> You don't mean "capitalist" here. You mean, "proponent of Free Markets." I just mean any halfway intelligent person who has money and wants more. Their ideol

> You don't mean "capitalist" here. You mean, "proponent of Free Markets." I just mean any halfway intelligent person who has money and wants more. Their ideology doesn't matter. > An equally profitable "capitalist" play would be to find out what companies currently benefit from the shortages and to buy those companies, thus securing their revenue. No, it wouldn't. That's not how anything works. For one, those companies would be very expensive, precisely because they are making so much money. And more importantly, you keep treating this like it's a one player game. It's not. When thinking about how markets work you have to solve for the equilibrium of competing actors. If you go out and buy those companies, then the next guy is going to come along and build new apartments and all of a sudden you won't be able to charge exorbitant prices anymore.