"Price-Gouging" Rocks!

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 24 Aug 2004 12:00:00 GMT
From clairefiles:
"Weapons protect the weak from the strong, not the other way around. The passengers of Flight 93 showed us the way to defend ourselves -- they fought back. If every passenger fought back immediately, no terrorist could succeed. If every victim fought back immediately, no criminal could succeed. No one lives forever." -- Jeff Cooper
and:
"The four basic functions of all government are: Robbery, Rape, Slavery, Murder. All else is window dressing." -- Speaker's sig

Russmo.com - Letter from Home - cartoon commentary on what our troops in Iraq are fighting for. Too sadly true to be funny.

# L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - Necktie Party - a nice hemp necktie for any politician who tells even the tiniest white lie. Bravo! [tle]

No more secrets, no more lies. Can anyone write a better campaign slogan?

Specifically, I said that government secrets must be forbidden by law, and that any government employee who is convicted of lying to any member of the public for any reason must be hanged by the neck--in public and on prime time network television--until he or she is dead.

...

Government lies and secrets kill.

# Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe - Bring on the 'price gougers' - I'm with Charlie Hardman in not believing that this got printed in the Globe. Miracles never cease. An explanation in a mainstream newspaper of the wonders of the free market. [saltypig]

IMAGINE a system that could instantly respond to a calamity like Hurricane Charley by mobilizing suppliers to speed urgently needed resources to the victims. Imagine that such a system could quickly attract the out-of-town manpower needed for cleanup and repairs, while seeing to it that existing supplies were neither recklessly squandered nor hoarded. Imagine that it could prompt thousands of men and women to act in the public interest, yet not force anyone to do anything against his will.

Actually, there's no need to imagine. The system already exists. Economists refer to it as the law of supply and demand. Unfortunately, too many journalists and politicians call it by a more pejorative and destructive name: "price-gouging."

...

But why should it be news, let alone a crime, when soaring demand and/or tight supplies send prices through the roof? Air fares climb during peak travel periods, hotels charge more during the tourist season -- and yes, Virginia, ice sells at a premium when tens of thousands of Florida homes are without refrigeration and air conditioning in the middle of August. It isn't gouging to charge what the market will bear. It isn't greedy or brazen. It's how goods and services get allocated in a free society -- without the chronic shortages and corruption that are the usual result of price controls and rationing. And never is the flexibility of an unhampered market more essential than in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

# Kim du Toit - Story Of A New Member of the Nation of Riflemen (and Rifle Women). [kimdutoit]

If you look up the expression "shit-eating grin" in the dictionary, that's my photo right underneath it.

And now, if you'll all excuse me, I'm going out to the front lawn to do the Kim Happy Dance, Deluxe Version (total nudity, camo facepaint and a hi-cap mag in the AK-47).

# Perry de Havilland at samizdata.net - Democrats against democracy - short commentary on the Democrats' attempts to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot. [samizdata]

Any regular reader of Samizdata.net has probably noticed that I am no enthusiast for the democratic process, which I just regard as little more than a system of legitimising proxy mugging. I can see a role for democracy as a countervailing force even in a limited-government minarchist state, but as currently practiced it is rarely more than just a way to try and appropriate the money of others, impose restriction on competitors and generally add the force of law to personal prejudices in ways that conflate state and society to the profound determent of the later.

# Gunscribe at From the Heartland - The truth about Concealed Carry in Nebraska - contends that since the Nebraska constitution was silent about guns until 1988, when an amendment affirming the right to keep and bear arms was added, that Nebraska has always had Vermont-style concealed carry, local "home rule" regulations to the contrary notwithstanding. [publicola]

Add comment Edit post Add post