you can't make this faux shit up: In praise of 'price gouging'

[spanone]

In praise of 'price gouging'

from asshole john stossel

Desperate New Jersey drivers wait in long lines to buy gasoline. One line was two miles long.
The media blame “a lack of electricity” and report that “Governor Christie has acted to boost supplies of gasoline…by directing Treasury officials to waive licensing requirements that affect merchants’ ability to buy fuel from out-of-state suppliers.”

That would help, but Christie would help more if he could suspend New Jersey’s foolish law forbidding price increases of more than 10% during an “emergency,” and if he’d apologize for bragging that the state will crack down on price “gouging!”

Complaining about greedy profiteers is probably politically smart. But if you're one of the people the law "protects," you won't fare as well.

What politicians call “gouging” is just the free market. When markets are allowed to work their magic, lines disappear. The high price is a big flag planted in the ground that says, “Hey, come over here and make money.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/01/in-praise-price-gouging/#ixzz2B1rwCti0

[Honeycombe8]

1. Disgusting. Hey, you with the starving kid, here's a can of beans for $500! nt

[spanone]

2. this is some twisted damn logic

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. John Stasshole is one of the worst of the Randroid talking heads.

He's been a douche since forever and he's only getting worse.

[upi402]

4. Stossel calling Christie a socialist? Salvador Dali on acid...

couldn't come up with this twisted spindly crapola from that tight-ass full of shit Stossel.

[spanone]

5. douchemania... i can't believe they would print such horseshit....but, it is faux

[SomethingFishy]

6. There is a radio host in Denver named Mike Rosen

who used to go on the air and rail against people who fought for the "little guy" and the "underdog". He just couldn't figure out what the attraction was to the little guy and the underdog. He would spend entire segments telling his audience why they should worship the "overdog".

They live in a different world than we do. Money is their god, it's what they believe in and what they worship. They are so cold that it confuses them when they see people acting selflessly. When they see someone reaching out they think the right thing to do is either walk away or kick the hand.

Yesterday Romney said this in Tampa:

"We love all of our fellow citizens. We come together at times like this, and we want to make sure that they have a speedy and quick recovery from their financial and, in many cases, personal loss."

His first thought is financial loss. It is so ingrained that they don't even know they are doing it. It's kind of sad really, it must be a miserable existence to live only for yourself.

[Honeycombe8]

10. I caught that, too! That Rmoney mentioned FINANCIAL loss first. Was wondering if anyone else did.nt

[meadowlark5]

7. I remember seeing Stossel talk about FEMA years ago

That dickhead has a house on the coast and said he's had his house rebuilt by FEMA and will continue to build in the same spot because he knows FEMA will just rebuild it for him again. Fucker. Talks about the free market and government regulation but he's more than happy to take that FEMA money to rebuild his mansion.

[svpadgham]

8. He needs to be visited by David Schultz again.

[link:

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[BlackHoleSon]

11. God - I could watch that all day :)

n/t

[BlueSpot]

9. This may have been inspired by an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal

Edited to try (fail) to fix the link!

Written by Holman Jenkins and published Oct. 30, 2012. The link is here [link:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204840504578087072405774176.html|
but it is locked for subscriptions.

OK the link doesn't show. I don't know why not but you can find the snippet below at www.wsj.com

The opinion linked by the OP is essentially the same as the editorial - that price gouging is a good thing in that it imposes control on consumers who would otherwise be unable to control themselves. It was the usual convoluted logic of the WSJ opinion page.

Hurricane Sandy not only confronted businesses with biblical helpings of wind and rain. Many had to ask themselves whether they wanted to be perceived as price gougers.

The choice, by and large, was not whether to play nice or whether to surrender to the urge of shameless profiteering. The choice was whether to confront customers with empty shelves or make it possible for everyone to find what he came for at a price.

At one New Jersey supermarket, shoppers barely paused for a public loudspeaker announcement urging them to buy only the provisions needed for a couple of days of ...

[jmowreader]

12. Lines disappear because no one can afford your goods

In the "old days" before retailers had contingency supply plans set up, price gougers set their prices prohibitively high to stretch their days of supply.

These days we have at least five common carriers with over 7500 trucks each, and a national retailer with at least that many trucks. Every major retail chain has plans in place to deal with a catastrophe. In short, it costs little more to do disaster capitalism than the regular kind, and you can deduct the added costs from your taxes. There is also no big problem with receiving resupply: a semi with two 100-gallon tanks (most of them) can deliver into the hurricane area with the fuel it's carrying, the driver can sleep where he always does, and the National Guard's priority on the roads is getting trucks through.

In short, tell me what these people are on so I can warn impressionable Idaho youth against trying it.