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| Originally Posted by team player Admin..I have to disagree with you here....being from Florida where there are hurricanes, price gouging should not be encouraged. However, what many do fail to understand is that price gouging is really only looked at when the items in question are NECESSARY for general living (i.e. food, shelter, clothing, etc.). The last time I checked, you didn't need a rental car to survive. The price hike between Christmas and New Years is simple supply and demand. You don't want to pay 129.00/day for a Tahoe? fine the next guy in line will. I can't say that I agreed with this, but when I was with the company it wasn't frowned upon that my avg daily rate was over 45/day (it helped my paycheck). I almost made 60,000 that year! whoa not bad for working almost 80 week!! not!!! |
"Price gouging" is a politically loaded term, typically used by people who don't want to have to pay a market price. And defining what's "necessary" for living is very squirrely. Someone could easily claim that without their promised rental car, they can't go food shopping, or pick up their kids, or evacuate, or whatever. As soon as you cordon off some goods or services as being "too important" to let the market set the price, then it doesn't take long before just about everything has a lobby demanding what they buy be included.
I stand by my argument. Ice costs $5/bag after a hurricane? Put the word out, and I guarantee people will stock up on ice before the next hurricane and people will rush from neighboring counties with truckloads full of the stuff.
All other things being equal, markets do this much better than legislators. Rather than protect us from market prices we don't like, I'd much rather see us protected from real harm, like lying to your customers and pulling a bait-and-switch.