part I’m sure.

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Its far, far better to sit at home with no gas, and not pay for day care

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Day Care is still going to charge you

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What triggers it happening?

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You mean like a highly questionable pandemic? Where you had govt officials telling people not to use cheap effective medicines, but wait for the ridiculously expensive new meds that they have a financial interest in?

And you cannot fathom the damage that could be done in an instance lie that, if price gouging were endorsed. C'mon. We just lived that scenario for a year

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By allowing prices to rise, hoarders will think twice which allows for more people to get gas

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If there was any basis of truth in this statement, there would not be price gouging rules in place

We have very recent experience where the utility companies acted as the hoarders by raising rates, and people were SOL during the ice storm. Or the gas stations became the hoarder following a hurricane, and travelers were SOL if they couldnt pay up. And now sawmills are the hoarders, and home builders are SOL until they decide to turn the mills back on

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don’t think you understand how capitalism works and how supply and demand works to avoid shortages

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That demand/supply metric works well for non-essential items. I would argue that gasoline is, for most people, an essential item.

Spiking the price to $8/gal will indeed cause some to not buy as much, but it will cause others to not buy any, even if they need it. That's not good for capitalism, either.

I think in situations like this, temporary purchasing restrictions are the answer. Something like, you are limited to 10 gal per day, every other day, based upon the first character of your license plate. That's not perfect as I guess someone could visit multiple stations, but at least it would move the lines and give a chance for everyone to get something.

The real answer, though, is we need more redundancy in this country. That costs money, of course.

Government control of the consumer economy. Sounds like a great idea.