Pam Bondi on Hannity tonight-is Pam acting more like a Dem AG? Eyeing a run for governor?

There was Pam again this morning on Fox, saying how glad she is that Home Depot is soon to re-open, so that people won’t have to pay $1000 for a generator. Notice she is using the exact same talking point, which to me smacks of “campaign speak”.

But, what if somebody wanted to buy a generator BEFORE Home Depot re-opens? Shouldn’t they have the right to do so, if they can afford to? If you say no, because it doesn’t seem fair to poor people, aren’t you basically endorsing a communistic or centrally planned government way of dealing with things? You’re saying that because some people could not afford the $1000, then nobody should be allowed to buy a generator.

You can bring your own water to baseball games. Secondly, you couldn’t buy water for cheaper, because there wasn’t any. 27 million people were trying to prepare at the same time. There where no supplies. 3 days before the storm there wasn’t anything. Shelves were completely bare. Retailers could not keep up. Gas stations were empty and still are. And will be for quite some time.

Additionally, the coastal areas of FL are very wealthy. The interior is made up of middle class and poor. There is only so much they can afford to prepare.

The free market doesnt work in a disaster area. Unless you have experienced a disaster of this magnitude, you are speaking from a position of ignorance.

Oh btw, I am fortunately well prepared and well supplied. Our middle school and local sports complex is full of people from the southern part of the state. They arrived here with what they could carry. How does the free market work for them?

The laws of economics are more powerful, more permanent than any man-made laws despite man's/women's constant, futile efforts to replace them with what they truly believe is something better.

Those who refuse to accept the "theories" (such as the peculiar way supply of a commodity magically increases when consumer demand drives prices up) that have been proven time and time again live in a dream world.

Unfortunately, too many deniers of economic reality hold positions in the government or the media. Or churches, even--imagine that.

Their power over the mostly-uneducated population, whether by way of pronouncements, encyclicals or the brute force of the state, is, in most cases, fleeting. Exceptions exist: see Haiti, Brazil, Zimbabwe, the former Soviet Union.

If you were around in 1971, you'll recall that President Nixon had a sure-fire solution to the woes of inflation this country faced: wage and price controls. How'd that work for you? We got that idiot peanut farmer for president partly as a result of Nixon's failed policies, and he was even worse. A malaise. Red flags and green flags. 12% interest rates. Stores running out of peanut butter and toilet paper.

We can only hope those days won't be repeated in this century.

But I wouldn't put any money on it.

+1

I agree that charging 200 bucks for a flat of water will ensure a supply of water. Most likely that same flat of water, because water is fairly simple to replace during record rainfall.

With gasoline it’s not so easy to replace.

If the price is raised to $20 a gallon what prevents the desperate from simply commandeering those pumps?

The police.

So, if the government is offended, then the police won’t help.

The power to hold life in hostage for greater pay is replaced by the power of people banding together to overcome what they see as threatening their lives.

Ultimately, gouging will lead to rebellion.

You can bring your own water to baseball games. Secondly, you couldn’t buy water for cheaper, because there wasn’t any.

I guess you missed the suggestion that tap water can be saved in any type of container, including plastic bags.

Tap water is available in every home, but having stayed in Florida during most winters for the past 40+ years, it does have a distinct odor and unusual taste {but it is potable}.

When I wrote "magically" it, I thought, best described how commodities (not necessarily valuable luxury items like jewelry, caviar and paintings by the masters) suddenly find their way to those in need, i.e., those who are willing to pay what it takes to move the needed commodity to the willing buyer.

In a hurricane, or a civil disturbance, the state and local governments are quick to impose "order," which in their sense of the term means closing roads, evacuating non-essential personnel--which would include most of us old fogies--and figuring out where the stock of essential goods is located so it can be requisitioned when the time comes.

Show me a director of FEMA who has ever had experience in the real world, taking a risk on ordering stuff that may or may not be sold at a profit. There aren't any.

Government employees know nothing about purchasing, inventory, insurance, cost of labor, licenses, permits, regulations and myriad other details that come with running a business.

How, then, do we expect emergency workers to micromanage a suddenly-disrupted economy whose working they have next to zero direct knowledge of, other than as a consumer?

I won't argue with you about gasoline being more difficult to come by than water, most of the time. But are out-of-state tankers likely to want to resupply Florida gas stations at great personal risk for the usual price? And, if those same stations can't raise the price at the pump to cover without being fined by the state, what reason is there for them to stay open once they run out?

The market economy works in mysterious ways, too complex for even educated economists to fully understand. I've only touched on one small element with the gas station. Multiply that by a large number of daily transactions, locally and nationally, then throw in world commerce and you have a really complex system of trade, for which we should all be grateful. We'd all be without shoes and hungry without it, just like they are in Haiti.

Although it was written many years ago, Leonard Read's I, Pencil is one of the most amazing short stories I've ever read. If you haven't heard of it, you will benefit greatly by reading this short essay.

Wiki entry with links

I’m a permanent resident. There are no hurricanes in the winter. 1.5 million people had to evacuate. They are at the mercy of government or chiselers who want to charge them ridiculous prices, because they have no other choice.

Bondi isn’t talking about known retailers. They have been more than fair. She’s talking about carpet baggers who like to show up with a truck full of goods or sell them online. Amazon was one of the largest offenders.

That is what I am talking about. Surely there has to
be some gouging but the issues may not be clear in
all cases.

... but the issues may not be clear in all cases.

Which is why any law against "price-gouging" isn't likely to be effective at anything except causing shortages of the things people really need to buy after a disaster.

I’m a permanent resident. There are no hurricanes in the winter. 1.5 million people had to evacuate. They are at the mercy of government or chiselers who want to charge them ridiculous prices, because they have no other choice.

The discussion was about water prices, and you continue to ignore the tap in your kitchen. People can live for over a week with little or no food. If you need oxygen to live, leave.

BTW, thanks, I didn't know that there were no hurricanes in the winter.

And what I’m saying is some people were not prepared to evacuate nor were some who didn’t take the storm seriously. The fact of the matter is they need help. They don’t need to get ripped off for being desperate.

If I follow your logic, we should not protect desperate Americans from preditors, because they failed to properly prepare.