Eliminating "price gouging" is the same as eliminating private planning. The owner of the hardware store is in the best position to plan for the needs of the community. He can buy 20 generators and keep them in good storage to meet a 5 or 10 year emergency. But, he would need the ability to charge a much higher than usual price at the time of emergency to pay back for the costs of planning and investment.
New Jersey vigorously prosecutes price gouging. When hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, almost no gas stations could pump and deliver the gasoline they had stored. The gas pumps are electric, and there was a power failure.
Why couldn't the gas stations use some gas to power local generators to pump the rest? A very few had this backup. There was no mechanism to pay gas stations for the extra costs of installing gasoline-powered generators which would almost never be used.
A further and amazing consequence. Private sources of gasoline were reluctant to bring in gasoline faster than usual, and so at a higher cost and price. They had to avoid being prosecuted for price gouging. Only the government could move and distribute vital supplies, and of course it was not prepared for this.
Reminds me of when Hurricane Charlie hit Port Charlotte, FL. There was a story on the news about a guy from Georgia who bought 10 generators from his local Home Depot for and drove them down to the center of the devastation and tried to sell them out of the back of his truck with a 100% markup. The local mafia, I mean g'mint, arrested him and confiscated his inventory. Wouldn't want people with a desperate need for a generator and $$ in their pocket to get what they desire.
what a lot of rubbish. Someone sitting on a bunch of unsold generators was not forward thinking - he/she just got their buying model wrong and then luck gave them an opportunity to profit from their mistake.
Fuck you people are stupid, shallow, blind, fundamentalist.
There's no balance in what you think or what you write - it's all extreme ideology.
Eliminating "price gouging" is the same as eliminating private planning. The owner of the hardware store is in the best position to plan for the needs of the community. He can buy 20 generators and keep them in good storage to meet a 5 or 10 year emergency. But, he would need the ability to charge a much higher than usual price at the time of emergency to pay back for the costs of planning and investment.
ReplyDeleteNew Jersey vigorously prosecutes price gouging. When hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, almost no gas stations could pump and deliver the gasoline they had stored. The gas pumps are electric, and there was a power failure.
Why couldn't the gas stations use some gas to power local generators to pump the rest? A very few had this backup. There was no mechanism to pay gas stations for the extra costs of installing gasoline-powered generators which would almost never be used.
A further and amazing consequence. Private sources of gasoline were reluctant to bring in gasoline faster than usual, and so at a higher cost and price. They had to avoid being prosecuted for price gouging. Only the government could move and distribute vital supplies, and of course it was not prepared for this.
Reminds me of when Hurricane Charlie hit Port Charlotte, FL. There was a story on the news about a guy from Georgia who bought 10 generators from his local Home Depot for and drove them down to the center of the devastation and tried to sell them out of the back of his truck with a 100% markup. The local mafia, I mean g'mint, arrested him and confiscated his inventory. Wouldn't want people with a desperate need for a generator and $$ in their pocket to get what they desire.
Deletewhat a lot of rubbish. Someone sitting on a bunch of unsold generators was not forward thinking - he/she just got their buying model wrong and then luck gave them an opportunity to profit from their mistake.
ReplyDeleteFuck you people are stupid, shallow, blind, fundamentalist.
There's no balance in what you think or what you write - it's all extreme ideology.
And you are blind to it.
Very poetic.
DeleteYou need to rethink and look at reality. Williams is right.
ReplyDelete