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Monday, September 18, 2017

Price Gouging


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

or $300 for an asprin

Anonymous said...

and THATS the problem with healthcare that no one will address. Obamacare does NOT ONE THING to reduce the price of medicines, procedures, etc. In fact, it only make the problem worse. Once Galaxo/Smithkinle learns that insurance will pay $100 for aspirin..guess how much aspirin costs?

Jim King said...

I have read, some years back, a defense of "price gouging" that made sense. It minimizes the concentrated buying of large amounts of much needed supplies. High prices push people to buy what they need and leave supplies for the next guy available. If I buy regular price cases of water and sell them for $10 a bottle, suddenly price gouging has not disappeared just shifted locations and gotten worse.
As to healthcare, another long held belief I have is that if the person receiving the care is not the person paying for it he doesn't care what it costs. Catastrophic insurance and healthcare accounts moves payment for basic healthcare to the person receiving it. Suddenly I care how much it costs and prices go down.

Anonymous said...

9:22 AM Still regurgitating that false narrative I see.

Jack up the prices to people that need it and rip them off so that people that don't need it won't buy it?

That's your logic?

That's the definition of gouging

Anonymous said...

Charging $99 for a $28 dollar case of water???? What kind of water cost $28? Maybe a little hyperbole...

Anonymous said...

why does college cost so much? How many of you remember when you could reasonably work your way through college? What changed? Federal Student Loans. Once college KNEW that you were going to pay a certain amount, that became the baseline. Oh noes, says slimy politician X "college is too expensive, increase the federal loans!" And.....tuition goes up again.

Anonymous said...

Only because they can.
We pay $1.29 for a bottle of water which equates to about $10 per gallon but throw a hissy when guess goes up to $2.69 a gallon.
It's all about perspective.

Anonymous said...

Simple supply and demand economics. If enough people pay $99 for it, more supply will come to take advantage of the windfall, and the greed will lead to a greater supply, driving the price back down. It is only a temporary situation driven by high demand. I see no reason not to charge what the market will bear. Only a socialist thinks that the government should control prices. Adam Smith's "invisible hand" of the marketplace works very well. Greed and competition will always lead to more supply, and the price will respond accordingly. If anyone is paying $99 for water, you can believe that a lot of water is on the way!

Anonymous said...

I agree. Recently my eye doctor prescribed eye drops for dry eyes. It cost me at CVS $81.00 dollars for a bottle size 0.02 oz.

Anonymous said...

9:22 AM

I read that a couple weeks ago. It's still around

Anonymous said...

Yes,Jim King. If bottles of water were 10cents after Harvey, some folks would buy a few gallons and wash their hair.