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I would perhaps grant you "evil", but "bad", definitely not. This is one of those rare things economists seem to agree on. [0] The scenario you described would

I would perhaps grant you "evil", but "bad", definitely not. This is one of those rare things economists seem to agree on. [0] The scenario you described would be unlikely if price gouging was legal/encouraged as the extra profit would largely be captured higher up in the chain (e.g. by the production factories). This would incentivize the re-purposing of factories to manufacture the high demand products, discourage hoarding, etc. [0] https://www.econlib.org/archives/2017/09/a_poll_of_econo.html https://www.econlib.org/archives/2017/09/a_poll_of_econo.htm...

eru 7y ago
Yes. It would also encourage exactly the kind of resiliency that many commenters here think the government should mandate by law. If you can legally sell your masks in time of crisis for a hundred dollar a piece, that's a great incentive to keep some spare capacity around that doesn't rely on global supply chains. Price controls dull the edge of that incentive. (If more people were allowed to raise prices and thus kept spare capacity around, prices wouldn't rise so much in the first place.)