disaster profiteering

DISASTER PROFITEERING
Let's just get this out of the way first thing. I approve of profiteering, price gouging, obscene profits and usury. I think check cashing businesses should be allowed to run unmolested. Gas stations should be allowed to charge whatever they wish during shortages. You may not approve, being indoctrinated by the People's Re-Education Camps at a young and impressionable age. You think everything should be "fair". You think the intelligent should be penalized because they can get better paying jobs? You think pretty people should be taxed more since they can make millions modeling or acting? Of course not. Fair Is Where You Go To Sell Your Pig. Life is not fair. Yet the masses think that they don't have to prepare for disasters and can escape without consequences. Profiteering is simply protection against disaster. If a gas station is selling gas for twenty bucks a gallon when the refineries shut down, only those that truly need gasoline will pay that amount. Folks with medical issues that need a generator running. But since the government deems that prices must be "fair", the fat lazy bastard can fill up his generator to run his A/C so he won't be inconvenienced, the rich and spoiled shopping queen can fill up her SUV to go to the mall or hair dresser, or the unemployed crackhead can fill up his old beater to drive down to the hood for more pharmaceutical recreation. If the medical provider wasn't first in line, the station will run out in hours and no resupply will be available.
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Today we can see a lot of disaster profiteering going on. This isn't like the pre-Y2K days, where the only real price increases were for a few canned freeze dried foods. Oil was still cheap and plentiful and no financial bubbles had yet popped ( or at least their effects had yet to be felt ). Today we are at the end of both the Tech Wreak and Real Estate Bubble, oil has doubled in price, food has doubled at a minimum, the dollar has taken a beating, the economy has supported a couple of wars for five years. We have seen commodities jacked up in price, precious metals are no longer held down by Central Bank stockpile sales. In short, prices for everything are much worse while at the same time a heck of a lot more people are panicking this time around. Y2K was a boutique disaster, a designer calamity. Not everyone was concerned or convinced. Now, since everyone knows a economic disaster is possible and probable, there is wide spread panic. Prices are going up accordingly. Storage food, ammunition, precious metal. The prices might not be obscene, but in their place are waiting periods. This is evidently the legal loophole being used to avoid profiteering charges. The official rate is a low reasonable price. Sign up on the waiting list and we'll get back with you in three weeks ( or more likely, months ). The intelligent folks realize there is no longer safety in unbacked promises and so buy at the unofficial price.
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Ure at http://www.urbansurvival.com/ gives a good example. Silver is $9 an once on a waiting list. Buy It Now on E-Bay is $20. Gold is $725 later or $1,000 now for an once of bullion ( not a collectors piece ). Everyone has been seeing ammunition shortages. I haven't tried to buy myself, yet I imagine a dealer can get you some quicker after a premium has been paid. Storage food ( freeze dried ) has a long waiting list. Yet I'm sure it is available at the right price. The good news is that if you have not yet prepared, some farsighted person can profit off of your complacency. Also good news is that it can be cheap, easy and fun to get ready for profiteering. Buying dirt cheap cast iron stoves before metal prices increased, shipping rates went higher or more folks started installing wood burners is a good example. As is pre-buying semi auto high capacity magazines. But those are rather capital intensive. You can buy things now very cheap and profit greatly later. Of course, the waiting period will be longer and the risk greater. For instance, baking powder. A few fifty pound sacks from a restaurant supply house will be very cheap, and it is an item few people have much of. But to bake any leavened product such as biscuits or pancakes you need it. Yes, I understand you can make sourdough batter, but the bulk of the population doesn't know that. They will buy your insanely inflated priced baking powder. The downside is this only works in a total collapse.
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Barter and disaster trading have been covered by many. More to the point here, you are going to see much more disaster profiteering. Already, old travel trailers are being overpriced and quickly sold. The motor homes will be discounted as they are overpriced. But the older trailers are being jacked up in price. Because people are buying them to live out of. The same with junk land. Still overpriced. There is not a whole lot out there and the prices are overinflated. Because, just like trailers, even a much higher than necessary price is still a great bargain compared to whatever else is available.
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Sorry for the delay, Blogger malfunctioned, cut me off. Lost the last half paragraph, but the main points were made.
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