Another bit of twisted right wing corporate pandering from Mr Busler. And yet again so much wrong with his article.
Quote: "Price gouging is a pejorative term used to refer to the practice of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair by some. This commonly applies to price increases of basic necessities after natural disasters. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or supply shock. The term can also be used to refer to profits obtained by practices inconsistent with a competitive free market, or to windfall profits"
So yes to be fair the view can be a bit subjective. But wait.
Mr. Busler can't seem to keep from mixing root causes. Referencing eggs, for example. Egg prices didn't necessarily increase to due price gouging. There was a bird flu pandemic affecting chickens [1]. This was legitimate supply-demand in action.
Other grocery items were affected differently. When Kellog workers were on strike to prevent a two-tier wage system, the CEO at first tried to blame workers for increasing the cost of Kellog products. This was false. They were not asking for more money even as the CEO made greater than $11million and the company had a profit of $1.7Billion. Kellog also authorized $1.5B in stock buybacks. Yet in an investor call the CEO told them the company didn't have any real issues with supply chain during the pandemic, yet he also told said on the call "So, as we need to take price,...asking consumers to pay more" Blatantly saying he can raise prices because he can. [2]
As to 'adequate profit." Uh? That too is as subjective as "price gouging."
In reality, if a business simply breaks even, covering all costs as well as setting aside the money needed for future repairs or R&D, etc., that company won't cease to exist. So the "adequate profit" as viewed by people like corportist Busler is all money funneled to wealthy investors, CEOs and Wall St.
[1]
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/egg-prices-are-rising-bird-flu-limits-supply-rcna167016
[2]
