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> The people who would be hurt by such an increase, absent already-in-place assistance, constitute the vast majority of people. and so you suggest hurting the
by fsckboy 5y ago
> The people who would be hurt by such an increase, absent already-in-place assistance, constitute the vast majority of people.
and so you suggest hurting the vast majority of people even more?
That's right, your suggested approach of keeping artificially-low-prices-that-allow-hoarding leads to zero gas at the pumps, and zero gas at the pumps hurts the vast majority of people very directly and very effectively.
Allowing prices to float higher in a shortage solves the allocation problem for scarce resources by ensuring that people think twice about how they use it, while keeping it available. Ignoring that the resource is scarce not only doesn't solve anything, it makes the problem worse.
- ImPostingOnHN 5y ago>and so you suggest hurting the vast majority of people even more? 1. More people are hurt by price gouging of products with inelastic demand than hurt by limiting the price increase. 2. A completely floating gas price disproportionately affects disadvantaged folks who have no alternative, even when there are no outages. I mean, I totally agree with OP, there's a straightforward solution: set up a government program that insulates people from the effects of a floating price proportionately to how disadvantaged they are, and then, after that, let the gas price float. That way we get your idea without hurting anyone! Win-win.