The laws of economics are not suspended in an emergency, no matter what the laws of politicians attempt to do. When goods are more scarce, they will be costly to obtain, whether those costs are in terms of money or something else. The importance of letting market prices do their job and determining who gets what is that this process is also the way in which we make sure that there is stuff to be allocated in the first place. The only way to make sure we have sufficient production is to let market prices determine consumption.
In short, whatever you thought about George Zimmerman before, you still think of him now. That seems to be about par for this course; people formed opinions very early, and by a few days after the story broke, those opinions were pretty much inalterable. People claimed to be basing their opinions on the facts, but many of those facts were bogus. Either they were erroneous reports that had been disproved (Trayvon Martin beat up a homeless guy; George Zimmerman had no injuries and told the dispatcher that Martin was suspicious because he was black), or they were fairly extreme extrapolation of stuff that did happen.
Cargo cult: a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults focus on obtaining the material wealth (the “cargo”) of the advanced culture through magic and religious rituals and practices. This same magical thinking is evident in modern cargo cults found in welfare states where it commonly manifests as statolatry, celebrity “wisdom,” higher ed credentialism, doublespeak, increased centralization, prohibition, crony capitalism, nannyism, denigration of the individual and individual liberty, and a sycophantic press. Continue reading ‘Markers of Success, Cargo Cults, Statolatry’ »
If you oppose “price gouging,” then you think that there is something magical, something mystical, about the price charged a week ago, when there were plenty of gas stations and people didn’t really need gas because they didn’t need to run generators and they could ride the subway. For some reason, that price then, which was the result of VERY different circumstances in terms of both availability from suppliers and value to users, is the “correct” price.
I have never understood that argument. Let me just admit that. There is nothing special about that price. There are fewer places to buy gas now, and more people need gas, really really need it.
So, even if I concede everything you want to argue, folks, the anti-gouging law is still dumb. It still costs people as much, or more, to get gas. They just pay in time instead of money. And nobody gets the value of the time, it’s wasted. Do you really believe that those folks standing in line don’t have better things to do?
