Sowell wrote: “What if prices were frozen where they were before all this happened?
Those who got to the hotel first would fill up the rooms and those who got there later would be out of luck — and perhaps out of doors or out of the community. At higher prices, a family that might have rented one room for the parents and another for the children will now double up in just one room because of the “exorbitant” prices. That leaves another room for someone else”
Maybe. But I ask why the fastest runner to the hotel should not have the room instead of the person with the bigger wallet? If rooms are four times the normal price the person with money can also rent two rooms, one for the kids and one for mom and dad. Maybe one for the pets too.
How is that any better than the poorer bloke renting two rooms? Or the fastest runner?
The higher price in an emergency certainly would benefit the hotel owner..the higher price might cause some to double up in one room if local laws allow it.
But what of the couple without children? It's just as cold outside for them as for the single guy with more money than them.
So “gouging” would benefit some and hurt others. It's just a matter of who we want to favor and why. That's why I say prices are a form of rationing and raising or lowering prices by any means always benefits some and harms others.
Well if its six to one, half a dozen to the other, why let the government be the arbitrator?
In my experience, its better to let the "invisible hand" rule.
Yes, his hotel example is not as good as the gasoline-generator example. A hurricane rising hotel room prices will not cause more hotels to be build unlike the gas-generator example.
But he still makes a valid point. If I have to pay 2X now what I would pay pre- hurricane then I have more incentive to share the room with others than I would if I got it cheap because I got on that three mile line before the others.
Yes, this requires unfairness. But nature is unfair. Why cant same sex couples naturally reproduce by having sex when we hetros can?
Then you and I get three other people and rent the room at five times what the price is and more than the rich guy offered and we fill it up with people, versus the one guy who got in line first.
NJ voters need to pass a law against ‘no vacancies’ and 'no gas' signs. That is what causes the real suffering.