Subject:
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Re: Ann Coultier (was: Re: Jerry Falwell blames feminists, gays, lesbians, ACLU, others...)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 15 Sep 2001 05:25:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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463 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> > So do the guys pointing out that if people panic and try to run the pumps
> > dry because they're not paying attention (the majors were all saying there
> > was no threat to the fuel supply) that raising prices in order to make
> > people ration their purchases is better than first come first served, in
> > which scenario, perhaps, the people who really need gas that day can't buy
> > any. The market works better at allocating scarce resources (even under
> > false scarcity) than just letting the pumps run dry needlessly.
>
> Maybe. But I don't think that jumping the price from $1.45
> to $5.64 in six hours is the "invisible hand" of the market.
I was a lot of places (Detroit, Toledo, Ft. Wayne, Indy) on Tuesday and I
saw gas prices all over the map. But I never saw 5.64. I DID see a lot of
stations in the same place with wildly different prices. I shopped on price.
But if I had to I would have paid the higher price because I needed the gas,
relatively speaking.
> They're being too functionalist about it. When does it become
> gouging to them? Never? I shudder to think what WWII would
> have been like if we'd relied upon the "invisible hand" instead
> of price controls and rationing.
Why? I think we'd have had a lot more gas. Price controls never work. Never.
Rationing, I think, was a detriment to the war effort because it didn't
allow for allocation of gas to important tasks... everyone got the same
share except if they had enough pull to be designated as exempt.
Put it this way. I have a bunch of those 2x2x5 columns. I haven't sold all
of them yet. I started out at a fairly low price and ran out of the first
batch quickly. Every time I put a few more up, I have been raising the
price. I want to allow people that really want them to get them. If I put
them all up at the same price, whoever gets there first gets them all. I
don't think that's fair at all.
++Lar
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