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If you voluntarily make an exchange with someone else, both of you gain value; both of you would prefer to have what you got from the trade more than what you lost. This isnt exploitation, trade isnt zero sum. Billions of these little value gains are what civilization is made of!

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True, but nor are they fair. Or the assumption that exchanges are equal by some definition is unfounded. Exchanges are "voluntary" only compared to the alternatives each party faces. Hence exploitation is possible.

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even if it's only compared to the alternatives, it's still improving the situation. "Exploitation" is thus bettering their circumstances

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Like it’s true that if I pay extremely inflated prices for grain being hoarded during a famine both I and the hoarder are better off than potential alternatives, but hoarding food during a famine is both morally bad and is obviously socially non-optimal

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paying inflated prices incentives hoarding, which is good because it incentives people preparing food for possible famine. if you ban hoarding now ppl don't have incentive to stockpile food for others in case of famine and more ppl starve

6:54 PM · Dec 21, 2021

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This is a question we can actually answer empirically: do you think places with laws against price gouging have worse famines? That also just isn’t how grain markets work, but let’s leave that aside for now

Eve Alexander | Chicago, FMTY

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Can you please give examples of "people stockpiling food for OTHERS" when food is scarce (or at risk for being so)? Can you give me examples where you personally gave to others in zero sum situations, to your own risk or detriment? 1/2

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There are some subtleties here. Most "hoarding" I've seen involved people buying out all the existing products from a market, before an anticipated shortage, in order to profit.

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The merit of surge pricing depends on specifics. Does it function as an incentive for production or to allocate more efficiently? Probably good. Are availability and need fixed regardless? Probably bad, consider rationing.

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