Not true. Price gouging is real. If you are in desparate need and insufficient supply exists, you will potentially hurt yourself in order to get what you need. Especially when dealing with peoples health and lives.

What the market will bear does not apply in this pandemic situation. It's just plain greed and the reason Libertarianism is flawed. It's the reason states are instituting anti-gouging laws

@t1nick There is such a thing as a monopoly. One example is our health care system, where providers charge exorbitant fees to capture the available pool of insurance money. In that case supply and demand have been dispensed with. Prospective patients have no idea of what the fee will be. That system needs to be broken up, or simply allowed to collapse.

In the case of those masks, trading is the business only of the parties involved and everyone else should butt out. Would you decree that masks must be sold for some fixed amount, say a dollar? What good would that do? it certainly wouldn’t address the shortage. A more fruitful action would be to manufacture a large number of masks. As the supply increases the price will fall.

Anyone can simply wrap a cloth around their head also. No government intervention is needed. Most of our problems are caused by politicians leaping in to fix problems.

@WilliamFleming

I disagree. The Defense Production Act allows prices to be fixed to get necessary and needed items (masks, swabs, gowns, ventlators) to the places where they are needed. It allows the President to demand that companies involved in the production of these items to ramp up their production. It was used effectively in WWII.

This is not normal times, so normal market theories do not necessarily apply. Companies are promised large bailouts, so if the productivity does not come up normal profit margin, the stimulus should help.

In the words of Spock, " The needs of the many out ways the needs of the few". Screw Ayn Rand.

@WilliamFleming anyone can wrap a cloth around their heads ?? Ok . U first .
U go lean over covid 19 patient , suction their throats out , give them aerosol treatments in non TB air flow rooms , and care for them in general . And just put a cloth over your head . Wtf .

@Pralina1 Well of course! If you work in a hospital you need first class equipment.

An improvised mask should help for most of us.

@t1nick I thought I answered this but it’s gone. I mentioned that companies are leaping in to mass-produce ventilators and other needed equipment. They don’t have to wait for directions from some bumbling bureaucrat.

During WWII black market trading was rampant.

The point is that we are free citizens and not government property. Responding to deep instincts, humans can take care of themselves.

The needs of the many will be met by the many. Our needs for goods and services outweigh the needs of the few ego-ridden politicians for control, power and adulation.

@WilliamFleming
See that's the problem. PEOPLE CAN TAKE OF THEMSRLVES.

We are not islands on to ourselves. We are part of a larger community. If it wasn't for government, we would still be living under Jim Crow, the Chatannoga and several other rivers would be buring,, our sir would be worse than Beijings, and so on.

We've discussed the evolutionary need for humans to belong to a society. It's part of our evolutionary development. As such part of our responsibility belongs to the members of our society. The every person for themselves is bogus. The myth of the rugged individual is exactly that,a myth. We are interdependent upon one another, and given the size of our population, the only way to channel that responsibility and protect all numbers is through government.

@t1nick We do need each other, and I agree that no man is an island. We also need government, and some well regulated social programs are needed. There are some things that require government: national defense, justice, public works, etc.

There can be too much government. Central economic planning didn’t work for the USSR, Cambodia and other places. It’s not working well in North Korea. China only began to thrive when the free market was allowed.

The simple fact is that no one is capable of dictating the affairs of the populace. We have our individual rights, and I consider free trade to be one of those rights, subject to reasonable regulation.

There is nothing so dire about this virus that we have to give up our rights and freedom.and become government property.