Capitalism is freedom. Anything else is not.
You're right. An area in a state of emergency in the immediate aftermath of a Catgory 4 hurricane isn't really freedom.
Well gee, now I find myself agreeing with you. ;)
I wonder what they'd do if the people with the stuff that people wanted to buy would either 1) flat out refuse to sell it, or 2) agree to sell it, but only sell it via a salesman known as "the local auctioneer"?
Are they gonna outlaw auctions?
That would be quite a line in the sand for a lot of people. It would easly push some folks (i.e., "me") into category #1, i.e., "sorry, it ain't for sale."
Now, that said, I've no sympathy for the SOBs who renegged on contracted prices, canceled reserved hotel rooms so that they could jack up the price and sell 'em again for more money, and stuff like that.
But for simple "I have it, you want it, let's see what the market will bear" scenarios, the ones who should be prosecuted are the ones harassing the sellers.
I heard something out the corner of my ear, it was some "irate indignant instant expert" railing against some greedy "profiteer" who was selling a small generator (about 4KW, give or take), for about $700.
Excuse me?
I paid a lot more than that for my 4KW Generac -- in NON-crisis situation (I walked into the store and bought one out of the huge stack of cartons -- on sale!)
Sounds to me like someone was selling generators at a bargain price, and some self-righteous IDIOT who didn't know kilowatts from shinola decided to start screeching about "profiteering", probably tossing the poor bastard into a world of hurt, and teaching him a lesson he'll never forget (as in, "no good deed shall go unpunished.")
Wanna bet the next time mother nature takes a crap on Florida, there'll be at least one less guy driving down there with a load of generators to sell at a discount?
Every time there's something that demonstrates the sheer stupidity of mass numbers of people (what, me, prepare? For disaster? But, that would cost me some of mah beer money!"), the "public sector" is there, ready, willing, and able to "punish" anyone who "profiteers" (i.e., braves the elements, gambles with his OWN money, and brings in supplies that the idiots COULD have purchased any time before the not-unexpected disaster hit).
The same BS happened when they had the big ice storm in upstate NY. They prosecuted people for selling generators, at what I recall being not unreasonable prices. That seems to be a favorite of the tinhorn demi-dictators. There must be something about small gensets that upsets the cockroaches in their heads or something.
IMO a guy would be wise to roll into town with his own licensed auctioneer in tow, ready to set up a by-the-books bona fide auction, and let the petty despots stew in their own swill.