I don’t defend price gouging because the rich are more deserving. I defend price gouging because it can help create supply.
Next time your area is hit with a widespread electric outage and all the generators are sold out, call Home Depots 500 and 1000 miles away. Chances are they’ll have a normal supply on-hand. Maybe some of those will find their way into your area, but I can be pretty damn sure it would happen faster if they were selling at 1.5x the normal price in your area.
Covid made this very clear. Countries that limited price gouging had far less panic buying and far fewer actual shortages than countries that ignored it.
Far from "creating supply" price gouging is read as a signal that supplies are precarious and may run out at any moment. So buyers tend to stock up, just in case. The result is widespread shortages.
And of course generators are useless if they're >500 miles away. No affordable markup is going to get essential goods into an emergency zone if they have to be trucked a long way.
Bottom line is you're going to get much better results from organised community preparedness and intelligent collective response than from a few random spivs hoping to make some extra dollars.
Where I live (NYC) there was pretty extreme panic buying despite laws against gouging. It’s only recently become easy to find toilet paper, masks, etc.
The markup doesn’t have to “affordable meaning cheap”; it just has to “affordable meaning someone wants to pay it”. 500 miles is a one day drive away for a truck full of generators. 1000 miles is a team drive and still arrives the next day with a truck full.
Next time your area is hit with a widespread electric outage and all the generators are sold out, call Home Depots 500 and 1000 miles away. Chances are they’ll have a normal supply on-hand. Maybe some of those will find their way into your area, but I can be pretty damn sure it would happen faster if they were selling at 1.5x the normal price in your area.