> At $100 a bottle I'm going to be loading up my SUV with as many water bottles as fit and I'll be driving to the disaster area. I'll take work off, maybe even

> At $100 a bottle I'm going to be loading up my SUV with as many water bottles as fit and I'll be driving to the disaster area. I'll take work off, maybe even risk getting fired for that type of payday. So would hundreds of other people, which would get in the way of actual relief efforts and probably cost lives. In fact, for enough money, you could even lobby the government to ensure that you would profit off of future disasters. > I probably wouldn't have done that without the financial carrot. Probably not, but others would have. And those organizations, whether private or government are also willing to help the people where there is no financial incentive to do so. In the example you give, the result would be those that have the financial resources would stockpile the water, while poorer folks would simply die. There are some areas like disaster relief, education, and the provision of medical services where the free market has shown itself to be woefully insufficient.