Price Gouging image http://rexcurry.net/price-gouging-rexcurrydotnet.jpg
As an attorney, I am asked if laws against “price gouging” are wise (or
constitutional). Laws against price gouging have rarely been litigated,
because the laws are almost impossible to enforce (and that is good).
The extent to which anti-gouging laws are enforced is the extent to which
the laws cause hoarding, shortages, poverty, misery and even mass death.
There is no such thing as “price gouging,” and the pedestrians
who condemn it never define it, and that is why every anti-gouging law is
different. That is why the comments that follow are not intended
as legal advice, and each reader should consult his own laws and lawyers.
Laws offer various ways for free people to sell their property freely, and
to charge whatever they wish, whenever they wish.
The following issues provide areas to examine:
1. “Gouge” before a “state of emergency” is declared.
(Some anti-gouging laws only apply after a politician declares a “state
of emergency.”) Beat your stupid Governor to the punch and raise
your prices before he declares an "emergency." Some laws might not ban
"gouging" so long as the price increased before the emergency was declared.
In this way, people who support anti-gouging laws will have to pay higher
prices even sooner. The anti-capitalists will have achieved the opposite
of what they intended.
2. “Gouge” after a “state of emergency” is dropped.
In other words, hoard goods. Hold goods to sell later. In this
way, people who support anti-gouging laws will force themselves to go without
for longer. Hoarding also avoids “price gouging” accusations or even
theft from greedy socialists.
3. “Gouge” outside of the specified area.
In this way, people who support anti-gouging laws force themselves to drive
farther to obtain your goods. People who are inside a "area of emergency"
and who are unable to buy needed items can help themselves by leaving the
area in order to buy goods at gouged prices just outside of the disaster
area. In this way, price gouging still provides goods, and saves lives,
and defeats the government's evil acts.
4. Use the internet or online auctions to offer goods
for sale. Some laws might not apply to online sales, especially if the
agreement is made with someone outside of the specified area. This method
can also require the buyer to arrange for his own delivery or pick-up.
5. Auctions might avoid some anti-gouging laws.
A seller might drive into an area with a truck load of goods and invite offers
from interested buyers who set their own “gouge” price by bidding against
other buyers. In this way the seller does not offer goods for a “gouge”
price.
6. Barter. A seller can avoid setting any monetary
price and can ask buyers to offer barter in exchange. A barter exchange
is of no specific “price” or is of unclear value. With barter
the buyer will set his own “gouged” price via trade.
Remember that anti-capitalists believe that every free
person is a “hoarder” who deprives the world of his property. Anti-capitalists
believe that everyone is a “gouger” because every free market price is “gouging”
that deprives the world of his property.
Government is the only true form of “price gouging” and
“hoarding” and in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the People’s Republic
of China, and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the socialist
trio) it caused trademark shortages, poverty, misery, starvation and mass
murder. They were the worst hoarders and price-gougers ever.
DEFEATING
THOSE WHO SUPPORT ANTI-GOUGING LAWS byRex Curry Attorney At Law
