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View Poll Results: Should There be Price Controls in Times of Disaster
Yes 96 78.05%
No 27 21.95%
Voters: 123. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-31-2017, 07:49 AM
 
13,809 posts, read 5,517,576 times
Reputation: 8496

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Finn_Jarber View Post
Where do you live? I wonder, because a natural disaster can strike in most parts of the US.
I live where the natural disaster of choice is blizzards. I've been through several and some manner of serious repair to my house about every 5 years is not unheard of. My choice to live where I do. If a blizzard drops 4 feet of snow on my roof and caves it in or something, that would suck for sure, but I couldn't claim that my predicament is no fault of my own. I live where that is a legit possibility, and I do so by choice.

I plan and prepare best I can, but there's no guarantees in life. So I take my chances with my current situation. A small chance, sure, but a chance nonetheless.

Trust me, should that mega blizzard ever hit, I will at no point feel that I have become entitled to other people's stuff, a suspension of the laws of economics, or anything else. I prepare now for something like that happening then, and if I fail to prepare enough, I have nobody to blame but me.
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Old 08-31-2017, 08:51 AM
 
Location: Houston
5,993 posts, read 3,713,740 times
Reputation: 4160
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifeexplorer View Post
It's evil because you want people to suffer and die!
No one has ever suffered and died during a disaster from anti-price gouging laws. Since you claim they have; prove it. If you are going to make this claim then you need to back it up with credible evidence.
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Old 08-31-2017, 02:54 PM
 
Location: New York City
19,061 posts, read 12,636,633 times
Reputation: 14781
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahzzie View Post
No one has ever suffered and died during a disaster from anti-price gouging laws. Since you claim they have; prove it. If you are going to make this claim then you need to back it up with credible evidence.
It's common sense. Where there are shortages the easiest way to get supplies in or for supplies to not be hoarded is a profit incentive. It's just how economics works, sorry if you feel entitled and think otherwise
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Old 08-31-2017, 06:35 PM
 
26,694 posts, read 14,486,065 times
Reputation: 8094
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahzzie View Post
No one has ever suffered and died during a disaster from anti-price gouging laws. Since you claim they have; prove it. If you are going to make this claim then you need to back it up with credible evidence.
Google Paris siege. Just to jog your memory!
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Old 08-31-2017, 07:24 PM
 
Location: The Woods
18,337 posts, read 26,395,888 times
Reputation: 11334
Quote:
Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian View Post
Supply and demand do not care about emotions. Capital, like all other forms of energy in the known universe, follows the path of least resistance. A person with money and no water will happily trade more money than normal for water because of thirst and immediate local shortages. A person willing to profit on that will bring lots and lots of water to that immediate local area because ell, cashing in and all. More people thinking the same way and within in days, sometimes hours, there is no more shortage and the market is flooded with goods that yesterday were scarce. All because we got out of the way of profit. If you don't like it, instead of enacting laws that exacerbate and elongate shortages, just buy up all the humanitarian goods around you and flood the market with giveaways? You accomplish two things - you deal a blow to wicked entrepreneurs with your selfless act while also getting goods where they are needed. Go ahead, buy it all up and go flood the market. If you can't or won't, explain why. Dimes t donuts you'll mention either real and/or opportunity cost being prohibitive to doing so.

Humanitarian aid and volunteerism are wonderful things, but the ships/planes/vehicles delivering the aid are built by the profit motive. The fuel that allows them to move is harvested and refined according to the profit motive, and every single bottle of water, blanket, and ready-to-eat meal the deliver was distilled/woven/cooked/packaged according to the profit motive.

Water does not distill and bottle itself. Blankets do not weave and package themselves. Food does not grow, harvest, package and transport itself. Human labor driven by the profit motive does these things. Welcome to the real world.
Human society doesn't need to to be ruled by money, whose value is a a figment of our imagination anyways. People who seek profit off others' suffering aren't fit to live with decent people.
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Old 08-31-2017, 07:29 PM
 
4,399 posts, read 10,640,828 times
Reputation: 2383
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nlambert View Post
Lifeexplorer made the argument of people dying over anti-gouging. I merely proved that false. If there were any stats available, someone would track them. But there isn't because it hasn't happened.


See my last post. It explains how supply and demand works during a disaster.
Are you claiming that these price controls don't reduce the supply of goods?
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Old 08-31-2017, 07:48 PM
 
29,941 posts, read 11,513,514 times
Reputation: 18474
Quote:
Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian View Post
No.

Disasters cause demand spikes, and in a properly functioning free market demand spikes will result in higher prices.
Profit is not evil. It is the driving force behind virtually every good thing mankind has ever accomplished where they weren't forced at gunpoint.

I am a free market Libertarian and most of the time I want the free market to decide. But price gouging is almost like robbery. I don't believe its part of the free market.

I evacuated for Hurricane Ike. Returned afterwards to a blocked road to get back to my house. Power was off all over. The hotels that had rooms with no ac or lights doubled the rates for a horrible hot room. They could have easily sold out at regular rates and made their regular profits but that was not enough.

The state of Texas is pro business and they even understand that gouging is not acceptable during natural disasters. It could be the difference between life and death if say an elderly person cannot afford the high price of water.
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Old 08-31-2017, 07:50 PM
 
20,658 posts, read 8,418,975 times
Reputation: 14218
There are few to no places to shop after a disaster.
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Old 08-31-2017, 07:53 PM
 
Location: Native of Any Beach/FL
35,424 posts, read 20,786,793 times
Reputation: 14149
Quote:
Originally Posted by PilgrimsProgress View Post
There are few to no places to shop after a disaster.
Exactly capitalism can't work if there are no choices. These folks just greedy thieves
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Old 08-31-2017, 07:53 PM
 
22,768 posts, read 30,637,713 times
Reputation: 14737
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlakeJones View Post
As often happens in disaster areas, the government in Texas has made it illegal to raise prices above a reasonable amount (such as $50 for water or $5000 for a generator), citing that this is victimizing already battered residents.

The problem with price controls (just like in Venezuela) is everyone hoards and cleans out the shelves even if they don't need the supplies. When you let the market work, people will pay the actual value of goods and there will be enough supply and incentive for outsiders to get down there and bring in more materials.

discuss...
I'm of two minds

#1 - no, there shouldn't be price controls

#2 - if you are a business owner and you exploit disasters for profit, you're human scum, i don't care if it is good for your business or your 'fiduciary duty' or not.
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