... if prices don't go up, what's the incentive for gasoline delivery companies to make the extra effort to bring resources to a disaster-torn city?
Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Price gouging during an emergency is illegal in NJ and Christie plans on going on the warpath after this is over.
>Christie plans on going on the warpath Can you elaborate? Does he want to remove the anti-"gouging" laws?
>Can you elaborate? Does he want to remove the anti-"gouging" laws?
Quite the opposite, he's a somewhat populist moderate Republican. He plans to prosecute people guilty of increasing their prices more than 10% during the crisis to full extent of the law.
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Price gouging during an emergency is illegal in NJ and Christie plans on going on the warpath after this is over.
>Christie plans on going on the warpath Can you elaborate? Does he want to remove the anti-"gouging" laws?
I assume it means that anyone caught price gouging during this emergency can't count on the law to look the other way.
There will probably be a ton of political pressure and publicity ('bad publicity' from the perspective of a business caught gouging) in an effort to make an example of those retailers that attempt to take advantage.
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Price gouging during an emergency is illegal in NJ and Christie plans on going on the warpath after this is over.
>Christie plans on going on the warpath Can you elaborate? Does he want to remove the anti-"gouging" laws?
The war will be for enforcement and fining:
http://nj.gov/governor/news/news/552012/approved/20121027c.h...
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#15Here's my question, gas stations are closing here in NJ when running out of gas. Why aren't they jacking up the price to astronomical rates? There are lines for miles to the gas stations that have electricity. Is this a failure of capitalism in the face of human compassion or what?
Is this a failure of capitalism
No, not at all. All of the gas is in the hands of people who bought it. The supple constraints are not problems of incentives, they are problems of physics. Roads are down, plant is not working, traffic, security, etc.
The reason anti-gouging laws exist is because jacking up prices has no benefit. It just keeps the poor people from having access to resources. 10 gallons of gas to a rich guy is not making the country or the economy better off, than if the gas is given to a poor/normal person, the day after a hurricane/earthquake, etc.
The Feds are going to be on the Hook for $6-7B to fix NY and that's going to be paid by everyone in the country. Most people aren't going to benefit from that, except for the local people in NYC. But we do that as a country to make sure all of the right incentives are in place over the long run, not just opportunistically in the short run.
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#16Amazing how people switch their principals regarding free markets when it suits them. Especially rich people.
When consumer protection laws are drawn up, they will be the "end of America". When financial institutions have bankrupted themselves, they "need to be protected". It's "progress" to prevent people from bringing food onto private property so that you can massively overcharge them for unhealthy foods. It's "gouging" to allow others to charge more when demand far exceeds supply in an emergency.
I agree that leaning solely on price in all circumstances is a poor way to balance supply and demand. And I don't want anyone to forget how this works when social sacrifices are demanded for "American success" in the future.
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#17Here's my question, gas stations are closing here in NJ when running out of gas. Why aren't they jacking up the price to astronomical rates? There are lines for miles to the gas stations that have electricity. Is this a failure of capitalism in the face of human compassion or what?
Is this a failure of capitalism No, not at all. All of the gas is in the hands of people who bought it. The supple constraints are not problems of incentives, they are problems of physics. Roads are down, plant is not working, traffic, security, etc. The reason anti-gouging laws exist is because jacking up prices has no benefit. It just keeps the poor people from having access to resources. 10 gallons of gas to a ric…
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Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#18In a disaster situation if there is no elasticity between price and supply then price gouging laws (social or legal) make a lot of sense. For example, if there's a fixed amount of water around regardless of price people shouldn't be able to raise prices. But in this case there IS elasticity between price and supply, right? Uber is claiming that they'll deliver better service by increasing prices, because supply will…
Even if there is no additional supply available, there still could be some benefit.
If the price of gas were far higher, people may not fill up their tank all the way and only purchase what they really need. So instead of the first X people getting full tanks and the next Y people getting nothing from an empty gas station, in some scenarios everyone could get a smaller amount.
However, the issue of poor people not having access at higher prices is still a problem. It may be better served by having the government step in to provide each person $Z in gas money (paid for by a tax on "gouging") rather than an outright gouging ban.
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#19Seems like the main alternative to increasing prices is `it's not sustainable for us to run at all until this is cleaned up'.
Is that a suitable alternative?
Re: Uber Reverts Back to Surge Pricing in New York After One Day
#20Seems like the main alternative to increasing prices is `it's not sustainable for us to run at all until this is cleaned up'. Is that a suitable alternative?
A.k.a. a shortage