Having no price ceilings means they can charge insane prices so NOBODY gets aid but the wealthy. You’d prefer full shelves and starving people outside?

There’s a reason there’s a law against price gouging. People who desperately need staple goods in short supply exist, and if you let gas prices hit 9.99 a gallon, and bread to hit 15 a loaf, people would get desperate and desperate people do dangerous things.

Thankfully those shitty elected officials were smart enough to make sure the misery was spread around equally. Because everyone knows it’s better to have no gasoline at all than to allow prices to rise.

Yeah thank goodness we rejected that libertarian wet dream and implemented price controls beforehand. Now we can enjoy having no gasoline at any price, thus achieving our goal of ensuring the misery is spread around equally.

Why do you keep trying to make this about morality when it’s clearly not? It’s about getting people the help they need, and there’s no denying that the shortage of fuel and supplies can largely be filled by people motivated by profit. Nobody gives a flying fuck whether you think it’s moral or not because your opinion…

I’m not sure you actually know what “zero sum game” means. Or for that matter, the proper usage of that meme.

Ah, the ad hominem; the last resort of a person who cannot cop to being wrong.

Uh, yeah. Drinking water in the Houston area is fairly scarce. That’s the reason people are charging more for it. It’s the reason Anheuser Busch started canning water to send down there. Have you been under a rock lately?

That’s really not much different; water is scarce is Texas right now just like fuel. The end result is the same: people buy more than they really need because prices are held artificially low, and then the people who actually need it can’t buy it at any price because the shelves have already been emptied.

But, I mean, what if you literally can’t afford the hiked prices? as in, you’re poor.

Yeah, what’s important is that we make sure the misery is spread out between everyone equally—even if that means nobody gets gas or water!

Everyone knows it’s better to have no fuel/food/water at all than to let someone profit off of it.

Yeah honestly I am disgusted that Atohi isn’t willing to haul all that stuff down there and give it away for free. I can only assume that you, as a noble person who values charity, have already done this.

Yeah it’s a good thing Texas has price controls in place and didn’t let themselves get conned.

Can’t price gouge when you have no gas. Check mate, greedy capitalists!

Lots of people are profiting off of this. Most of the companies sending down supplies, water, donations etc. are doing so to improve their own image with the ultimate goal of increasing profits from better PR. That’s not a bad thing.

That’s right, fairness is the priority here. Who cares if a handful of people are using up all the gas by filling up literal barrels? It’s better to have no gas at all than let those greedy profiteers make one extra cent.

That being the case, someone better go tell all the relief organizations that are trying to bring in food and supplies to just not bother. No need to send them any donations since there’s nothing they can do with flooded roads.

Translation:

Always right on time with the ad hominem attacks.