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I can see how some people would conclude that if my family just went through a hurricane, and power is down, and we have no electricity to provide A/C, light, fans, etc, that we'd be better off sweating in the dark. It's better to be miserable than to be allowed to engage in commerce with an entrepreneur who can provide me the goods I need, but rightfully expects to enjoy a profit for his effort and risk.

My son called me from a Midwest state during the hurricane and asked if I thought it would be a good idea for him to purchase a truckload of generators and drive down to Mississippi and sell them. Of course, he expected to make money on each sale.

I told him "no," and warned him that the government has now decided that commerce during a disaster should be curtailed, and that engaging in capitalism in a disaster area could land him in jail.

Victims of these disasters are too stupid to decide for themselves if they'd prefer to pay a couple hundred dollars above store price for a generator, rather than do without power because the stores were either wrecked, closed, or didn't have any generators available.
This is a great example of how government adds to the misery of disaster.
By the way, I've lived through this. I live in the western FL panhandle, and I've seen this stupidity first hand.

The Florida law about gouging explicitly creates an out for the cost of acquisition of the items being sold. Nobody's ever expected to sell for less than what they had expended to acquire and get the item there. Your son included. I'm amazed you know nothing about that.

Price regulation by government leads to two things and ONLY two things:

1) shortages

2) a feeling of smug satisfaction among halfwits who have no understanding of how markets work but only know that they resent the "big guys" taking advantage.

Evidently,2) above is sufficient moral justification to allow 1) above to exist....., at least in the minds of some posturing politicians and the airheads who listen to them.