Hoarders and profiteers

What should be done about the people and businesses that are profiteering on needed medical and other supplies?

Do they have the right to do what they're doing, or should we prosecute these scum-suckers?

See: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...ficials-are-coming-after-you/ar-BB128mFD

Jim

Are they breaking the law? If so, yes, and we should also go after medical facilities charging $700 for an aspirin.

James,
I beleive information is powe. Expose these (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) heads and when this is all said and done we can leave them to starve because none of us would ever shop there again.

And yes my fine Alaskan friend I lean toward the free market side of every argument and favor all manner of personal freedoms.

No that being said, with an iron clad court order that is constitutiona, seizures and vouchers for goods and services that can save lives are NOT out of the question in my mind anyway

I agree 100%

Medical facilities have gouging people for a long time. Unfortunately , they are also some of the biggest lobbyists and deep into paying off their favorite politicians.

Gary, they charged 1700 for a 3 block ambulance ride, 2 xrays, and a figure 8 strap (for a broken collar bone) back in 1992 or 3.

If me and you want to change it we need to have another Boston tea party

Hmm hmm, leading the witness your honor.

The blood sucking leaches, also known as pharma industry should have been dealt wit a long time ago for charging stupid amounts of money for cheap medicines. Not going against the free market but if the government invested into some medicine production places and made it at a reasonable price it would shake the market up a bit and bring things down to a sane level.

Your the lawyer James. I don't know if its legal or not but I think scumsuckers is a good metaphor for anybody charging 700 dollars for an asprin or a thousand for a dust mask

how much did you bill per hour, James?

It doesn't seem ethical but,,,,

The article admits there is no law against "price gouging" The attorney General couldn't define "price gouging" if he had to. That's why he is citing some BS he just made up about the price today compared to 30 days ago, Remember, this is Minnesota were talking about.

Another thing to consider is that the retailer has no idea at this point what it will cost him to buy new inventory two weeks from now. He may in fact be losing money on those prices.

As long as there is a willing seller and a willing buyer, there is no such thing as price gouging.

I hope the companies fight it.

I agree with Leftlane and, to a lesser extent, White17.

People have the constitutional right to be secure in their property, except that certain constitutional rights may be limited or curtailed during disaster, epidemic (or pandemic), or war.

Those whose goods are seized should be paid JUST compensation, which doesn't mean price-gouging.

Jim

[quote=white17
As long as there is a willing seller and a willing buyer, there is no such thing as price gouging.

I hope the companies fight it.[/quote]

Agree.

As far as medicine goes we need a true free market.

haha. You won't get an answer from Jim, but I was quoted about $170/hr a few weeks ago. That includes driving time.

if you sell something for 10 bucks someone will sell for 9 unless people are willing to spend 10

Gary,

most folks I know would consider $170/hr: "price gouging"...

X2

There was a guy on the news a few weeks ago that rented an enclosed trailer and went around and bought out stores of toilet paper and Purell then was tripeling the price and selling online and I believe even amazon. Not sure who but someone quickly put a nix on it!

Who decides what and when is JUST? The people doing the seizing? When do they make the compensation?

What would be just compensation for a 25 pound bag of beans you've been storing for 2 years? I mean you cant eat 25 pounds of beans in a week and I know people who will be out of beans in two days so I'll just take yours and figure out JUST compensation, after I distribute them to the people who didn't prepare as well as you.

I don't know an attorney in Alaska that would work for anything less than $250.00 per hour that was worth his salt!

So a Individual I know was out looking for those sealable 5 gallon lids. He had the buckets but couldn't find any lids for them. You know why, the prepares were buying up the lids to store food and other items just In case.

He was looking for lids to ship some bait.

What should be done is voting Walz and Ellison out of office.

Beav, the "preppers" already had that stuff. It's the johnny come latelys that are buying it up.

You get what you pay for .............. USUALLY !!

I will say that in James' defense he has done work for me at a 100% trapper's discount. So let's not go down that road. It's no different than you or I selling our fur for as much as possible.

Well these are the new preppers. You done fishing?

agreed, except...James is the one complaining about how much one charges for their wares.

Minn. Governor making another law, what a surprise. Might as well fire the legislatures and he can become king of Minn.

I don't think he is complaining.

I think he is asking what......if anything......is the right thing to do.

Clearly he doesn't like it in general....but he is considering the legal vs. ethical parameters of the question

Nope, still ice on the lake.

In World War II, my cousin obtained a Japanese souvenir sword, or in other words he stole it from an abandoned house. He like other GI's were ordered to turn in all of that stuff. He said he saw later on the dock, another soldier selling that sword to outgoing GI's.


It is estimated that each corner in metropolitan cities, is worth 2 million dollars in drug trade. This money is then laundered, through franchises and into Wall Street. If you tried to sell narcotics, you would be shot by a gang or arrested by DEA.

The Chinese and Mexicans have numerous restaurants, which again, launder millions in dollar in foreign currency to the banks, who take their cut.

All of the above was and is carried out in full knowledge of the government. The difference between someone who hoards, and a company like 3M selling masks to foreign nations at huge profits, and refusing to sell to Americans is the connection to the government in sanctioning those actions for their kickbacks, whether it be jobs for the rotating group who serve in government and return to the private sector after paying things off. An example is John Kelly, of Homeland who ordered the legalized invasion of America, as the President was trying to close the borders. Kelly left the White House and was put on the board of company which makes profits dealing with the massive inflow of foreigners.

If you have the connections, like Joe Kennedy, you can sell booze out of Canada, launder the money into business, steal an election from Richard Nixon in 1960 and get away with it all.
The problem with hoarders is they are too small and isolated, to not have paid off the police state, and are competition for those who have paid off the police state for their monopoly.

Someone was lamenting on here how sad it was that America couldn't get any masks produced. The reason they could not is there is money in having a monopoly by the few, enforced by the police state.

If you think all those masks from China, did not have some very powerful Americans investing in those companies, having shut down American production for their kickbacks in profits, you have no idea how this scam works. Why should a powerful person, invest in stock in 3M where they get a small dividend for a 30 dollar mask in America, that they have to report to the IRS, when they can be a blind investor in China, opening their exports to America, and that 30 dollar mask costs 30 cents to manufacture over there.

Hoarders? Cabelas has been ripping off Americans for years in manufacturing cheap in Asia and selling expensive in America. The American gun industry has been screwing Americans over in cheap manufacture of Turkish guns, in European owned companies of American brands.

If you are part of the system like Rush Limbaugh you get paid millions of dollars. If you are not part of the system you have to work like Jim to say the same things.

The answer to most of life's questions is a bit of both. There's a bit of a gray area between right and wrong when it comes to making a decent profit on something you bought to resell and screwing somebody on a necessity they need to live. In times like this, I think it is best to not try to overly profit off of your fellow man and to only purchase enough for you and yours.

Keith

Get the tin foil hat. QUICK !!

If a drug cartel can make 100-200-300 percent on their money.....why would they invest it in the stock market.hoping to make 7 % ?

Get a clue . Obviously you have never opened a brokerage account. You have to provide all sorts of identifying information as well as your source of funds.

x2

I have had work done from an attorney and have charged very little and a few times they didn't charge me anything for advise. Like white said, we all try to get as much as we can for our product and work also.

One thing is certain, you need to be wealthy to launder large sums of cash.

Historically, profiteering is defined by charging more than 125% of the item’s price before the crisis began. Up to 25% increase is considered reasonable because of the special circumstances and increased costs because of the crisis.

Profiteering has been considered a form of treason, therefore the penalties for treason can be applied, including the death penalty.

So, will that happen to someone for selling toilet paper? It may depend if the prosecutor and judge could not get any toilet paper.

Savage! You stinkin Alaskans are lethal.


But you make a good point. The day I have to call a good lawyer it is basically a SHTF situation for me personally just like a lack of medical supplies tomorrow might be for thousands of other ppl. I'm guessing you are plenty clever enough to see my point as well

I know Amazon purged 4000 seller for price gouging, or raising their prices during this panic.

I had a very expensive lawyer one time. After all was said and done (he said it was over, I was all paid up) sent me a letter about 3 weeks later that basically said-this is a bill for 600.00, if you want to know what it is for I will charge you more. He was more of a thief than the person I was having problems with.

Lumberjack that shouldn't surprise me but it does. I deal with those type of lawyers on insurance claims all the time and they are the lowest of the low.

I also hired a good one to appear with me a couple of times. First depo he never sent me a bill so I stopped in and ask how much I owed. His front desk lady said she couldn't find my bill so she paged him. When he walked up to the front he greeted me and then told her to call his wife and see what the plumber had charged them for the new water heater. I laughed, he laughed, his office girl couldn't figure out if he was joking or not. He was a good lawyer, an honest man, and at least half comedian.

Ppl are ppl. Most suck but there are good ppl in every profession. Heck I used to basically give away a coyote every couple of weeks because Calps would flat out take care of my son or any other snot nosed kid who managed to catch his first coyote of a spotted tom.

There are laws against price gouging in a declared emergency. Enforce the law. Many years ago before these laws were put in place (and in a different state) a local hardware store doubled their price on generators during an emergency. I called it a "one for the price of two sale." It made them quite unpopular in the community.

I've been charged for "sanitary water" by a hospital.

All the stuff that’s made overseas now that cost more then when it was made here who’s pocketing that profit?

I have a question for Alaskans. Why are things almost twice as expensive up there than in the lower 48? Interested in the responses. LLL

Beav, the "preppers" already had that stuff. It's the johnny come latelys that are buying it up.

[/quote]
The preppers i know didnt stop buying they just stepped up their accumulation efforts . People horde because of anxiety for what might happen in the future . When they come face to face with a stimulus that causes anxiety they dont stop hording . It becomes a uncontrollable compulsion to accumulate as the opportunity arises until they cant physically do it anymore .
Add to that all the new people that have no reserves trying to lay in a reserve things get interesting .

are hotel rooms in a Super Bowl host city the same price throughout the rest of the year?

Of course.........just like motel rooms around Sturgis during the motorcycle rally.

Its the shipping that makes prices expensive in Alaska. Try ship a box through the post office to Alaska and you will quickly see. All our mail here flys in, that includes groceries and everything else. Our gas was bought last fall and is still $6.00 a gln. And wont go down unless its cheap when they order more later this summer. Still wont go under $5.00 I would bet.

The greedy that profiteer off the misery of the people should be dragged out into the street and beaten.And video'd like Khaddafi.

Boco I sure wish you would quit beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel