[Disclaimer:
The follow article is a fictional
account of a persuasive
argument and should not be construed as an assertion of facts although
written in the first person.]
My nuke pills, commonly known as potassium iodide, have been
languishing unloved in my emergency supplies for years since I bought them
for about $5.99 each. They expire next month. I would like to have donated
them to a charity that would get them to people in Japan who so badly need
them.
But potassium iodide is only available by prescription in Japan and I
am not interested in engaging in the international smuggling of controlled
substances. So I did the next best thing: I just sold them for $99.99 apiece
representing a net realized gain of approximately 1,500%. One of my best
investments yet. But with the nuke pill market’s backwardation more
severe than the silver backwardation why
would I sell them?
The price,
where a producer and consumer meet in negotiations, is an extremely valuable,
even vital, tool.
PRICE GOUGING DEFINITION
Price gouging has a nasty connotation. This is mostly due to the true cause of shortages,
governments, attempting to spread disinformation about how markets work. For
example, the Florida
Division of Consumer Services asserts:
In the wake of natural disaster, essentials — such as food, ice
generators, lanterns, lumber, etc. — may be in short supply. Charging
exorbitant or excessive prices for these and other necessities following a
disaster is not only unethical, it’s illegal.
Under Sections 501.160 and 501.205 Florida Statutes, it is illegal to
charge unconscionable prices for goods or services following a declared state
of emergency.
Individuals or businesses found guilty of price-gouging could face
fines up to $1,000 per violation.
HOW AND WHY VOLUNTARY TRADE WORKS
If I own potassium iodide pills there are two mutually exclusive ways
for you to acquire them. One option is for me to voluntarily sell or gift you
the pills. The other option is for you to steal or rob the pills from me.
Trade works because everyone has different preferences, talents,
abilities, competitive advantages, knowledge and desires. For example, Mozart
had different talents than Einstein. The baker and the painter are each able
to perform work the other values and when they engage in a voluntary trade
then it implies that the baker derives more value from what the painter
offers than from his bread. Because the baker is better at baking than the
painter and because the painter is better at painting than the baker
therefore when a trade is voluntarily concluded then both the painter and baker
are better off which raises the standard of living for both. Even nations
have comparative advantages.
However, when property is either stolen or robbed then only one party
benefits to the detriment of another party. This type of parasitic behavior
does not encourage additional productive activities. In fact, it decreases
wealth by requiring the aggrieved party to expend additional resources on
protection which ultimately gets passed on to legitimate moral consumers in
the form of higher prices.
It should be noted that since governments are force and force is
violence they are by nature parasitic in this stealing and robbing way. And
they have the nerve to call a party to a purely voluntary transaction
unethical. Thus, the Florida division should probably be named something a
little more accurate like the Florida Division of Victimizer Services.
THE VALUABLE NATURE OF THE PRICE
The price, where a producer and consumer meet in negotiations, is an
extremely valuable, even vital,
tool. It helps the baker know whether he should produce 5 loaves or 500.
Because the baker is also a consumer therefore a price is communicated by the
baker to the farmer about whether he should plant one acre or 100 acres of
wheat.
And so on through the increasingly complex economy with
people being able to build up considerable comparative advantages by learning
such disciplines as xenotransplantation,
mechanical engineering, robotics, proctology, hematology or biomedical gerontology. It is through the
price that individuals, all acting according to their own dictates, decide
how to allocate their time, talents and capital to meet the needs and desires
of each other.
When the pricing mechanism is immorally interfered with by the use of
aggression then individuals are hindered in their ability to know how much
demand exists for a particular good or service. Misallocation of wealth happens which results in its destruction and a lowering of
living standards for society. When a price
control is implemented through the use of force then it leads
to shortages which are often used as an excuse to implement rationing. In the
modern world with such technological advances there is a sole cause for all the
starvation and shortages: governments.
For example, there always seems to be a shortage of blood,
particularly the rarer kinds, for transfusions. But there are billions of
able-bodied adults who could voluntarily agree to sell their blood.
Theoretically there should never be a shortage of blood as it should merely
be a function of price. But instead many governments have implemented price
controls. In exchange for about an hour of one’s time and getting stuck
with a needle, sometimes multiple times, the most you can receive is a
cookie. Sometimes a T-shirt and some warm fuzzies
are thrown in.
The reasoning is that if people were able to legally sell their own
blood, oh the irony to think one is free, then there would be a higher probability
of contaimination in the blood supply. But that
does not make any sense because the medical companies already perform
extensive screenings of the blood supply. The real issue is that a pint of
blood goes for a couple hundred dollars. The government imposed price control
serves at least two functions for those who make a profit selling blood: (1)
reduction of raw material costs to zero and (2) decrease in supply.
But these types of violent interferences are not limited to
necessities like food, water, potassium iodide or blood but are extended
through licenses for hair cuts to medical services, are found in regulations
limiting the type of light bulb or toilet you can buy and of particular
interest to the bureaucrats is healthy food and why raw food recipes are going
underground.
With potassium iodide pills available in Japan by prescription only;
thus, even though many may have rationally prepared for this emergency the
costumed criminal gangs made it illegal and threatened to violate offenders
with fines or jail. As Rand Paul teased out during his Senatorial
questioning; these bureaucrats found throughout the world are not pro-choice
or pro-consumer but violent aggressors against freedom of choice and a
primary cause for lower standards of living.
PRICE GOUGING ECONOMICS
How are producers supposed to know what consumers demand? Without the
ability to charge what the market will bear it is impossible to find out.
When that knowledge is buried or price discovery prevented then entreprnuers are unable to make calculated risks in hopes
of profit. When entreprenuers fail to perform thier vital service of bringing goods and services to
market then price gouging is not an issue. As the old saying from communist
Russia goes, “Sausage is one ruble per link. But there is no
sausage.” Pretty soon the only noble profession left will be that of a
smuggler.
As David Brown observed in Price Gouging Saves Lives:
“Price gouging” is nothing more than charging what the
market will bear. If that’s immoral, then all market adjustment to
changing circumstances is “immoral,” and markets per se are
immoral. But that is not the case. And I don’t think a store owner who
makes money by satisfying the urgent needs of his customers is immoral
either. It is called making a living. And, in the wake of Hurricane Charley,
surviving.
Be prepared.
NUCLEAR FALLOUT ON THE WEST COAST
The jet streams show it is possible that the Japanese nuclear
meltdowns could deliver nuclear fallout to California, Oregon, Washington and
other states. At the end of the day, governments and bureaucrats do not care
about your personal safety. They will lie, deceive, cover-up and exacerbate
problems if they find it politically expedient. No one cares as much about
your health and well-being as you do. Therefore, you must take whatever
precautions and actions you deem necessary and prudent.
CONCLUSION
So why did I sell my nuke pills? Sure, the 1500% gain was nice. But
the real reason was because I wanted to make sure that particular good went
to its highest
and best use at
this particular moment in time. How else would I know what that use was
without a price signal? In my opinion the probability of someone in
California or Oregon needing the nuke pills within a month for a life saving
purpose is extremely low; less than 1%.
Thus, I derive more value with the FRN$s than the counter-party to the
trade. Plus, if needed I will just get on a plane and head down to La Estancia de Cafayate,
which has a very favorable geographic location for nuclear fallout concerns,
for their two events this month. I sure hope the counter-party to my nuke
pill trade derives sufficient value from being prepared and I hope even more
they never have to actually use the potassium iodide.
But even if they never do use them I bet having them in the hand
relieves a lot of anxiety that comes from being unprepared! And if you are
ever in a situation where there is a shortage of something know who to blame:
governments.
DISCLOSURES: Long physical gold, silver, platinum, palladium
and potassium iodide.
Trace Mayer
RuntoGold.com
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