Re:How Puerto Rico Became a Tax Haven for the Super Rich
by Spooky23 on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @06:51AM
(#18023266)
The bizarre libertarian point of view that you are arguing with says that poor people have the freedom to not be poor, and should be happy to sell all of their earthly possessions so a hero selling $100 bottles of water can be compensated for his bravery.
We all have a moral duty to use our franchise as citizens to keep these points of view out of government.
Re:How Puerto Rico Became a Tax Haven for the Super Rich
by repiret on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:24AM
(#18024829)
But we have that problem as a capitalist society with or without “price gouging”. And we have a solution for that problem too – charities and the government giveaway or subsidize essentials for people who can’t afford them.
If we allow the price of water to rise when supply is constrained, people who can afford the higher prices will use water more conservatively and board less, and people will still give it away to those who can’t afford to buy it. But people won’t have to wait in line all day to get their ration of water, and there will be incentives to create temporary channels to improve the supply of water even if those channels couldn’t be supported by the normal price of water.
If a poor family only has $500 to their name and has to spend $100 to buy water just to survive, they've blown 20% of their total networth just to survive. A middle-class family spending $100 of 15,000 is far more likely to not be affected.
It's hard for me to understand how many people on HN can't fathom that price gouging affects the people most hurt by disasters. I don't care if price gouging means you'd gather up more supplies and head to a disaster zone because you're still taking drastic advantage of the poor for personal profit. Countries like Japan don't pull this same shit, so it's too bad that we rationalize our greed as being 'for the greater good'.