In a free market, when demand rises faster than supply, prices rise to dampen that demand, ensuring stores remain stocked. Laws against price gouging cause shortages. I appreciate that a price gouger secured for me and sold to me a bottle of Lysol spray for 10x the store price. Had he not done that, I’d still have $25 in my pocket, but no Lysol to disinfect my home with. The remedy to the ills of socialism is not more socialism, but free markets.
Price Gouging Laws Are Good Politics But Bad Economics
Anti-price gouging laws may protect consumers from higher prices in times when natural disasters or other market disruptions cause a shortage of some good or service, but they also prevent those same consumers from benefiting from increased supply that would have been spurred by the opportunity to e…