Sigh.
How do we all rise above the level and the shackles of "enlightened selfishness" being so bewitchingly preached here by some, though not under those precise words comprising the name.
I guess a start, is not to argue on its terms any more.
(Yes, this is a duplicate to what I said on the other post.)
A large part of the problem is that "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Economics is NOT a comprehensive worldview of man. When you try to view man through nothing but economics, you get weird distortions. It's a sociological and spiritual truth, and pointed up especially in a disaster, man is not created to carry on his affairs like the proverbial "herd of cats" each one looking out chiefly for his own interests. Man is created so that if one suffers, all suffer together, and the one who refuses is pariah. This will not always produce an optimum "economic" result, which means that how man was created is wrong in a solely economic world view. But God can't be wrong. So the economist must realize that he does not possess the keystone wisdom to mankind.
Given the power with which community pressure deals with this issue, I would actually advocate scaling back any anti-gouging law to require only (1) that gouged customers be reimbursed; (2) public shaming of the offenders i.e. publication of incidents and offenders in a list in major newspapers. Nothing more; let community pressure do what it will.
How do we all rise above the level and the shackles of "enlightened selfishness"
We could all become Amish farmers. They pretty much do things your way. The Amish community is their fire, disaster, and health insurance policy. When someone's house burns down, the others come running and rebuild it in three days. And it is all done voluntarily.
The trouble is, we aren't Amish farmers. We rely on free enterprise. And if we outlaw free enterprise by force of law we will not become Amish farmers -- we will become the Soviet Union.
I see nothing "compassionate" in your desire to control your neighbor's property to accomplish your own ends.
It's very much like what Democrats do every day.
A principle you abandon at the first sign of trouble is no principle at all.
Freedom must be preserved even in the worst of times. It's not a commodity to be rationed only when skies are clear.
I know we disagree and won't change each other's minds. But what you preach isn't compassion - it's compulsion. It's the very same as government welfare, rather than legitimate charity.
I'll have none of it.