3 ms·

It sounds like federal agencies are stepping in to investigate and prevent price gouging. Good. That is their job. If this wasn't happening, there would be e

by blhack 6y ago

It sounds like federal agencies are stepping in to investigate and prevent price gouging. Good. That is their job. If this wasn't happening, there would be even less PPE available for hospitals. Of course when you are talking about something at the scale of what is happening in the country right now, there are going to be imperfections in the system, and those imperfections will get reported on. That should not be taken as indicative of the state of things overall, but merely as exception reporting. The news aspect of event has been incredibly depressing. There are commonly outright lies being presented as if they are valid representations of things that are happening in the world. Sometimes that is simply a part of life, and the consequences are relatively (to this) minimal, but in this situation, this type of reporting is getting people killed.

xnyan 6y ago
>It sounds like federal agencies are stepping in to investigate and prevent price gouging This is not correct. There is overwhelming evidence that the federal government is seizing private supplies of masks for redistribution. I find accounts like this quite chilling, note that the federal agents don't dispute that these are the property of a hospital, it takes (political)force to keep their stuff: "After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure."[1] 1) https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025
pm_me_ur_fullzz 6y ago
There is no federal law on price gouging. Despite the increase of government enforcement activity, not every price increase constitutes price gouging (no matter how abnormal the price seems). State laws are toothless and many resign their regulation in the face of an event that lasts for 30+ days, as it accurately suggests the problem isn't going away if it hasn't by then and is probably bigger than the state. The market has expanded and there is a war for resources. The price is the market price and is a necessary market signal. Any 2-bit lawyer can defend this now, enjoy. Two the state's attorney general, don't waste public resources on this. The governments fully capable of creating a price ceiling and subsidizing on top of that. The market signals are abundantly clear and are a necessary motivating factor to solve the supply constraints.

by blhack 6y ago

xnyan 6y ago

>It sounds like federal agencies are stepping in to investigate and prevent price gouging This is not correct. There is overwhelming evidence that the federal government is seizing private supplies of masks for redistribution. I find accounts like this quite chilling, note that the federal agents don't dispute that these are the property of a hospital, it takes (political)force to keep their stuff: "After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure."[1] 1) https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2010025

pm_me_ur_fullzz 6y ago

There is no federal law on price gouging. Despite the increase of government enforcement activity, not every price increase constitutes price gouging (no matter how abnormal the price seems). State laws are toothless and many resign their regulation in the face of an event that lasts for 30+ days, as it accurately suggests the problem isn't going away if it hasn't by then and is probably bigger than the state. The market has expanded and there is a war for resources. The price is the market price and is a necessary market signal. Any 2-bit lawyer can defend this now, enjoy. Two the state's attorney general, don't waste public resources on this. The governments fully capable of creating a price ceiling and subsidizing on top of that. The market signals are abundantly clear and are a necessary motivating factor to solve the supply constraints.