You folks totally miss read what I typed.. so be it. This is what I was referring to.
link.
FindLaw's extensive state-by-state listing of price gouging laws.
www.findlaw.com
So what do we do in times of an emergency, such as a hurricane, where the demand for certain items goes out of sight (plywood, food, tarps, fuel, generators, potable water, ice, caskets, etc.)? The supply chain for every item is based on workers who make those items putting in a 40-hour week, and on truckers being similarly restricted (calculating the latter is beyond the smarts allowed in my pay grade).
So, BOOM, a hurricane like Katrina that hit New Orleans hits a populated area of the U.S., with many deaths and huge damage to most houses, as well as to commercial and industrial buildings and facilities. Plywood, food, tarps, fuel, generators, potable water, ice, caskets, etc. are now in huge demand. But price controls restrict local retailers from raising their prices -- seems fair on the surface, eh? Two days in, and the local retailers are now out of product, even though they ordered resupplies days before the storm was due to hit, but resupply under normal (price control restrictions) will take weeks. The supply chain is accustomed to supplying retailers for non-emergency times, and because a normal profit is part of cost, with price controls the retailers cannot afford to offer the suppliers more money to make more goods, or the logistics system higher prices to expedite delivery of these desperately needed goods. Not having a higher profit incentive, the manufacturers of these goods cannot ramp up their production because their workers are already working at 40-hour-per-week maximum production and there is no additional money to pay their workers for working overtime. Similarly, logistics is only making a normal profit on their trucks, so the trucking companies cannot afford to put a second driver on to expedite shipping deliveries.
So, those who believe in price controls in these circumstances feel righteously justified (unless they are in the hurricane-impacted area), and those who need those goods are just way out of luck.