The Cost Of Free Markets


He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them

"Retail arbitrage", better known as hoarding and price gouging. It's one thing to do that with dolls or something. It's another to do it with a product whose purpose is to slow the spread of a deadly infection. The grocery store near us has had no hand sanitizer on its shelves for a while. (Side note: You can make your own sanitizer with aloe vera and isopropyl alcohol. See How to Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer.)

In a country so in love with capitalism, it's unrealistic to expect people wouldn't try to profit off the tragedy. But it's basically no different from war profiteering. One would wish that people's conscience would tell them they're crossing a line. Someone's always going to be willing to cross it, though -- whether out of greed or desperation, or just not caring very much that what they're doing harms society.

This also exemplifies what's wrong with the libertarian mindset, the idea that you can solve every problem by applying a profit motive. In cases like this, regulations are required. Those state laws, forbidding a substantial price increase of a needed resource during an emergency, are the right idea. I'm glad Amazon is slamming the door on this crap (because they are concerned about the public's perception of them), but this should already be illegal across the country.

Original Facebook post

Location: Waikoloa Village, HI, USA

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