Yep, agree. It is the seller's right to sell at whatever price he or she wants. It is the buyer's right to buy or not buy.
Its an important part of understanding the principles Austrian Economics. Feel free to ask any questions.
Price gouging is only possible when government supports and protects it. Other then that it is not a problem in a free market
Who knows how many losses a buyer has had to whether on his pathway to make a profit for once. Dosen't matter if your a worker or a businessman, we all often experience periods of time when our gross profits don't cover our expenses, thus we generate a net loss. It is apathetic a best for a critic to assert their own time frames on other indivduals and to dictate that they are gouging profit, when in all likely hood, they are simply survivors, making a little hay while the sun shines for once.
This whole idea is predicated on the western intollerance to personal discomfort and hardship. The lower your choice of 'standards of living' that you can tollerate (assuming the taxes dont destroy your savings) the more 'capital' you accumulate over times of non-hardship. Preparedness and good stewardship would mitigate the risks of most crisis. But if the above circumstances were true.... surely the value of money to a person is LESS value than a daughter's life. The above dillema assumes some people want BOTH AND money and daughter...... but a 'moral' 'prudent' and 'wise' person would not have an internal dillema.... they would have an EITHER OR decisions and easily chose the life of their daughter.... and never miss the money enough to cry out to the government to make price gouging illegal in teh first place. (My effective paraphrase of the ten commandments) Worship God alone and learn from Him Dont aquire any idols or follow destructive ideas about society, god and people Dont be overly selfish and narcicistic and claim to have good moral ethics Have a day off each week and enjoy your family friends and community and forget work completely on that day Financially support your parents in their old age Dont murder anyone Dont destroy your own marriage, or anyone elses (no matter how strongly you think you feel) Dont take anything that doesnt belong to you (even if you find it, it has a rightful owner) Dont lie to people Dont set your mind to envy other peoples things, family and belongings It is this truth that makes Austrian economics a compatible and fitting economic system if your legal/political system is based upon Christian ethics. Austrian economics is condradictory to a Atheistic Marxist or Socialism Political/legal system.... Keynsian economics is a better fit for that dialectic relative collective morality.
Sorry missed the description under the subforum title... "General economic discussions" it's in the right section continue
OK: A bushfire has wiped out all the houses in a town but left the local supermarket intact. The townspeople survived because they sheltered at the local school next to the supermarket, but have no food or money as everything else got burnt. The supermarket has plenty of food for everybody but the supermarket owner insists everything now costs 5 times the usual price. Discuss the principles of Austrian Economics in this scenario.
One possible scenario there is you have several towns people who get together and they then just "take" the whole store and the store owner has two broken legs and there are no witnesses. People trying to rip other people off in times of crisis sort of annoys people. Another scenario is a month after the event the store has the windows smashed 13 times in a 30 day period, the store owner has his tires slashed and his car keyed. People boycott the store and the store owner goes broke. The local petrol station refuses to sell him fuel, the electrician who fixes his refrigeration units on all his freezers and fridges becomes to "busy" when his freezers break down or the fridge mechanic decides to charge a $1200.00 call out fee and charges a fee or $343.00 an hour plus GST. Never underestimate what a angry mob are capable of. A father who has hungry children and the price of food is now five times higher and he does not have enough cash to pay for food for his children - I know what I would be doing. Edit : dependant on which country you are in as well I know of one country in particular where they would just cut the store owners head off or shoot him. As the store owner I would be thinking what are the repercussions of my actions going to be.
Agree 100%^^^^People have long memories after a crisis..Happened right here in Bundaberg during and after the floods. If you are a smart businessman/woman, during a crisis, you do your best to help. The people won't forget and will support you after the event. If you Price Gouge in such circumstances, you won't remain in business after the tragedy. Regards Errol 43
Exactly, if you went to the store and the store owner throws you a packet of lollies and says give them to your kids, they are on the house that is the type of stuff people remember. Small gestures can bring big rewards, as you say people won't forget, things go both ways. You help someone in a time of need and in the future they will defend you to the death. Try and screw them over and you will have huge problems.
The free market ecomonists' view. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr5_049654Q[/youtube] For anyone advocating violence in a crisis, please watch, and curb your mean spiritedness.
People are often in danger of mixing up legal rights and morality on this issue. As alluded to in some of the posts above, this sort of morality should never be legislated and to do so will almost always have unintended side effects. The people around you will judge you by your actions.
Ridiculous hypothetical, what good is increasing prices 5 times if there is no money to buy the groceries? The fire victims would then be looked after by both government and charities. We as stackers all have some wealth yet we spend our time pontificating over how others should use their wealth. Always lead by example.
@Newtosilver, you support intimidation and the threat of violence against the shopkeeper because you believe your needs are greater than the shopkeeper. Basically you are saying you and your children are more important than anyone else, and therefore, you are entitled to purchase scarce resources below the market price. @errol, you are in agreement with him, by default you support the use of violence unfortunately - I believe however you could never condone violence in this scenario.
Well the video in the first post argues price gouging is not immoral. Guess the morality depends more on the views of the community being affected by the price gouging then.
