Property Rights Are the Foundation of a Free Society
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I recently read that a Motel 6 in Scottsdale, Arizona, is charging $699 a night for next year’s Super Bowl. Is that legal? It sure sounds like a bad case of price-gouging to me. I did a quick search of how much a Motel 6 in Scottsdale costs right now and it came out to around $100 a night.
That’s one super-sized price increase! Where are the anti-price-gougers when we need them? How come they aren’t screaming against “unjust profiteering”? Maybe it’s because they see nothing but rich people attending the Super Bowl and figure that there is nothing wrong with price-gouging rich people.
But that price increase in actually no different from any other big, temporary price increases in society, such as price increases during emergencies like hurricanes. That’s because of the principle of private property. An owner of anything has the right to charge whatever he wants for his product or service. That’s because it belongs to him. If people don’t like it, they don’t have to buy it.
Consider Motel 6. It realizes that the Super Bowl has, not surprisingly, increased demand for hotels and motels on that particular weekend. It has every right in the world to capitalize on that increase in demand. That’s because Motel 6 is a private company. As such, it has the right to charge whatever it wants for its motel rooms. If people don’t like it, they don’t have to stay there.
The principle is no different in a hurricane or other emergency. Bottled water is sud
Article from The Future of Freedom Foundation
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