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Three Cheers for "Price Gougers"
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
IRVINE, CA--In the face of soaring gasoline prices and angry consumers, many politicians have vociferously called for prosecution of "immoral price gouging."
"The call to prosecute 'price gougers' violates a fundamental moral principle, as well as an economic one," says Dr. Andrew Bernstein, author of The Capitalist Manifesto. "Morally, an individual has the right to ask for any price he wants for a good or service he owns--he is not forcing anybody to buy his product--and a buyer has the equal right to refuse that price if he thinks it is too high. In a truly free society, the government does not have the arbitrary power to dictate to sellers and buyers the terms of a sale. Such power is found in dictatorships, not in nations that respect individual rights."
Bernstein adds, "When the government arbitrarily restricts the price of a good--by threatening to prosecute so-called "price gougers"--it not only violates the rights of all sellers and buyers, it inevitably causes shortages of that good." In the face of the disruption to oil production and distribution caused by hurricane Katrina, for instance, we should desire that prices rise until demand aligns with the more limited supply. This ensures that gasoline will be available to anyone willing and able to purchase it. And the higher prices serve as an economic incentive to oil and gas producers to get facilities online as soon as they can.
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Dr. Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews on this topic.
Contact: Larry Benson at larryb@aynrand.org 1-800-365-6552 ext. 213
Please Visit my published Article Archive
Three Cheers for "Price Gougers"
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
IRVINE, CA--In the face of soaring gasoline prices and angry consumers, many politicians have vociferously called for prosecution of "immoral price gouging."
"The call to prosecute 'price gougers' violates a fundamental moral principle, as well as an economic one," says Dr. Andrew Bernstein, author of The Capitalist Manifesto. "Morally, an individual has the right to ask for any price he wants for a good or service he owns--he is not forcing anybody to buy his product--and a buyer has the equal right to refuse that price if he thinks it is too high. In a truly free society, the government does not have the arbitrary power to dictate to sellers and buyers the terms of a sale. Such power is found in dictatorships, not in nations that respect individual rights."
Bernstein adds, "When the government arbitrarily restricts the price of a good--by threatening to prosecute so-called "price gougers"--it not only violates the rights of all sellers and buyers, it inevitably causes shortages of that good." In the face of the disruption to oil production and distribution caused by hurricane Katrina, for instance, we should desire that prices rise until demand aligns with the more limited supply. This ensures that gasoline will be available to anyone willing and able to purchase it. And the higher prices serve as an economic incentive to oil and gas producers to get facilities online as soon as they can.
### ### ###
Dr. Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews on this topic.
Contact: Larry Benson at larryb@aynrand.org 1-800-365-6552 ext. 213
Please Visit my published Article Archive
"America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to "the common good," but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages adn cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance -- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way." (Ayn Rand)

