Should Price Gouging Be Regulated

Should Price Gouging Be Regulated?

Issue: Jeremy Snyder and Matt Zwolinski debate on whether price gouging should be regulated and controlled by the government.

I. Pro vs. Con

A. Jeremy Snyder (Pro)

1. Prices on essential goods are likely to occur when there is a disaster. This increase in

prices is considered profiteering which is morally wrong because one is gaining from another's misfortune.

2. Price gouging is ethically wrong.

3. Laws against price gouging limit price increases for goods during their period of

activation.

B. Matt Zwolinski (Con)

1. People criticize vendors who engage in voluntary and mutually beneficial exchanges

but how is it that we ignore those who do nothing to help the needy in disaster areas.

2. Price increases do not exhibit a failure of respect for consumers.

II. Critique of pro and con

A. Jeremy Snyder (Pro)

1. I agree with Snyder that price gouging should be regulated because it is extremely hard for victims to recuperate after a disaster. Some have lost things more than others and for consumers to go and bump prices up to a ridiculous price is morally wrong. They are taking from misfortunate people.

B. Matt Zwolinski (Con)

1. Zwolinski hits on a very good point on how people want to complain about the disaster victims. When these disasters take place the main problem is people complain about prices going up but in reality they are sitting around on their couch's not doing anything to help these victims. I think that if government was better prepared for disasters and there was a way to prevent less damage than consumers and buyers would be better off.

Closing: I think that price gouging should be regulated just so it could be better maintained by the government and not its consumers. If prices were in the hands of the consumers I would say that we would probably not have all the materialistic things as we do. There has to be equilibrium in prices for the buyers because if there is not then a lot of goods would not be bought. So there kind of has to be a balance in prices and if we allowed it to be regulated then the government would be better at setting a bar to whether or not what they think the price should be.