I apologize for calling you a 14-year-old, that was stupid of me. :) But I don't think the rest of what I've written has been particularly cruel or hard-hitting - honestly I'm a little shocked you've interpreted it that way.
---
To answer your question: I think a lot of harm that has been done to society in the past 20-30 years has come from well-intentioned people, like yourself, trying to fix what they perceive as flaws in the market and making things worse for everyone as a result. That's why I feel strongly about this topic.
College education and healthcare in the US are the two most salient examples, where politicians step in to manipulate the market, thus making things worse in some way, and then use the harm caused by the market malfunction that they themselves introduced to justify further manipulation - ad infinitum.
Let's talk about what happened with toilet paper during the pandemic as a great example of why "price gouging" is actually exactly what you want in a free market. Most people keep maybe 1-2 weeks worth of toilet paper in their house. Why hold onto more when it's easily available at the store? But as soon as people got worried, they rushed to the store to buy months worth of toilet paper at a time. Stores didn't raise prices because they didn't want to be accused of heartless price gouging. So of course they immediately sold out of toilet paper.
Anyone that actually wanted toilet paper couldn't find any, at any price.
Now that supply was an issue, if you happened to be in a store and saw they had some toilet paper in stock, you'd immediately buy it regardless of whether you really needed any - because toilet paper is hard to find! And since it costs the same as always and you're going to need it eventually, why not buy it now?
If stores had simply increased prices by 10x as their inventory got low, and then gradually lowered them back as it was replenished, the entire stupid panic would have been avoided. Yes, some people would end up paying 10x the price for toilet paper, if they really, really needed it. But guess what? At least there was toilet paper on the shelf! The alternative - what happened in reality - is that these people really needed toilet paper, and were willing and able to buy it for 10x the price - and there was none available, at any price, for anyone to buy!
The reason stores were afraid to raise their prices - is because they were afraid of people who would make wrong-headed arguments about the market like the ones you're making here. The pressure to not let the market operate normally made things worse for everyone.
As another, less harmless example: we would all be so much better off if we could simply institute a refundable tax on carbon emissions and increase the tax until emissions dropped below a sustainable level. But a lack of understanding of market dynamics and the value and superiority of price signals, etc. is a large part of what is blocking this and potentially dooming humanity and modern civilization.
The same lack of understanding I perceive in your writing here - is why government subsidies made college education more expensive for everyone in the US - why government interference has led the US healthcare system to be the most expensive and least efficient in the world - and why we are on a path to fail to effectively address climate change. That's why I feel strongly about this topic.
---
To answer your question: I think a lot of harm that has been done to society in the past 20-30 years has come from well-intentioned people, like yourself, trying to fix what they perceive as flaws in the market and making things worse for everyone as a result. That's why I feel strongly about this topic.
College education and healthcare in the US are the two most salient examples, where politicians step in to manipulate the market, thus making things worse in some way, and then use the harm caused by the market malfunction that they themselves introduced to justify further manipulation - ad infinitum.
Let's talk about what happened with toilet paper during the pandemic as a great example of why "price gouging" is actually exactly what you want in a free market. Most people keep maybe 1-2 weeks worth of toilet paper in their house. Why hold onto more when it's easily available at the store? But as soon as people got worried, they rushed to the store to buy months worth of toilet paper at a time. Stores didn't raise prices because they didn't want to be accused of heartless price gouging. So of course they immediately sold out of toilet paper.
Anyone that actually wanted toilet paper couldn't find any, at any price.
Now that supply was an issue, if you happened to be in a store and saw they had some toilet paper in stock, you'd immediately buy it regardless of whether you really needed any - because toilet paper is hard to find! And since it costs the same as always and you're going to need it eventually, why not buy it now?
If stores had simply increased prices by 10x as their inventory got low, and then gradually lowered them back as it was replenished, the entire stupid panic would have been avoided. Yes, some people would end up paying 10x the price for toilet paper, if they really, really needed it. But guess what? At least there was toilet paper on the shelf! The alternative - what happened in reality - is that these people really needed toilet paper, and were willing and able to buy it for 10x the price - and there was none available, at any price, for anyone to buy!
The reason stores were afraid to raise their prices - is because they were afraid of people who would make wrong-headed arguments about the market like the ones you're making here. The pressure to not let the market operate normally made things worse for everyone.
As another, less harmless example: we would all be so much better off if we could simply institute a refundable tax on carbon emissions and increase the tax until emissions dropped below a sustainable level. But a lack of understanding of market dynamics and the value and superiority of price signals, etc. is a large part of what is blocking this and potentially dooming humanity and modern civilization.
The same lack of understanding I perceive in your writing here - is why government subsidies made college education more expensive for everyone in the US - why government interference has led the US healthcare system to be the most expensive and least efficient in the world - and why we are on a path to fail to effectively address climate change. That's why I feel strongly about this topic.