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There is no objective difference between finding the balance of supply and demand and price gouging.

• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• nightski 2y ago
  No, price gouging is taking advantage of short term manipulations in supply and demand. If this happened during the pandemic then you might have a case. However what we are seeing now are long term, permanent changes to demand due monetary inflation.
  • tempfile 2y ago
    I really can't make sense of what you wrote here. "taking advantage of short term manipulations in supply and demand" - assuming by "manipulations" you just mean "changes" here (since I don't really know how someone can manipulate demand) - this is just how markets find prices in general. Maybe you mean manipulations in supply, for example a vendor holding onto products instead of selling them in order to drive up the price. But again, this is just how markets find prices: vendors refuse to sell products until buyers pay a price they find acceptable. It remains true that this is not objectively distinguishable from price gouging. Gouging is just a word for "finding prices that I think aren't fair".
    • nightski 2y ago
      You can manipulate demand by increasing/decreasing the supply of capital. Cheap interest rates, stimulus checks, government deficit spending, etc...