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> There is nothing wrong with keeping units empty to manage overall rental yield. That's like saying there's nothing wrong from profiteering during a crisis.

by soperj 3y ago

> There is nothing wrong with keeping units empty to manage overall rental yield. That's like saying there's nothing wrong from profiteering during a crisis. Are you for stores drastically increasing prices on essentials like water and food during a natural disaster?

WalterBright 3y ago
Yes, there is nothing wrong with it. Here's the thing. When there's a natural disaster, it used to be that everybody outside the disaster zone would fill jerry cans with gas, load up their pickup trucks with supplies, and immediately drive into the disaster zone and sell it with high prices. They'd get there far faster than the government. With the anti-gouging laws, nobody bothers doing that anymore. The result is (pick one): 1. no anti-gouging laws. Gas and supplies are available. 2. anti-gouging laws. No supplies are available. In which case are the people needing supplies better off?
- soperj 3y ago
  So it used to be that rich people were able to get supplies previously, and now rich people are in the same situation that the poor people were always in?
  - pempem 3y ago
    It used to be that rich(er) people would get more supplies than they needed and sell them. It still is.
    - WalterBright 3y ago
      Under gas rationing in WW2, people would sell the gas they didn't need at high prices in the black market. Along with the black market came crime, because it was illegal.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    Think "black market". The Soviet Union all had prices set by the government, but nothing for sale. The economy subsisted on the illegal black market. Do you really think that's better?
- hirako2000 3y ago
  Put it that way I would say 2. With 2. We can look into the application of these laws and figure out why nobody is picking up the opportunity to reasonably profit by making gas and supplies available. Profeetering is defined as taking advantage of a situation to increase prices beyond "reasonable" The law is clear with one thing: profteering by committing a crime is legally wrong. It leaves us with cases where no crime was committed. But this post argues collusion happened in the case of property let pricing. let's not make the gasless situation the rule to the exceptions.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    > We can look into the application of these laws and figure out why nobody is picking up the opportunity to reasonably profit by making gas and supplies available. A reasonable price is what people are willing to pay for it. It's that old Law of Supply and Demand again. > The law is clear with one thing: profteering by committing a crime is legally wrong. Enjoy the inevitable resulting shortages, then. BTW, anti-gouging laws also cause hoarding, making the shortages even worse.
    - hirako2000 3y ago
      you refuse to see unreasonable pricing happens as a result of anti competitive maneuvers, corruption, and you mentioned it: hoarding. All illegal tactics. But I give it to you, bureaucratic measures have shown again and again to have even more nefast consequences than business criminals doings.
      - WalterBright 3y ago
        > you refuse to see unreasonable pricing "unreasonable pricing" is a nebulous undefined concept. > hoarding Hoarding only happens when the government tries to repeal the Law of Supply and Demand. It is not a natural state of free markets. Whenever the government tries to repeal the LoS+D, all kinds of worse consequences result.
        3y ago
- bcrosby95 3y ago
  Believe it or not, there's community networks that do this for free. Not everyone is after a buck.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    Oh, I believe there are. But that is nowhere near enough to fill the demand. > Not everyone is after a buck Not enough to run a working economy on.
- zanderwohl 3y ago
  That's a false dichotomy. The only reason supplies aren't available anyway is because they've been soaked up by scalpers. The situation you're describing it a textbook example, not something that happens in the real world.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    The only reason scalpers buy things is to resell them. Scalping does not cause a shortage. The reason supplies aren't available is the local supply is out of action from the disaster, and nobody has any incentive to bring supplies in to the disaster zone.
    - richbell 3y ago
      > Scalping does not cause a shortage. Scalping by definition causes a shortage due to speculators buying up large quantities of something with the plans of selling it at an inflated price caused by a lack of supply. It isn't the only reason, but saying it doesn't cause shortages is absurd. Availability of things like masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper rapidly recovered once people who drove across entire states emptying shelves were shut down. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-hand-sanitizer-donation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-ha...
      - WalterBright 3y ago
        > Scalping by definition causes a shortage The only purpose to scalping is reselling it. Not taking it out of supply. > caused by a lack of supply. Scalping neither increases nor decreases supply. > Availability of things like masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper rapidly recovered once people who drove across entire states emptying shelves were shut down. People were hoarding, not scalping. And they were hoarding because stores were not allowed to increase the price.
        richbell 3y ago
        > People were hoarding, not scalping. And they were hoarding because stores were not allowed to increase the price. They were hoarding items in high demand with the intention to sell them way above market rate. If only there was a word for that...
changoplatanero 3y ago
I don't think profiteering is what's going on here. Its more like if you had a large block of shares to sell in a public company you might offer it up in smaller pieces so that you get a better price than if you were selling your full inventory all at once.

by soperj 3y ago

WalterBright 3y ago

Yes, there is nothing wrong with it. Here's the thing. When there's a natural disaster, it used to be that everybody outside the disaster zone would fill jerry cans with gas, load up their pickup trucks with supplies, and immediately drive into the disaster zone and sell it with high prices. They'd get there far faster than the government. With the anti-gouging laws, nobody bothers doing that anymore. The result is (pick one): 1. no anti-gouging laws. Gas and supplies are available. 2. anti-gouging laws. No supplies are available. In which case are the people needing supplies better off?

soperj 3y ago
So it used to be that rich people were able to get supplies previously, and now rich people are in the same situation that the poor people were always in?
- pempem 3y ago
  It used to be that rich(er) people would get more supplies than they needed and sell them. It still is.
  - WalterBright 3y ago
    Under gas rationing in WW2, people would sell the gas they didn't need at high prices in the black market. Along with the black market came crime, because it was illegal.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  Think "black market". The Soviet Union all had prices set by the government, but nothing for sale. The economy subsisted on the illegal black market. Do you really think that's better?
hirako2000 3y ago
Put it that way I would say 2. With 2. We can look into the application of these laws and figure out why nobody is picking up the opportunity to reasonably profit by making gas and supplies available. Profeetering is defined as taking advantage of a situation to increase prices beyond "reasonable" The law is clear with one thing: profteering by committing a crime is legally wrong. It leaves us with cases where no crime was committed. But this post argues collusion happened in the case of property let pricing. let's not make the gasless situation the rule to the exceptions.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  > We can look into the application of these laws and figure out why nobody is picking up the opportunity to reasonably profit by making gas and supplies available. A reasonable price is what people are willing to pay for it. It's that old Law of Supply and Demand again. > The law is clear with one thing: profteering by committing a crime is legally wrong. Enjoy the inevitable resulting shortages, then. BTW, anti-gouging laws also cause hoarding, making the shortages even worse.
  - hirako2000 3y ago
    you refuse to see unreasonable pricing happens as a result of anti competitive maneuvers, corruption, and you mentioned it: hoarding. All illegal tactics. But I give it to you, bureaucratic measures have shown again and again to have even more nefast consequences than business criminals doings.
    - WalterBright 3y ago
      > you refuse to see unreasonable pricing "unreasonable pricing" is a nebulous undefined concept. > hoarding Hoarding only happens when the government tries to repeal the Law of Supply and Demand. It is not a natural state of free markets. Whenever the government tries to repeal the LoS+D, all kinds of worse consequences result.
      - 3y ago
bcrosby95 3y ago
Believe it or not, there's community networks that do this for free. Not everyone is after a buck.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  Oh, I believe there are. But that is nowhere near enough to fill the demand. > Not everyone is after a buck Not enough to run a working economy on.
zanderwohl 3y ago
That's a false dichotomy. The only reason supplies aren't available anyway is because they've been soaked up by scalpers. The situation you're describing it a textbook example, not something that happens in the real world.
- WalterBright 3y ago
  The only reason scalpers buy things is to resell them. Scalping does not cause a shortage. The reason supplies aren't available is the local supply is out of action from the disaster, and nobody has any incentive to bring supplies in to the disaster zone.
  - richbell 3y ago
    > Scalping does not cause a shortage. Scalping by definition causes a shortage due to speculators buying up large quantities of something with the plans of selling it at an inflated price caused by a lack of supply. It isn't the only reason, but saying it doesn't cause shortages is absurd. Availability of things like masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper rapidly recovered once people who drove across entire states emptying shelves were shut down. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-hand-sanitizer-donation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-ha...
    - WalterBright 3y ago
      > Scalping by definition causes a shortage The only purpose to scalping is reselling it. Not taking it out of supply. > caused by a lack of supply. Scalping neither increases nor decreases supply. > Availability of things like masks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper rapidly recovered once people who drove across entire states emptying shelves were shut down. People were hoarding, not scalping. And they were hoarding because stores were not allowed to increase the price.
      - richbell 3y ago
        > People were hoarding, not scalping. And they were hoarding because stores were not allowed to increase the price. They were hoarding items in high demand with the intention to sell them way above market rate. If only there was a word for that...

changoplatanero 3y ago

I don't think profiteering is what's going on here. Its more like if you had a large block of shares to sell in a public company you might offer it up in smaller pieces so that you get a better price than if you were selling your full inventory all at once.