Gouging. So what. And your point is?

That should be the answer from ANY free market supporter.

This comes down to a value for value. Here is an example and this plays across ALL products and services.

Date: Aug. 15th, 2005, I buy a 25 kw Genset for my house and have it installed for $4,800.00.
My neighbor said WOW lots of money there.
Date: Aug 31, 2005 (Katrina), Same Genset install $18,800.00 for same day install. Neighbor has 3 Freezers with 50k of meat stored and whines about gouging because the meat is going to rot.

What is the problem there is a value for value, and a price to be paid for lack of preparation.

Could the Genset company do it for $4,800.00. Sure but why should they, this guy wants it done next day. Value for Value.

Don't think the price charge offers enough value, then do not pay simple as that.

It goes for Internet providers, cell phone plans, anything at all. Value for Value.. What the market will bear.

Perhaps we can use the public's knee jerk reaction to the term price gouging to an advantage - try to apply the term to some government items...

Government Price gouging:
1. US Passport cost (a requirement for travel anywhere now)
2. National Park road only access
(getting through a Sierra Nevada pass via Yosemite is a good example - well, except that it is in California...)
3. Cost of earning a wage (SS, Medicare, and income taxes)
4. Cost of welfare state and federal pensions

just a start - since the gov't has a monopoly on just about everything it participates in the list is endless.

My problem with this article is not its conclusions, but its assumptions. The author does not suggest that it is immoral to take away people's property rights. The Founders understood that property rights are the key to freedom and the failure to uphold them is slavery - pure and simple.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Beacon Plumbing (Seattle Area) charging me $9000 to drill a new water line from the street to the house. I figured it was still better that digging up my fairly new paver driveway. I also figure it was price gouging because we didn't have water in the house. I know I won't ever use them again. I guess they have to pay for their Sea Fair Hydro racing boat somehow, but I didn't know I was going to buy that much of it..

Well, all that's true enough. But if people don't
recognize individual rights, you're probably not go-
ing to convince them with an economic theory, no
matter what and how much evidence you have on your side.
It should be easy and simple enough, if peop-
le were taught the right kind of morality: you
have the right to live your own life for your own
sake, how you see fit, as long as you do not
violate the same right in someone else; so if
you have a service or a product you want to sell,
you should be allowed to sell it for as high a
price as you want to demand, provided you can
get somebody else to pay it.--People who do
not recognize this principle will probably not
be convinced, by any amount of evidence, of the
law of supply and demand.

There are several things to be considered when looking at the pricing for a product or service.

#1. The value of the item to the customer at the time of purchase
#2. Existence of competing products and their prices
#3. Government rules/regulations affecting those prices (i.e. subsidies or taxes/regulations)
#4. Customer relations

In general, #4 is what people forget about. If you're only in it to make a quick buck, you never consider #4 at all. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. Until you try to keep your business in business. It's been shown in business studies that it costs 20x the amount to get a new customer that it takes to retain an existing one. So the savvy business person knows that they aren't just selling a product or service, but a relationship.

What people are really complaining about with "price gouging" is either one of two things: Customers feel like the business is looting them by preventing the development of a long-term relationship, or the customers themselves are the looters because have an unreasonable evaluation of the value of the product/service in the first place. This is what a good salesman understands and where they are able to successfully tweak each side to form a mutual agreement where both are satisfied.

Whenever I hear the term "price gouging" it makes my skin crawl. After the BP oil spill, gas prices across the southeast rose incredibly fast; so fast that the republican governors in both Florida and Georgia made it their mission to seek out and prosecute anyone guilty of price gouging. The same situation occurred after the hurricanes battered Florida in 2005; no hotel was allowed to charge more than their normal rates or they would be fined for price gouging. Therefore, you had singles, couples and small families acquiring several rooms for themselves at the normal rate, which left many without shelter because the law of supply and demand had been artificially disrupted. I would have gladly reserved all the rooms at the Inn if I could have turned around and doubled my money by subletting them.

I was about to object based on the title until I read the content of the article. :)

Yes, "price gouging" prevents surplus demand, i.e. shortages. Someone here had a nice quote about if you find you have to lower prices you're "dumping" and if you find you have to raise price b/c you can't hande the demand you're "gouging" Either way, they're condemning you for producing.

"all the traffic will bear" should be any enterpriser's motto --
if she can keep the government from getting in the way!!! -- j
.

The article is written on a very basic level, intended for people with minimal education. Unfortunately, that is the best that can be achieved in today's public "school" uneducated Amerika - anything else will be over the audience's head. The re-education process needs to start from scratch and things need to be explained that were clear to grade school students a generation ago.

A person being interviewed from Luxotica the company that owns Lenscrafters was questioned about the huge mark-up on eyeglass frames they sell, he replied that the items were worth as much as someone is willing to pay.