An Economic Point of View on Price Gauging - Essay Example

An Economic Point of View on Price GaugingArticle ReviewThis particular chapter helped to paint a picture of what is morally right with respect to the way our economic system works and is governed. The author uses the specific example of price gauging to engage the reader on whether or not it is a good thing or a bad thing that the government should step in with regards to seeking to regulate or not regulate the supply and demand in situations in which price gauging is likely to occur or is already occurring.

The main arguments that were considered were whether it was better to allow the free market to determine what prices we pay for certain things or whether it was more “just” to all parties involved to have the government seek to regulate the way in which purchases are made. The obvious answer that struck this reader was that it should not be allowed to price gauge a customer. Yet, one of the points of view that the author presented was that price gauging should be allowed to exist so that the economic market can quickly reach a point of equilibrium.

Although I do not agree with this, the fact is that the science behind such a point of view is inarguable. However, the point is not whether the free market is the best way to solve all of the world’s problems, the issue revolves around how would be the more “just” way to allocate the resources we as a society have during a national emergency or a crisis in which price gauging would be very common place. As such, it is the belief of this author that even though the free market has helped the nation develop an economy that is the strongest the world has yet seen, the fact remains that the federal government has a responsibility to its most vulnerable citizens to continue to implement rules and regulations that help to protect them against the predatory nature of price gauging.

Regardless of what individual economists or economic theorists might put forward, the practice in and of itself is not reconcilable with a free and open society as the United States has claimed to have built (Sandel 5).Finally, approaching such a topic from merely an economic point of view misses out on a great deal of the layers of meaning and ideals of “right and wrong”/”good and bad” that exist within the example that was given. Rather than attempting to understand the question of overall “justness” of price gauging in such a way, it is the recommendation of this author that a uniquely human view be applied and one consider whether the process of price gauging is a practice that one would either A- want to participate in or B – would feel comfortable performing upon another individual.

If the answer to either of these questions is no then the answer has already been achieved without necessitating a thorough review of economic graphs and equilibrium points of markets.ReferenceSandel, M. (2007). Justice : a reader. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press.