Lynch the Gougers!

If you haven't heard, the Phoenix metropolitan area is running low on gas. Long lines of drivers with short tempers wind from the few stations with the precious fluid. The media sends out small armies of reporters and cameramen to further annoy those stuck in queues said to last up to two hours. As usual the media inflames rather than informs. They have turned a temporary shortage into a u2018crisis' through their persistent caterwauling that agitated the driving public to fill their cars, SUVs, and other vehicles to the brim whenever possible. The media manipulated fear and caused a minor panic, proving that as a propagandist, even the lowest form of journalist can incite the mob.

Recently, the web site of the local newspaper, The Arizona Republic, showed an irate man yelling at station employees because the price of a gallon of gas was $3.99. He believed the gas price should be lower. For him, and the rest of us, that price would be $0.00 a gallon. That's human nature.

The station owner would love to sell it at $1,000 or more a gallon. That's human nature. Business prudence informing the market has established the rates for a gallon, as of August 20, from $1.99 to $2.49. Given the circumstances this is not unreasonable.

They'll never admit it, but those envious feelings are quite universal in enterprise because greed drives transactions and is kept at bay only by the market. The simple law of supply and demand is as set in human transaction as the law of gravity is in physics. Virtue often acts on greed to mitigate it, but in our secular society virtuous elements are quickly disappearing because government has stepped in and promised everyone it would punish the greedy and protect the victims… if only the populace ceded more liberty for the chimera of an all-encompassing u2018security' and u2018protection.'

The truth is: the democratic mob wants something for nothing because it believes it's entitled to it. Demagogues inflame the mob. Gas line executives are duplicitous, station owners greedy, poor computers victims, while the government will ride to the rescue.

The Hillary-esque governess of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, a lawyer, turned bureaucrat, turned politician, presented this view in a recent news conference. She probably has never run a business in her life. This socialista said in a recent press conference, "Arizona drivers deserve to get gas when they go to gas stations. That’s not an unreasonable expectation." We deserve gas? We merit gas because of some inherent right? She speaks like a true socialist who wants to inflame one group against another for the financial benefit of lawyers who feed on this kind of meat in the various courts in the nation and for the extension of government power in the social and economic realms.

She, the dull-witted media, and usual suspects of socialists from both parties in the legislature believe the right course in this alleged u2018crisis' is to go after u2018price gougers.'

"We need laws on u2018price gouging,' the governess growled. Later she added, “… I’m angry that the private sector, which is supposed to be in charge of running gasoline into the Valley, doesn’t have its act together to deal with a critical situation, so now the public sector has to step in."

When she, or any politician says, "the public sector," she means government: more laws, more regulations, more bureaucrats, more taxes or u2018fees.' While they try to soothe the mob's savage breast with calls to punish u2018gougers,' politicians quickly rise up to take more and more power, knowing the mindless believers in democracy will cheer the ominous move.

What is price gouging? Nobody knows, but one thing is certain: it's another way for government bureaucrats to kick in the front doors of small businesses and dip their vile hands into the tills of these generally powerless people.

The punitive redistributionist idea of anti-gouging laws inhibits business and magnifies government; especially the policing agencies that tend to become immune to elimination. These laws will require another layer of government to sit atop the businessman's enterprise influencing whatever he does by instilling fear in him. He will probably realize over time that it's better for him to sell out or just close shop than to continue as a legally-bound slave to a nest of bureaucrats who have the authority to make his life miserable and to strip him of his livelihood.

The idea that bureaucrats can alleviate any ill real or imagined, such as u2018price gouging,' is the political equivalent of faith healing by quacks. The gullible pay the admission price, swoon at the charlatan's tricks, and fall prey to the deception. The quack, though, gives a better show and usually disappears over time; the former are with us forever like allergies in springtime.

Yet, the question of what is u2018price gouging' has not been answered. Check out some u2018price gouging' laws from around the country and you will notice one constant. It is the metaphysical element of u2018unconscionable.' Though lawyers may squabble over this term and give it some distorted meaning, it has no meaning to real transactions.

I go to the gas station and wait in line. The large sign out front tells me the price of a gallon of gas is $10.00 a gallon. Still, I wait and fill up my car's tank. The seller of the goods made me an offer that I AGREED was fair at this time because I NEEDED the product.

I'm relatively happy that I have gas and temporarily have eliminated the worry of running out.

Down the road I see an owner, who apparently went insane, charging only $1.00 a gallon. My reaction? I kick myself for not taking a greater risk, but realize that at least I have gas to get to the bar, the ballpark, my girlfriend's home, and later to pick up my wife at work. If I hadn't filled up on $10 a gallon gas, I wouldn't be able to pick up the wife!

However, if I'm part of the mob crying out for vengeance I call the attorney general and in my meekest, most pitiful voice cry, "I've been gouged! I DEMAND justice!"

Or if I'm really inflamed by the unseasonable heat I go fetch a bat, return to the owner, and beat him or his goods with it. Then I shout at the TV cameras as I'm hauled away, "Power to the people! Vengeance is mine saith the mob!"

Both scenarios, preferably the latter, in our victim hungry society makes for easy news, unfettering the alleged journalist to do the real work of hair combing, trouser crease straightening, calling friends, stock quote checking, or the myriad of chores filling the days of reporters in these End Times.

The true nature of life in the world is transaction, every day, day in day out, hour in hour out. In economic transactions, it is solely based on two people-buyer and seller. It's not pretty, mostly not involving sex. Broadcast of most transactions would send the most ardent couch potato into a deep sleep if shown on the evening news. u2018Crisis' sells; u2018shortage' sells; u2018price gouging' sells; but the daily lives of most Americans do not sell advertising or newspapers.

But the fact remains, whether or not the media and politicians like it, if I don't like your price, I go elsewhere. If I can't go elsewhere, I may accommodate my needs in a reasonable and rational way. Nobody holds a gun to my head to pay an unfair price. The decision is solely mine.

Most people are like me, waiting for gas, willing, though not happy, to pay the price to keep us off buses.

The neighborhood gas station near my home had long lines on Monday, August 18. By midafternoon the gas was gone. A station employee told me, "No gas till Friday." Then yesterday I heard that a shipment would be in for Thursday. I woke up at 4:00 AM, drove to the station, filled my tank… no waiting. I went home drove my other car to the station, filled the tank, again no waiting. The price was $2.39. On Monday the station's gas price was $1.89, or fifty cents more per gallon. I paid the price without kicking the pimply-faced teen to unconsciousness or death. There were few other drivers also filling up, yet with this largesse of petroleum product none of us was smiling.

We grimly faced the real world as the rational men we're supposed to be. We might not like it, but we like it even less to be slaves to the State.

On Wednesday, I spoke with an employee of the same station. She said that on Tuesday, the day following the lines, she had no deposits for the bank. There were few customers coming in to buy sodas, chips, ice, and other items usually purchased with the gas. My son was one of the few customers on Wednesday. While the hysterics shout about u2018price gouging,' few pay attention to the real costs the owner must bear. With an erratic supply of gasoline, and the threat of little more for the rest of the month, the owner must make the economic decisions that impact his employees. Lay offs? Closure? Cut back on hours? Will he win back any of his loyal customers? Will his supplier squeeze him out of business during this shortage? Will he be able to meet his own mortgage or pay on his other debts? These factors weigh on the pricing decision. He did not enter business to lose his shirt. Yet a cloud of mosquitoes alights on his shoulder to watch every move.

Will the Arizona Attorney General incited by governess Napolitano legally lynch our neighborly station owner? Probably not. But the media will sniff out some business owner, ridicule him in public, and perhaps even destroy his business because his prices were u2018unconscionable,' yet there were enough people who wanted and needed his product enough to pay the price. They drove in, filled up, and left. They could have driven on and waited. That's the free decision we still can make in our market economy.

Will we be able to make those decisions tomorrow? All bets are off when government smells an opportunity to metastasize.

August 22, 2003