"If something is priced too rich for your blood, don't buy it. If it's too rich for everybody else's blood, too, then the seller will drop the price or starve. If other people are buying it but you think it's too expensive, then you just can't afford it. Hey, sorry 'bout that.
But the minute you decide that the government can tell a man how much he can charge for his goods or services, you're not one bit better than Karl goddam Marx."
- Tam - in comments to her post
AMEN Tam! Thank you!
Now, regarding the article she links to how about we apply some commonsense. You are in a disaster zone. Certain products have become both scarce and incredibly valuable overnight (things like guns, generators, gas etc.) The fact that a $400 generator is being sold for $1600 isn't gouging, it's simply the manifestation of the reality of the economic market at that time and place given the new relative value of said generator. Furthermore, if demand for a certain product rises due to outside factors (I.E. natural disaster) and sellers do NOT raise prices accordingly then demand will exceed supply and you'll see a shortage. Shortages are a bad thing folks.
There is no such thing as gouging. Unless you are being compelled by force to purchase said product you have a choice not to purchase it at a particular price. I recall during the ammo drought stories of .380 going for $20-$25 / box at gun shows. It was selling at that price because idiots were obviously willing to pay that much. If someone sets a price and you freely choose to pay it that's not gouging, no matter how ridiculous the price happens to be. No one's putting a gun to your head.
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I suppose that I was a "gouger" when I bought half a dozen surplus army generators at an auction and sold them for crazy prices just prior to Dec 31, 1999. (Remember when people thought that the power grid was going to go down as every computer was supposed to crash when the year 2000 came up?)
Funny thing was, the people that bought them were only too happy to buy them at the prices that I advertised them for. So who got gouged? In America, anyone is free to walk on past and leave merchants swimming in their merchandise if they don't like the prices.
So how about me and my buddies that make similar products get together and set the price. Now what?
"Unless you are being compelled by force to purchase said product you have a choice not to purchase it at a particular price."
Funny how the same people who constantly complain about "Gouging" and demanding free market restrictions...are the same people who want to charge me with a crime (and ultimately shoot me if I refuse to cooperate) for not buying healthcare.
Also Dunno about the Obama morph (hopefully it'll never become law) but the Romney Morph, just having healthcare isn't enough, it needs to be approved by the .gov before they call off the dogs of war...
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