Should price gouging result in prison time?

[Tim4319]

I think so! It is criminal what we are paying for gas. Minimum wage hasn't increased in almost 10 years, but the price per gallon goes up by the minute. Now, when threatened with prison, the oil execs say that is harsh. That's B.S.!

<<snip>>

The House said that plan is too complicated. House members want the cap repealed for good, but threaten gasoline executive with up to five years in prison if they unfairly manipulate the free market.

"Those instances would probably prompt a criminal or civil investigation and possibly prosecution," Rep. Marcus Oshiro said.

A gas company executive thinks that's a bit harsh and unnecessary.

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/money/8840044/detail.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Absolutely.

Just as hiring undocumented laborers for less than minimum wage should result in prison time.
Both of these practices serve to undermine our economy.

[mrcheerful]

2. Tell me about it, yesterday I drove 50 miles away, on the way up gas was

2.89 a gallon. Two hours later coming back the same gas prices had jumped up to 2.93 a gallon.

[Akoto]

3. I'm kind of confused on this subject.

I think price gouging on the necessities of modern life (such as gasoline) should be looked into, and should result in punishment.

However, I don't see how we can strictly regulate the prices on such things without affecting the overall economy. After all, if the government says 'you may only charge this amount for this product,' competition is effectively eliminated. That's an important part of our economy.

[Tim4319]

7. I hear you.

But, when I read articles on how and oil exec retired with a 400 million dollar package, and how the oil companies are recording profits, I believe something can be done!

[wake.up.america]

4. I am not a lawyer, I don't have an MBA - what is price gouging?...

How does one define price gouging?

Is it like porno?

I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

[Tim4319]

9. It's like raising the price of umbrellas on a rainy day!

[sam sarrha]

15. more like filling all reserve tanks with gas and withholding fuel to raise

the price of gas, having used a hedge fund to add and skim 20% of the pump price and your politician and media cronies to threaten Iran with atomic war and faking evidence for doing it..

and stuff like charging $5 for a liter of water in NOLA after the storm.. and turning back all the free donations of water.. wit some racial lame ass excuse the blacks will riot if you dont withhold water food and a way off a 110* roof ...

[wake.up.america]

17. I was not trying to be obnoxious, I was just wondering what the guideline.

was for declaring price gouging.

[onenote]

21. I think its a great question

The prices charged at some convenience stores are double what those same items cost at grocery stores. Is that price gouging? I don't think it is, but then what exactly is?

onenote

[Akoto]

13. Price gouging is like what you see in Florida after the hurricanes.

After every hurricane, we've always had jerks who mark up the price on their gas by a stupendous amount. Everyone desperately needs it then, and the lines to get it are hours long. Fortunately, the local government cracks down on them bigtime.

[yurbud]

no, but directing an administration to invade an oil producing coutry...

should.

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2006/03/bbcs-greg-palast-iraq-war-to-cap-oil.html

[sam sarrha]

16. it isnt stealing in a Capitalist society.. put it that way

[0007]

5. Same as stealing isn't it?

[HereSince1628]

6. Nah, it's a capital(ist) offense. Think like a leftist.

Take them to Lubyanka and dispatch them to their maker's judgement.

[Selatius]

8. Just levy a windfall tax on their income at the end of the year, I say

Use the revenue to, for instance, offer rebates to people who buy fuel efficient sedans like the Accord or the Corolla as well as hybrids.

[sam sarrha]

10. by saying it was harsh he basically admitted it, they definitely dint think

it is a serious crime.. or a crime at all, that is Ergonomics, that you can do anything regardless of the suffering and environmental destruction it causes as long as you dint get caught, bet then you can litigate yourself out of it. just sorta .. oh, if i got caught , or damn they're whining again so i just have to back off 3 cents, till next week, and make another campaign contribution

[Beelzebud]

11. Black men in America get 4 times that for 10 times less...

[Tim4319]

27. Yeah!

The sentences for coke and crack comes to mind!

[Missy M]

12. No, we already have enough prisons and I think the....

punishment for price gouging should be monetary to the price gougers. These people are only interested in money, so take it away from them and it will be the harshest punishment you could give them.

[MindPilot]

19. I agree with that, missy!!

Huge, huge fines and lots of community service. And just like child molesters are prohibited from having contact with children, anyone convicted of a monetary offense should never be allowed to do anything with money except earn enough of it to scrape by at a McJob.

[Missy M]

20. Right On about the type of jobs they would be allowed to have...

let them earn minimum wage and try to pay for gas.

[The2ndWheel]

14. Good to know

we all don't mind the repression in countries like Saudi Arabia. If they didn't have that order, pipelines would be blown away everyday. That would lead to "gouging" as well.

Long live cheap energy! It's our right!

[Cobalt Violet]

18. Prison and restitution. n/t

[Asgaya Dihi]

22. Yeah, it should.

I never made a bit of sense to me that someone could rob the retirement savings of thousands or millions and get just a few years if that, build faulty products that kill people and get a fine, and profiteer on drugs and other items while people die for the lack of them. While people who damage thousands or millions get away with it we fill our prisons with kids over petty stuff because they couldn't afford a decent defense.

We seem to have it backward.

[KAT119]

23. No Doubt About It!!

[ComerPerro]

24. Its irrelevant. You can't prove gouging.

[Tim4319]

28. No?

I thought maybe you can compare supply and demand between a certain period of time, and if they remain the same. Then, compare the profits these oil companies made during that time. Have them explain why there such huge differences, and if they perjure themselves, hit them with fines and/or jail time! This is very relevant to me, I am trying to support a family on a substitute teachers salary, because I was laid off in July!

[Ron Mexico]

25. Why not skin the bastards alive and throw them into

cauldrons of boiling oil?

Yes, gas prices suck, but even if you could specifically define gouging for me and then construct a law that takes up less pages than the tax code to address what would constitute "gouging" for each product in each of our roughly 3,000 counties (taking into account cost of living, the population and the demographics in each) under each circumstance (flood, hurricane, earthquake, lengthy utility outage, radiological hazard, chemical hazard, simple supply shortage, etc) and each permutation of supply and demand, and then deal with the fact that every seller of every legal product in the cosmos will bombard the Hill with lobbyists to keep their bread and butter off the legislation (while each lawmaker argues for breaks for his or her constituency), isn't prison time a little bit harsh? I agree with the first respondent - reserve prison time for those who hire illegals.

A drinking buddy of mine runs a gas station in Laurel, MD, and tells me that the prices where he works are changed back and forth just to keep the profits at the same level (as does every gas station nearby). A grand total of 3-3.5% of what they take in there turns out to be profit, so if the government instituted a price control and his overhead went up thereafter with his prices being frozen, he'd just close until the price dropped.

I've also noticed that any time a price is more than someone wants to pay, it's "gouging." Even if the government came up with a law, it wouldn't require people to sell at a loss, so people are going to call gas prices "gouging" no matter what. As the overhead goes up, the price goes up, and people would scream "gouging" even if we had such a law - and yet this buddy of mine tells me that his profit is the same whether the price of a gallon is $2.25 or $3.25. Let's direct our efforts at those bastard jewelers who gouge us on rings for our wives instead.

[noonwitch]

26. No, it should be huge fines

The kind that will put the gouger out of business. If they don't pay their fines, then send them to jail.