Gouging is not a conservative value, either. It's like the @sshats that sell water for $20 a bottle after a storm. They are scum.
Gouging is not a conservative value, either. It's like the @sshats that sell water for $20 a bottle after a storm. They are scum.
I agree. They are scum. Only slightly scummier, in fact, than those who go running to government to regulate them. I had rather pay 20 dollars a bottle for water and curse the guy who exploits, than die of thirst because some idiot halfwit decided the guy couldn't sell it at all because he might overcharge. The difference is that the market approach WILL CORRECT ITSELF. The bleeding heart idiot approach just allows the leviathan a door in the market. Once it gets in, it never leaves. Your response reminds me of some of the lugubrious wails about how the big oil companies were "ripping us off" after Katrina.
The difference between a socialist and a free marketer is NOT that the free market person believes that buyers or sellers are noble, selfless giving people and that you shoudl trust them because they are such sterling characters. Rather, believers in freedom and free markets believe that the BEST way to reign in exploiters, "gougers," and others who would "exploit" others is to allow any and all to compete with them. The reason is that government regulation of prices NEVER has any effect other than to cause shortages. No, let me take that back. It does cause idiot moralists and bureaucrats to preen and posture that they have "protected" the populace.
I am convinced. Lets just do away with all that confusing stuff about markets and freedom and all.... we can just trust the state officials to find a "fair" price for everything, shall we? If we can trust them in a crisis, then why not in stable times?