pizza and price gouging

price gouging is a good thing. i always suspected this, and more skillful hands have penned many words on the subject. now that i’ve witnessed behavior during crisis for myself, i must vociferously concur. price gouging may not only be the most fair way to allocate goods, but it might also encourage smarter, kinder behavior by all involved, including myself.

pizza prompted my reflections on food rationing during crisis. on the first day of the storm about 150,000 people in the area were without power, and many – those with mettle and four-wheel drive – migrated to the few electrified locales to forage for food. we drove around trying to find a restaurant with power, and arrived at louie’s pizza. louie had just enough left to make us food, and after taking our order he began to turn customers away. after talking with the man in front of us in line, we learned that his home had full power, but that he just wanted some pizza. the more hungry, desperate people louie turned away, the angrier i got at this unrepentant customer and others like him. in this situation, food was distributed by order of arrival. this first come, first serve method is rather arbitrary and certainly not according to need. although we were fortunate enough to get louie’s last subs, the many who came after us were out of luck. had the pizza shop raised its prices, he probably would have eaten at home instead because he didn’t crave louie's excellent pizza enough to pay 50% more than what he normally would. and if louie had raised his prices even higher, and other businesses did as well, we would have probably just went back home and eaten pb&j, freeing up our food for others. when prices are inflated, only those who are in sincere need of goods and services would make the trek in town, reducing the number of people on the road as well as freeing up scarce resources for those in most need of them. price inflation seems the best way to allocate resources and encourage neighborly behavior, at least in this case.