<story><title>Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong</title><url>https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/04/11/many-economists-defend-disaster-profiteers-they-are-wrong</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>patmcc</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s very interesting to me that (nearly) everyone agrees that reselling disaster supplies like masks, hand sanitizer, etc. for a large profit is terrible, but somehow selling literal essentials like food, housing, and healthcare for profit is just fine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mywittyname</author><text>The economy needs to have good sold at a profit.   It seems to be the best way to ensure that people, as a group, make and sell the things that need to be made and sold, and in appropriate quantities.  It&amp;#x27;s not perfect, as there are plenty of inefficiencies, but it&amp;#x27;s a very good model.&lt;p&gt;There are a number of problems with price gouging.  First, it isn&amp;#x27;t helpful, everyone already knows there&amp;#x27;s a shortage of critical supplies, and increasing the price by several multiples isn&amp;#x27;t going to help make more products faster.&lt;p&gt;Second, it encourages bubbles.  People will begin to purchase items that are in short supply specifically to resell them later at a higher price.  This actively prevents critical supplies from reaching people in a timely fashion, which can and does result in preventable deaths.&lt;p&gt;Third, it threatens social stability in stressful times.  The people hording supplies are at risk of causing violent encounters with those who need them.  And a shootout or riot is the last thing we need right now.&lt;p&gt;Overall, I think it&amp;#x27;s pretty easy to see why people oppose price gouging.  I&amp;#x27;m honestly surprised anyone would defend such actions.</text></comment>
<story><title>Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong</title><url>https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/04/11/many-economists-defend-disaster-profiteers-they-are-wrong</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>patmcc</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s very interesting to me that (nearly) everyone agrees that reselling disaster supplies like masks, hand sanitizer, etc. for a large profit is terrible, but somehow selling literal essentials like food, housing, and healthcare for profit is just fine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>taneq</author><text>What&amp;#x27;s being decried here is reselling &lt;i&gt;essential disaster supplies at a large profit&lt;/i&gt;, not just being part of a supply chain. The key words are &amp;#x27;essential disaster supplies&amp;#x27; (ie. things that we suddenly have a large inelastic demand for) and &amp;#x27;at a large profit&amp;#x27; (ie. taking advantage of an adverse situation to price gouge).&lt;p&gt;Your local supermarket making 30% on loaves of bread isn&amp;#x27;t doing either of these things. Healthcare is the closest to fitting the bill, if we&amp;#x27;re talking about the U.S., and you guys should look into that even without a pandemic as impetus.</text></comment>