There was a (temporary) sand shortage due to a monsoon and availability does not imply sufficient supply. If there was no shortage of sand, even on the black market, the price would not have risen unless it was controlled by a cartel. Price capping is a good way to fight this kind of cartel because they were cornering the market by taking in all of the available supply and then raising the price.
Re:Resignation Letter
by tomjakubowski on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @03:00PM
(#23836192)
Like the article says, sand was actually more widely available when the government had capped the price at $0. The Econ 101 student is blind to the interesting parts of this story.
For example, I read a BBC article a while back about a sand shortage in India. It turns out the government imposed a price-ceiling, and there was no shortage at all (sand was available in the black market) - there was just a shortage at the government mandated price point.
Any economics 101 student can tell you that if you set a price-ceiling there will be a shortage.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50386515