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 Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla
It all sounds like it requires communication across the market that would not exist during a typhoon.
edit: And if your distributing generators and you hear a typhoon hit somewhere, I'm sure you'll suspect some increased market demand. You don't have to hear the price to generate the same response.
Well, I'm sure Dasani is always happy to have an uptick in water sales, even at the pre-disaster price, you're correct that there will be "some increased market demand." But it would never be the same response. It would be a weaker response. Supply and demand are simply far more responsive to one another in a free market than in a price-controlled market. I'm not sure how that is even arguable. Less incentive = less response and greater delay.
I feel like your "dude a typhoon just hit" rebuttal is trolling a bit. Most of the gouging happens days prior to disasters in the case of hurricanes/typhoons. The weather reports a 50% chance of severe storms and here come the water bottle nuts. They buy like 8 cases of water and 20 flashlights. When gouging is prohibited, all the stores are bought out of flashlights, water, and canned food right away. Not prohibiting gouging makes this problem less likely and provides a strong incentive for increased supply. The end result is that people are by and large more prepared for the disaster if and when it happens. Really the only negative here is that the poor people who truly cannot afford the initial gouge price have to wait a while for the price to subside to an affordable level.
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