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

There must be a special place in Hell for people who profit excessively from
the misfortune of others.
-- 
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
Editor and Publisher
The Irascible Professor
http://irascibleprofessor.com

"Byron Canfield" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "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
>
>