Posted on 03/15/2020 1:51:13 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
The reason why you cannot find any toilet paper, hand sanitizer, or bleach anywhere is because of stupid anti-price gouging laws.
There is nothing evil or sinister about price gouging, and to even call it that is disingenuous swill.
You think toilet paper manufacturers are cheerfully going to call in employees and have them work double-shifts to produce more toilet paper out of charity? No, they're not. They are in a business to produce a good that makes them money. They are not going to sell their products at a loss.
Whenever natural disasters like Hurricanes hit, what's the first step idiotic leftist/RINOs Governors or Mayors do? They rail against price gouging and how businesses are taking advantage of a tragedy, including the obligatory camera shot of a Mother with her kids crying because they can't get that product. Well, guess what they're not telling you? THE LINES. THE WAITS. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, people waited for hours, days even, for things like gas and food.
Get rid of these anti-price gouging laws and make people pay what the market bears. This will stop the hoarding. This will encourage conservation. This will end the lines. Most importantly, this will bring more products into that specific market which WILL DRIVE THE PRICES DOWN.
I can't find toilet paper anywhere, and here in Green Bay we invented the damn product! No hand sanitizer, no Lysol or Clorox wipes, no bleach. Fortunately, out of sheer dumb luck, I bought some of these early in January and have enough to last a good month or so. But everyone else is freaking out!
Or retailers could simply limit buying to reasonable amounts.
So you can’t find toilet paper, and you believe anti-price gouging laws should be repealed....
Interesting....
So then you wouldn’t mind paying me $50 for a roll? I have plenty.
I completely agree. If prices are allowed to fluctuate such that supply will equal demand, this will stop people from adding to an already very large supply that they have at home, and they may even sell some of what they have to make a few dollars. All that laws like this do is put the government’s fingers into the private market place, which never causes a good result. It is the same old story of good intentions going bad, put forth by people that have not got a single clue about human nature or the laws of economics (which are, essentially, the same thing).
again, for the 8,000th time. IF YOU WANT TO DRIVE THE PRICE DOWN, LET PEOPLE “PRICE GOUGE.”
It is the most common sense thing in the world and documented a million times. The very act of people “price gouging” draws supply into the market. The lack of supply is why the price is driven up. The quest for a profit pulls people in, and the quest for big profits pulls people in faster, thus increasing supply and actually pushing prices down.
The idiots who are intent on “protecting” people from unscrupulous market makers are in fact harming them, as they make arbitrary decisions on what is a “fair” price (an idiotic notion in the first place), thus shutting off supply and creating further shortages.
In the mind of political posturers, and economic illiterates, it is better to have NO supply, and people without the ability to get what they need, than risk some person making “too much” money on a transaction.
Explain to me how this is one bit different than the moral reasoning behind communism...... I’ll wait.
“Or retailers could simply limit buying to reasonable amounts.”
I like that idea better than pharmacies charging $500 for a bottle of alcohol.
I would gladly pay you $50, or whatever price is agreed upon, for a roll of toilet paper. If I needed it though.
Ensure that stores are protected from lawsuits when limiting items purchased.
Set a price gouging ceiling at some reasonable percentage taking account of the probable cost of timely restocking. Perhaps double to triple the pre-emergency regular price.
Eliminate inventory taxes to encourage businesses to maintain larger stocks.
there aren’t more butts to wipe than there were before
TP panic is the stupidest thing ever
Or people can start making their own and drive demand down.
I have been pointing this out in multiple comments on each relevant thread I encounter. I am disheartened at the number of good Freepers who are all for free markets except when the prices they or think they must pay go up. They cannot grasp the concept that without a price rise to meet the market there will be no rapid new supply. I watched it work both ways after two hurricanes a few years apart. After the first one the greedy gougers rushed ice to the scene where the electricity was out and charged $50 a bag. More of those greedy gougers loaded up rented refrigerator trucks and rushed more ice down here and the price dropped rapidly as the market got supplied. The state heavily fined those it could identify and put a couple of them in jail. The next time a storm knocked out the electricity, no one ventured to take advantage of the prices people were willing to pay to prevent their food from thawing. It had to wait for the government to begin trucking in free ice and by the time the state trucks got here it wasn't much needed any more. All the frozen food had spoiled.
So you're walking around with a case of the mud-butt.
Thanks for sharing.
Families or groups would find a workaround for that, much sense as it makes. WWII there were ration books. I think this thing will run its course in such a fashion that TP will be available again within a week.
No. The reason for these things is that people INTENDING to gouge (largely before emergencies were declared and gouging laws even went into effect) bought ridiculous quantities CAUSING a shortage.
“Or people can start making their own and drive demand down.”
Rubbing alcohol? I suppose it would, depending on how many people have the knowledge and equipment to make it, market it, and distribute it.
Price controls of ANY kind have only ONE result: SHORTAGES.
You need to outlaw hoarding too. Hoarding breaks the marketplace when some people try to create localized monopolies.
Seriously, $50 for a roll of TP?
Just think of the alternatives that could be purchased for $50?
Like sand paper, wire brushes, steel wool, ice scrapers and others.
After cleaning with such things, the area could then be made coronavirus free by disinfecting with turpentine or gasoline.
Just trying to help.
Week after next I’ll be placing toilet paper (on sale) for $50,000 a roll
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