“Need a blanket, grandma? Need a light? $300!”
“But I don’t have $300.”
“Freeze in the dark, old woman!”
For the record I’m against anti-”gouging” nannyness, but I am also not a kneeler before a god of untrammeled capitalism. People do remember and karma can be a female dog.
If someone believed he could sell a blanket for $300, he and many others would bring in truckloads of blankets, and the increased supply would drive prices back down in short order. Instead, with “anti-gouging” laws, no one is incentivized to bring in blankets and there will be no more blankets available.