3 ms·

Actually, stockpiling does happen if there are no laws against price gauging. Because that's how the capital bound in the stockpile gets it's ROI.

• toss1 6y ago
  I hope you are not seriously suggesting making price gouging in disasters legal as a method of preparation. Price gouging is nowhere near a reliable method of disaster preparation as actual expert planning. The stockpiles you speak of are usually just ordinary current inventory marked up by an order(s) of magnitude. Also, stockpiling goods is not the only thing needed for disaster preparation. One must also stockpile services, i.e., have the right people recruited, trained, equipped, and ready to respond. Prime examples are military and firefighters, who spend a much time & resources training, and little time actually fighting the wars or fires.
  • namibj 6y ago
    Unregulated price gauging will likely end very badly, yes. I'm aware, and just didn't mention it in detail for brevity's sake. Yes, but funding allocation is hard. That'd be the case only if it was sudden. If entrepreneurs had the time to think and plan, they'd come up with stockpiles that they rise the sale price for when the time comes, calculating to use that future sales price increase to offset the increased bound capital and storage expenses of their large(r) inventory. Military is a bad example, but firefighters do train a lot. But that's also due to them needing to respond within hours at best, instead of weeks/months for most wars. I'm referring to the majority/bulk of them, not the leadership hierarchy.