Price Gouging Essay

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Written Assignment: Please write a two-page paper answering the following questions: What is price gouging? What are the causes of price gouging? What are the negative effects of price gouging? Are there any positive effects? If so, do they outweigh the negative? Be prepared to discuss in class. Price Gouging Price gouging, a term not easily defined. After much research, the author finds that the meaning of price gouging to be just like beauty, in the eye of the beholder. Those who consider it to be a negative term, mainly the average consumer, would define price gouging as taking advantage of or exploiting in times of need by charging unfair and unreasonable prices beyond normal. On the other hand, a business owner or an entrepreneur would define it as turning a profit on goods which have suddenly become much more expensive to obtain or produce because of increased demand possibly due to an emergency or sudden event. However, some free market economists reject the term altogether and suggest that “higher prices can be viewed as a valid system for rapidly distributing scarce resources to those who need the highly desirable resources and sets off an economic chain reaction that ultimately remedies the shortages” (Price gouging, 09). Over thirty of the states in America have anti-gouging laws but the definition of price gouging vary from “excessive and unjustified” price increases or “unconscionable pricing”, to percentages amounts of previous prices, to “unjust or unreasonable profits in the sale of necessities” (Antitrust - Fuel and Energy Committee, 06). So price gauging may not be easily defined but it does mean something to those it affects. The Cause of Price Gouging Demand is actually the cause of price gouging, usually when something out of the ordinary occurs. The law of demand states that “if the price of a good increase, holding other
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