Re: Price gouging is beneficial. Price gouging is great!

"rexcetera" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>      Price gouging is good! Misguided criticism of price gouging followed
> the earthquake in California, as it followed the Hurricane in South
Florida,
> and flooding in the Midwest.
>     Price gouging provides extra money for suppliers to buy larger
shipments
> of necessities and pay added costs for urgent delivery and extra employees
> under crisis conditions.  Wholesalers and distributors quickly reroute
> supplies to disaster areas where increased demand covers the added costs
and
> permits a greater profit.  To defeat price gouging further hurts those who
> are already hurting.
>     Price gouging is great! Higher prices cause people in non-damaged
areas
> to delay purchases of building materials, freeing the material up for sale
> in disaster areas.  Protests of price gouging are made by the same people
> who whine about bare shelves in non-gouging stores. Price gouging is how
> free market pricing restrains buyers who would rush into non-gouging
stores
> before or during a crisis and leave nothing but anchovies (but at the
> non-gouged price, of course).
>     All goods are private property and sellers can charge whatever they
wish
> or not sell at all.  Anti-gouging laws cause sellers not to reroute items
to
> disaster areas and to delay selling near disaster areas.  People who
support
> anti-gouging laws are ignorant statists who cut their own throats (and
> others').
>     Price-gougers should be praised.  Sellers who do not gouge prices do
not
> do themselves or consumers any favors.  They encourage hoarding and lessen
> their ability to increase replenishments.
>     Any Libertarian or Objectivist will point out that anti-gouging laws
> achieve the opposite of what was intended. Eastern Europe, the former
Soviet
> Union, China and other socialist economies demonstrate that government
> attempts to suppress prices causes greater shortages and suffering.  The
> laws of supply and demand do not change by popular edict.
>     Mandating price gouging would make more sense than banning it, though
no
> law at all is best.  The "correct" price for all goods at all times is the
> highest price anyone will pay.  That is how Capitalism creates abundance
and
> prosperity.  Price gouging is beneficial.
>
> This letter was originally published on 11-11-96
>
> for more libertarian ideas on price gouging see
> http://members.ij.net/rex/Ruth.html
>
> http://rexcurry.net was one of the first websites to use the phrases
"price
> gouging is good" and "price gouging is great" and "price gouging is
> beneficial" in a sincere positive manner.  A recent web search for those
> phrases revealed either no results, or results that used the phrases in a
> derogatory manner, and almost no instances of positive advocacy of price
> gouging.  It is more proof that government schools must end.
>
> (For more ideas on liberty and libertarianism see
http://members.ij.net/rex
> and http://rexcurry.net from Rex Curry at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]).
>

If price gouging were limited to disaster areas, perhaps the support of it
would no be so questionable, but that is typically where it occurs.


-- 
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world:
those who understand binary numbers and those who don't."
-----------------------------
Byron "Barn" Canfield