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A comment on Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong. Parent comment

Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong by Consultant32452 on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @03:40PM (#22870516)
I dismiss the idea that demand is inelastic. At $1/mask basically everyone wants an N95 mask. At $1k/mask most consumers are going to wear a bandana or alternative type of mask.
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Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong by jcranmer on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @03:49PM (#22870606)
Sure, demand isn't perfectly inelastic. But at the price points we're talking about, the demand isn't dropping off fast enough to make the market look even close to equilibrium.

But I noticed you didn't even attempt to engage with the solution of enforcing purchasing quotas instead of allowing price gouging.

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Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong by Consultant32452 on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @04:02PM (#22870752)
Enforcing purchasing quotas does not allocate resources to where they're most needed.

Pricing (including gouging) may be imperfect, but it is better than central resource allocation, price fixing, etc. at leading to efficient allocation of resources.

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