Why is it more facile and subjective to blame the real visible increases in consumer product and material supply prices than to blame "extreme raises in wages starting a spiral of inflation that started at the bottom of the economic tiers and has worked its way up?"

I just don't see there being any more reasonable objective cause and effect to that claim than the claim made by the commenter you are replying to. On the other hand in my own industry, prices for materials like lumber and steel have shot up massively causing major follow-on effects, and nobody at the steel mills are blaming worker salary for it. They're blaming the costs of the raw materials. And the people on the job site aren't blaming the tradespeople wages for the project going over budget, they're blaming the high cost of the steel showing up on site, late.

When workers are an issue for project delivery or budget it's usually not what they're charging, it's just availability. There are simply not enough field workers out there who can drive steel rivets or manage a punchlist. In fact, I hear rising wages brought up as a potential way to attract more people to the those field roles, because right now there are not enough people entering those roles.

None of that explains what price gouging is or how to distinguish it from normal market price variations.

Usually when people say “price gouging” they are making a moral claim — the price being charged is Wrong — not a technical claim.

So you can’t distinguish it without sharing the same morals as the speaker, and you therefore should “know it when you see it”.

No moral claim required.

When price increases exceed the increases in costs/raw-goods... then it's "greedflation", not "price gouging". Increasing profit margins are also a good signal of it.

Inflation and Price Gouging - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/briefing/inflation-supply...

Are Large Corporate Profit Margins Causing Inflation? - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/opinion/inflation-corpora...

I Listened In on Big Business. It’s Profiting From Inflation, and You’re Paying for It. - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/opinion/us-companies-infl...

Are you suggesting that profit margins should be fixed at current levels and never change?

I think they are suggesting that profit margins should be zero (if not negative)… and in my experience most people taking these kinds of positions would prefer if your takehome pay was just a little bit less than theirs.

So pretty much doubling down on the point: it’s gouging when I say it is.