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[sapphi_snake]

@Kasz216:

So your best argument against price rationing is that it takes up time? Really? It requires time and planning, therefore it's bad. Expected response.

I'm curious, if you're financially ruined after having spent a fortune on normal everyday products like water and bread what good is all that time you saved not standing in line gonna do now that you're broke and can't buy materials to fix your house? And what if the prices of the materials are inflated also? Then even if buying basic supplies doesn't bankrupt you, you're still not gonna be able to rebuilt your house. But you do have time of course. Time to stare at the ruins of your former house. Let's celebrate!

ADDITIONALLY, there is no motivation to bring in or have extra product available in the area.

Here's an ideea: people need the products and are willing to buy them. Since you make products and you make money that way, and it's pretty much guaranteed that people will buy your products, shouldn't this be motivational enough? Or are companies just upset that they can't take advantage of people's misfortune and screw them over by charging 10x as much?

Buisnesses are profit driven.  Profit Driven over the long term.  There are few buisnesses that would sacrifice a long term consumer base for a short term gain.

Yet businesses do this all the time. Price gauging is seen very negatively, and could very well be damaging to a company's reputation. In this day and age, when consumers care about their rights so much, and when activism is rampant, it wouldn't be that unusual for some people to get upset with a company that practices price gauging during a disaster, and subsequently leading to a massive boycott of the company's products (and I assume no company wats this). I understand that when demand rises, so do prices, however the real world isn't like the abstract economical model you envision. Such speculation is viewed negatively by most people. You're making the same mistakes you accuse communists of making: not understanding human nature.

Disasters are a time where companies should take advantage of the situation and try to improve their reputation, which will have long-lasting benefits for the company (customers will like the company, become more loyal to it, which are  very important today when emotional elements are the prime factors which differentiate companies). Of course, lots of companies don't take this into considerations, and I'm not surprised liberterians don't either, especially since you like to look back with awe at the capitalism of the beggining of the century, where you could screw the consumer over however you wanted, and no one said a thing.