Former consumer advocate turned ultra-right corporate shill John Stossel recently shared his thoughts on the price gouging that occurred in the Gulf Coast area in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
In praise of price gouging (full article)
John Stossel
September 7, 2005
[...]
Consider
this scenario: You are thirsty -- worried that your baby is going to
become dehydrated. You find a store that's open, and the storeowner
thinks it's immoral to take advantage of your distress, so he won't
charge you a dime more than he charged last week. But you can't buy
water from him. It's sold out.
You
continue on your quest, and finally find that dreaded monster, the
price gouger. He offers a bottle of water that cost $1 last week at an
"outrageous" price -- say $20. You pay it to survive the disaster.
You
resent the price gouger. But if he hadn't demanded $20, he'd have been
out of water. It was the price gouger's "exploitation" that saved your
child.
In
the days following Katrina, cable news presented loop after loop of
hurricane survivors obtaining essentials from grocery stores and other
establishments. Reporters and all sorts of television talking
heads condemned these actions as “looting.” Little mention
was given to the institutionalized inequities that have created a
desperate situation amongst the lower levels of America’s socioeconomic
strata — a situation that existed long before anyone had ever heard of
Hurricane Katrina. Stossel’s promotion of hyper-exploitative
price gouging in the aftermath of a natural disaster is simply adding
insult to injury.
Now,
don’t expect too much from Mr. Stossel, the self-proclaimed “scourge of
the liberal media.” I remember watching Stossel’s appearance on “The Daily Show”
in which he proclaimed that the “robber barons” of 19th century were
basically a group of good, well-intentioned and upstanding
Americans. An amazing interpretation of history, even from a
conservative standpoint, isn’t it? And how about his so-called “Stossel Rule?”
This kernel of wisdom states: “For every law you pass, you repeal two
old ones.” I guess that’s what we’ve been missing for so
long...Arbitrary rules formulated by self-absorbed television
personalities. Surely this will protect the interests and
livelihoods of the little people, eh?
But
maybe Stossel is not so arbitrary in his analysis of commodity
exchange. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps
he can show us the “invisible hand” that’s guiding the gougers.
He revisits his scenario and explains just how and why that $20 bottle
of water (and the price gouger) saved your baby:
It
saved her because people look out for their own interests. Before you
got to the water seller, other people did. At $1 a bottle, they stocked
up. At $20 a bottle, they bought more cautiously. By charging $20, the
price gouger makes sure his water goes to those who really need it.
The
people the softheaded politicians think are cruelest are doing the most
to help. Assuming the demand for bottled water was going to go up, they
bought a lot of it, planning to resell it at a steep profit. If they
hadn't done that, that water would not have been available for the
people who need it the most.
Or perhaps those who “stocked up” might share it with their neighbors and charge nothing at all! Perish the thought! Let’s wrap this up with a parting thought from John “Give Me a Break” Stossel:
It's the price "gougers" who bring the water, ship the gasoline, fix the roof, and rebuild the cities. The price "gougers" save lives.
No,
Mr. Stossell...It’s not the gougers that “bring the water, ship the
gasoline, fix the roof, and rebuild the cities.” It’s the working people of the world
who do all these things and more. And the gougers simply leech
off working people by forcing them to pay inflated prices for the same
goods that they produced, hauled and distributed.
Are
the price gougers heroes? It certainly is a unique perspective,
I’ll grant that much to Mr. Stossel. Perhaps he can throw a
parade for the gougers...It’s not likely that anyone will show,
though. Who could afford the confetti? I’m sure it would be
around $30 a bag if you have to buy it from a gouger. But on the
positive side, I suppose we’d end up with a lifesaving surplus of
confetti on hand.
The
truth of the matter is, those who hoard essentials in times of crisis
and then demand exorbitant prices from the sick and suffering are not
heroes at all. It is far more accurate to say that these people are the
very bane of humanity. And surely the advocates of such extortion
and exploitation are their partners in crime.
Recommended Reading:
What is Economics? by Rosa Luxemburg
Give Me a Break blog entry from greekmangas.net
