Question of the day
Monday, Mar 30, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Scott Reeder…
Illinois has weak price-gouging laws. In fact, only fuel is covered by the state’s price-gouging statute, Rob Karr, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said.
Karr added that price increases often are made by wholesalers supplying retailers. But retailers often are blamed by customers for the price jump.
An executive order filed this month by Gov. JB Pritzker further expanded enforcement of price gouging to include medical and sanitary items used in the fight against the coronavirus, said Tori Joseph, a spokeswoman for the attorney general. She added the attorney general also can use his civil powers to fine retailers he believes have unfairly increased the prices of other items.
For now, his office is calling retailers who customers have complained about unfairly raising prices, and asking them to cut prices.
* The Question: Should Illinois broaden its price-gouging laws? Make sure to explain your answer, please. Thanks.
- OutOfState - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:11 am:
Yes, the AG should have expanded emergency authority to give him the prerogative over what constitutes price gouging, with allowable penalties comparable to those for fuel. The expanded authority expires 6/30/2021 unless renewed by the General Assembly.
- NIU Grad - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:15 am:
Maybe something to be tied to Gubernatorial emergency declarations for the future?
- yeah - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:23 am:
No.
Mostly because no one has ever offered me a definition of “price gouging” that isn’t simply a ripoff of Potter Stewart’s obscenity test (”I know it when I see it”)
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:24 am:
Yes. Price gouging is not only wrong, it harms people with the lowest or lower incomes. It’s understood that businesses are hurting now but it’s wrong to take advantage of people, especially those who can least afford it.
- Out Here In The Middle - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:41 am:
Yes. Reeder mentions that the rise of prices when demand outpaces supply is a normal means of allocating supply. That would be true in a pure market scenario but a pure market doesn’t exist. Increasing prices in a time of artificial shortage - such as now - is actually a means to “allocate” resources to wealthier customers.
As attributed to Yogi Bera “In theory there is no difference between theory & practice, but in practice there is.”
- Donnie Elgin - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:47 am:
No. Price discovery is a natural part of a free-market economy. Price increases can help prevent hoarding behavior preventing supply/demand imbalances.
- Captain Obvious - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:49 am:
No. Remedies currently available are adequate. If the gov actually gas the legal authority to add items to the forbidden list and the AG has civil authority to regulate that should be good enough if those two office holders are competent. Also there would have to be a clear, objective standard for what is price gouging and that may prove more difficult to develop than it might seem given the wide variety of industries in the modern economy.
- Anyone Remember - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 11:54 am:
Yes. And the AG’s legal authority should extent all the way up the supply chain to the point of manufacture. Otherwise cutouts and LLCs will make price gouging prosecution impossible.
- RNUG - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 12:43 pm:
No. A combination of the current authority and shaming, especially on social media, should be effective enough.
- the Patriot - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 12:44 pm:
No, it is a waste of time. The AG is useless and afraid to actually go to court. You have to have an AG that is interested in something other than a press conference for any of this to matter.
- Demoralized - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 1:58 pm:
the Patriot:
Thanks for your Facebook worthy post. You continued partisanship is noted.
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To the post:
Absolutely. If I were writing the law I would freeze prices at the level they were at, at the time of any disaster declaration and heavily fine anyone found to be violating those rules (as in make the fines strict enough that it could put some businesses out of business if they violate the law).
- Flapdoodle - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 3:06 pm:
Yes. There is no free market operating to equitably distribute essential but scarce goods and services. The market replicates existing systemic advantages and disadvantages at any time, but all the more so during periods when standard patterns of supply and earnings are disrupted. When supply shrinks or becomes unpredictable, the structural advantages lie with sellers. They may inflate prices beyond the means of average buyers, relying on scarcity to stimulate purchases by the more well off. What appears to be rational activity to maximize the profits of individual sellers in fact has socially irrational consequences by denying scarce essential goods and services to the less well off.
I agree with suggestions that any price gouging legislation be tied to a declaration of emergency by the governor and that prices be benchmarked at or near levels when that declaration is made.
- Generic Drone - Monday, Mar 30, 20 @ 5:56 pm:
Yes. Some retailers have no conscious. Today gas in Pittsfield was $2.05. Way out of line for area.