The Cost (of Goods) after Sandy

Over the years, it seems that some people have continuously had some tendency to try and screw others over. It seems that in the wake of hurricane Sandy, a rash of price gouging has occurred on common necessities, gasoline, and temporary housing. For anyone who isn't particularly familiar with the term, price gouging is when prices are increased to a level that seems unreasonable or unfair. Typically the practice takes place after some sort of incident that affects supply or demand in a sudden, dramatic fashion occurs. Examples include supply disruptions after a bad harvest of a crop, and more recently, the aftermath of hurricane Sandy in New York as people try to find supplies and places to stay while the aftermath of the storm is dealt with. While I wonder what kind of person it takes to do something like this, that is neither here nor there in the issue. What is a fact, though, is that this practice is genuinely illegal: "under New York state law, retailers were not allowed to charge 'unconscionably excessive prices' for goods required for personal, family or household purposes when there was an abnormal disruption of the market." So, anyone who gets caught trying to take advantage of the disaster to make an extra buck is liable. And while an increase in price isn't necessarily illegal in a situation such as this (it seems that "Vendors may defend higher prices if they can show an increased cost of obtaining goods from wholesalers or in delivering services, making prosecutions difficult."), when a box of matches costs $10 and a loaf of bread $7, up more than double the costs before the storm, it is almost blatantly obvious that sellers of such items are trying to make a quick buck off of the misfortune of others. Generators have also been subject to price gouging, and apparently hotels have increased the rates on their rooms as people scramble to keep warm, dry, and off the streets.

The slew of "unconscionable" price increases has already been receiving plenty of flak, and officials are already working on the problem. "'Our office has zero tolerance for price gouging,' [NY State Attorney General] Schneiderman said. 'We are actively investigating hundreds of complaints we've received from consumers of businesses preying on victims.'" In fact, the Attorney General's office actually warned vendors against price gouging before the storm struck, on Oct. 29. Apparently some decided not to listen. However, the fact that people have been reporting the incidents is the only way to really track the occurrence , so while there have been over 500 reports of price gouging in Sandy's wake, these may be concentrated with particular vendors, while some haven't been reported at all.

Ground level consumers aren't the only ones being taken advantage of, either. In this interesting Reddit post I encountered, an individual posted a letter that he had sent to FEMA regarding a shipping company that someone he knew worked at, that contracts truckers and makes its money by charging more than what the trucker is getting paid and taking the difference. The dispatcher receives a percentage of this difference which led to this:
"The reason I am contacting you is because one of my friends co-workers was bragging about his paycheck due to his account with FEMA, it seems he made $76,000 in two weeks dispatching trucks with food and post-disaster supplies for Hurricane Sandy victims from a very short distance away. The truckers were paid $200 a shipment, and since you are a "government" institution he felt he could quote you anything he wanted and you would pay... and you did. So...something that should have cost you maybe $10,000 ended up being well over $300,000... and I'm sure pressed your budget for the amount of help that could be sent (which I take personally as a former New Yorker with many friends living in all boroughs) [sic]." While this is a different kind of price gouging, I'm sure that there are many besides the poster who sent this letter who feel that what this dispatcher was doing was fundamentally wrong, even if there wasn't a disaster that was initiating the incident.

But even though there will always be those who take advantage of the misfortune of others, there will also be those who do what they can to try and help. So, ultimately, there will always be a mix of people with different scruples, the one thing we can hope for is that the majority of them without won't be the ones in power, taking advantage of others.