Rehash please - best non-gas generators

[krw]

Stupid law. So instead of someone selling a few and "price gouging" there are none. Brilliant!

[jamesgangnc]

No, there are plenty. One store brought multiple truckloads of generators in from out of state. They just had to sell them for the same price they were selling them for the week before. You think it's better that people in trouble because of a natural disaster should then also have to pay two or three times as much for things? How would you like it if it happened to you? You'd be ok paying $20 a case for bottled water that was $5 the week before when you don't have water or electricity? Stores still make the same profit per item then were making plus they can take advantage of the increased demand to make more money if they are smart. You're stupid if you don't see the difference.

[krw]

If there were "plenty", "price gouging" would be impossible.

Stupid.

Yes. Price is how purchases are prioritized. Someone who might need a generator might just as well buy one. Maybe two. Meanwhile the person who

*really* needs one (medical need, perhaps) has none.

If I *needed* the bottle of water, not a problem. I *will* think twice about whether I need it or not. ...and that's the whole point. Priorities will dictate what I will spend, as it should be.

Clearly you're not thinking straight (normal mode for a lefty). Demand is the only thing that can set price, otherwise you *will* have an imbalance of supply.

Think about this as applied to a hotel room in a similar situation. A family needs a room after the storm. "How much", asks he. "$100 per room, can't charge more than last week", says, Mr. Inkeeper. "Fine, give me two (gets the kids out of mommy&daddy's room)". "Done". Next family; "How much?", asks he. Innkeep: "Sorry, No vacancy."

[trader4]

I wonder what his reaction would be if he owned a piece of property and oil was suddenly discovered around the corner. Would he do the "right" thing and sell it only for what it was worth the day before?

I agree with you. These laws that prevent "price gouging" are just plain stupid. In an emergency I want everyone to know they can set their own price. What that law is telling people is not to take the risk and go out of their way to supply products to those that need them. Case in point, being the generator truck. Without these crazy laws, there is an incentive for a guy like the generator truck guy to risk his money buying a load of generators in say Ohio and driving them here where they are needed and selling them for whatever price he can get. People in turn are free to buy them or not buy them. Put uncertainty in the equation and the guy isn't going to hire a lawyer to figure out what the law is 2 states away.

And there is also a self-corrective measure. By and large the folks charging high prices are entrepeneurs like the example, not the local Home Depot or ACE Hardware. Those companies are not going to raise prices because the small amount of additional profit isn't worth pissing off some customers.

In short as in so many cases the cure for the alleged problem is worse than the problem itself.

[jamesgangnc]

:

What you're forgetting is that 70% of the people out there have no idea what a generator should cost. They've never had anything to do with a portable generator. So they are the "suckers" in your free market. They are in a situation where they can't research prices, no stores open, no power for the computer, no internet. They have no idea $1500 is a complete rip off.

Besides, you right wing nut jobs are all the same, don't regulate anything, until you get burned personally. Then you suddenly are concerned. "How did the goverment let that happen to me?

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

so-- They show up at the store the day after a Hurricane and prioritize. [which they did with their money to buy the things that the generator will make work- instead of buying the generator last week]

Is it worth $1500 to them *that* day? Will the guy in line behind them fork over the cash?

Actually I'm a leftward leaning independent. I'm a diehard, unashamed Obama supporter. [until this week when they got screwed trying to 'play the game' instead of taking care of business]

There are a lot of things the Gov't needs to hold businesses accountable for. Pricing should always be a function of the market.

Jim

[Han]

Jim Elbrecht wrote in news: [e-mail]:

But it has to be a free market, not a compromised one ... Granted that that should be selfcorrecting, but it can take a while ...

[krw]

Right, it's time to get the government out of the market, as far out as possible. Crony-capitalism is more of a problem of the left than the right.

[jamesgangnc]

And the bainking fiasco that started the economic melt down had nothing to do with the deregulation done leading up to it. We should have just let it self correct and that's just too bad if millions and millions of people lost their entire retirement savings. They should have known better.

[krw]

Once again you show how clueless you are.

[Vic Smith]

If these anti-gouging laws are keeping goods from flowing to where they are needed, that's not good. I couldn't get a good handle on who gets charged with violating these laws or what effect they have on keeping hustlers from delivering the goods Seems most enforcement is against motels and gas stations. Don't remember who mentioned the generators out of a truck, but if it was trader4 and he lives in NJ, they have anti-gouging laws.

31 states have anti-gouging laws. Looks like they didn't keep this guy from selling the generators. I would be in and out quick if I did that. If somebody will pay $1500 for a $300 generator that's their business. It's all mob mentality anyway. Why do they suddenly need a generator? Even when your power will be out for a week, it's not the end of the world. If they have a good reason for the generator then they'll pay. Most are probably buying the generators because they saw the line. If they need it to run a pump to clear their basement then the extra cost might be worth it. Up to them. When I felt I was getting "gouged" by guys selling Christmas trees on corner lots, I started buying them at big box places. Then my wife bought a plastic tree because she didn't like dealing with the needles. I like it.

--Vic

[HeyBub]

I've often wondered: Is it insulting to call someone else insulting? It seems to be kind of self-referential, much like saying if this sentence were shorter it wouldn't be as long.

[HeyBub]

Sorry, it wasn't DE-regulation that caused the problem - it was OVER-regulation.

Specifically, the mandates that banks lend money to people currently living under bridges so they could buy a home.

[trader4]

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People were able to determine prices long before we had computers or the internet. A phone call to a couple of friends would be one way. Or walking over to a neighbor who has a generator running and asking what they paid for it. Or using a friend's computer. While I had no power, I used a computer at a friend's house. Or how about all those web enabled cell phones that most kids have today?

And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. If you really, really want a generator and the only one available is being sold by a guy out of a truck, it's either worth it to you at that price or it isn't. If you don't want it for $1400, someone else most likely will.

See, that's where we differ. You libs think everyone else is stupid and that they need you and big govt to think for them and save them from themselves. I've never in all my life bitched because the govt let something happen to me. I do bitch regularly about what the govt is doing to me, how each year I have to work more days to support it, how it's slowly taking our freedoms away. And those freedoms include being able to buy a generator at any damn price I feel like.

[krw]

F&F buying any junk (the junkier the better) from mortgage companies and a (de facto) guarantee on the rest. Yes, it was *regulation* that caused the debacle. It was *regulation* that keeps it from sorting itself out. It's

*regulation* that's causing this miserable recession to drag on (and on, and...).

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Now tell me why the housing buble was non-existent in Texas where regulations were so much stringer and prevented unqualified people from getting homes? You really can't have it both ways, you know.

[JimT]

We may not have experience the crash (yet) like others but the market here is pretty anemic.

Jim Austin

[krw]

...and how did the lending practices amount to "DEregulation"? There were

*never* any federal regulations regarding down payments. In fact, it was always the feds who pushed low downs (I had one in '82 - 1% or some silly number like that). The more important issue was the junk paper that these loans turned into and then traded as AAA paper. *THAT* was brought on by F&F, the Democrats' favorite toys. Do remember than GWB warned of this at *least* three times in major speeches (two being SotU messages). The Democrats, lead by the Barney and Chris show, would have no part of reigning them in (and kill his husband's bonuses?). ...right up to the collapse. Even now, they're back at it. This *will* collapse again. It ain't fixed.

[Han]

Interesting. No talk about the bribing by the banks of the rating agencies, to make AAA paper out of fake incomes etc.

[krw]

If F&F weren't "guaranteeing" the paper, no matter what was in it, it wouldn't matter.