Price-gouging would correct the toilet paper hoarding problem.
$5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
61–70 of 450 posts
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#62We should be applying a much hefty fine for stock investors or other kinds of investors if this $5k price-gouging is reasonable.
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#63Price isn't just the cost of buying something, it's the reward for producing it. If we see too many price gouging laws, then you can expect shortages as companies find themselves unable to justify extreme measures that would otherwise increase production (at great expense). Secondly, I would expect that localities with price gouging laws will discover that their goods are being re-routed to other places without those…
This isn’t the companies being punished - it’s the opportunists. These vultures are driving to every small pharmacy and clearing out all the masks and sanitizer. Now that Amazon & EBay have cracked down on reseller gouging, some are sitting on stockpiles through the midst of a pandemic. * https://www.nytimes.com./2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-p...
Why don't the pharmacies raise their own prices 20x before the scalpers can get to them? The answer is probably, "they don't want to get slapped by gouging laws." So in essence this is a prohibition scenario where lawful providers don't want to touch the situation and unlawful people fill the gap.
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#64Price isn't just the cost of buying something, it's the reward for producing it. If we see too many price gouging laws, then you can expect shortages as companies find themselves unable to justify extreme measures that would otherwise increase production (at great expense). Secondly, I would expect that localities with price gouging laws will discover that their goods are being re-routed to other places without those…
Yep. A much better way to alleviate shortages would be to suspend sales taxes.
I don't think someone saying "oh look, I saved 10 cents" is going to stop price gouging. As much use as a chocolate fire guard.
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#65From an economics stand point, I don't understand why the government should ban price-gouging. Doesn't this place an artificial price ceiling that will ensure a shortage of goods? I would personally rather stores have items such as food/water at marked-up prices than not at all.
From a political standpoint, I see the point. Price gouging makes people extremely mad, and it redirects goods from poor people to wealthy people. When tempers are already fraying and maintaining social order is already difficult because of an emergency, the last thing a government needs is a nucleus for lots of pissed-off people to rally around. Remember that the first priority of any government is to keep itself in…
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Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#66Price isn't just the cost of buying something, it's the reward for producing it. If we see too many price gouging laws, then you can expect shortages as companies find themselves unable to justify extreme measures that would otherwise increase production (at great expense). Secondly, I would expect that localities with price gouging laws will discover that their goods are being re-routed to other places without those…
This isn’t the companies being punished - it’s the opportunists. These vultures are driving to every small pharmacy and clearing out all the masks and sanitizer. Now that Amazon & EBay have cracked down on reseller gouging, some are sitting on stockpiles through the midst of a pandemic. * https://www.nytimes.com./2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-p...
Amazon and eBay banned all sales, regardless of price. Anyone relying on those platforms to sell products is stuck.
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would rather the price 10x if it means people can buy toilet paper, than have it be unavailable to all. But I am thinking rationally rather than emotionally.
Take face masks, that front line medical workers don't have, that their procurement offices won't let them buy for 10x - we are all screwed if all our nurses are sick. You are basically saying "I am ok pricing limited necessary resources up to where only I and people as rich as me can afford them".
I'm in favor of attacking poverty directly, e.g. with UBI, rather than conscripting private sellers to act as an inefficient ad-hoc welfare system.
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, that is an an argument. It's just not terribly convincing if you don't already subscribe to the idea that markets are always right, externalities be damned.
High prices induce production that would not have occurred otherwise. They also curve demand downwards so that only those who really want the item will get it. There is little reason to outlaw price gouging save for humans have a disgust response to people who profit from tragic events. Absent these laws, there would be incentive to create stockpiles of needed items before a disaster and retool less-efficient factori…
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Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#69From an economics stand point, I don't understand why the government should ban price-gouging. Doesn't this place an artificial price ceiling that will ensure a shortage of goods? I would personally rather stores have items such as food/water at marked-up prices than not at all.
Here’s some price gouging:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-pu...
Banning that is not going to have any effect on production.
Re: $5000 per violation of price-gouging in CA
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's just poor reasoning on multiple levels: it assumes supply, the argument that it prevents hoarding misses that as prices are driven up the incentive to hold increases, and it overlooks that some populations night need the good immediately so real harm is being done. The gain is personal, the harm is social, this is ethics 101 and solipsistic pseudo-libertarion reasoning doesn't make it right.
>solipsistic pseudo-liberation reasoning Basic economics is solipsistic pseudo-liberation reasoning now?
Only if wrongly applied.