Price Gouging
Every time I see this term used during a catastrophic event, like the California fires going on right now, I immediately think how dumb that is. That governments stepping in to punish "price gouging" they are in fact interfering with the natural order of needs that will play out when people are able to pay as much as they want/can to get the critical things they need in crisis - food, water, shelter, etc.
For example, the people who need a place to stay the most will be willing to pay almost anything to ensure they don't have to stay up all night or sleep outside.
Image two families:
Family A: Lost their house to the fire, have a 3 young children - one with a medical condition exacerbated by smoke inhalation, an elderly parent who is in a stressed panic state, a pet cat in a crate, and they have no friends or family in the area to stay with.
Family B: Lost their house to the fire, have 2 adult children who live in another state, a pet bird in a cage, are exhausted and hungry but otherwise healthy, and have several close family members and friends within a few hours drive.
They both arrive at a Hampton Inn on the outskirts of town. Family B walks up to the desk first. There is only one room left. The front desk person says due to high demand, the price of the room is $1,200 per night. Family B hears this and decides that is way too much money to pay for 1 night at a Hampton Inn, so they decide to drive a couple more hours to stay with their cousins for free.
Family A, however, hears this and are overjoyed that they decided not to take the room and were more than willing to pay $1200 for that room. In fact, if that other family got the room, they were even willing to pay more to ensure they'll be able to keep that room for the next night, too.
Now imagine the government threatened severe penalties for places like the Hampton Inn for charging that much for a room. Since they have no reason to determine who needs the room the most, they would have just gone with first come first serve, and Family B would have gotten the only room available - forcing Family A to walk the streets all night looking for a resting place for the night.
But does this apply to all crises/disaster situations? With water? With And whaat about the people who don 't have the money? In LA, obviously there are people there who have lots more money than others, so does that mean only the rich people would be able to afford basic necessities like food, water, shelter? ...
But th...
