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0 pointsgeofft6y ago0 comments

> The extra capacity that I am talking about, still costs extra money to activate

You're claiming that both

a) not enough toilet paper exists to satisfy genuine demand

b) in order to meet that demand, they need to raise prices

I agree that it is theoretically possible that not enough toilet paper exists, and I agree that there exist ways to increase production that involve spending more money. Both of those are different from saying that in reality not enough toilet paper exists, and in reality manufacturers need (or even want) to increase capacity by increasing per-unit expenses. That's what my question is about.

More importantly, those seem like testable claims. Again - have any toilet paper (or hand sanitizer, or whatever) manufacturers raised prices? Have any of them said that they're unable to supply enough to meet demand? Have any of them said they could meet demand better if they could raise prices?

And back on topic, have any of them found themselves unable to raise prices because of price-gouging laws? I'm pretty sure that if a manufacturer raises prices, and if resellers pass that cost on to consumers (and do not disproportionately increase their margins), that isn't price gouging, and therefore resellers can actually charge more, and therefore they can actually accommodate manufacturers charging more, and so we have nothing to worry about. Do you disagree with that?

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stale20026y ago

> a) not enough toilet paper exists to satisfy genuine demand

> b) in order to meet that demand, they need to raise prices

I am claiming that there is not enough local capacity to satisfy a very very short term local demand. And that an increase in prices can help satisfy the local capacity issue.

IE, if there is a bunch of supply in a different place, transporting that is possible, but costs money.

(I should have just talked about transportation, now that I think about it. The "problem" is actually way more short term than something where factory hours matter at all)

> Do you disagree with that?

My main argument that I attempted and failed to communicate is actually more that freaking out about "hoarders" is really silly, and that none of this is actually a big deal.

The amount of time that these local shortages last, is measured in days, before the next shipment arrives.

Which is why enforcement of this law is misguided. It is making a huge deal of an extremely minimal issue.

Worst case scenario, some people have to wait a couple days for the store to get the shipment in, or they have to travel a half hour to the nearest Costco. Not a big deal.

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