[musicale]

> It was foolish of representatives to try to use their existing tools of short term price controls as if a storm just hit a small area of their state, as this just caused confusion and made the market more opaque.

I'm still unconvinced that price gouging during an emergency is beneficial overall.

Regardless, it was already illegal in California.

[vmception]

Actually it wasn’t, all PPE could be sourced and sold at prices that matched their scarcity and utility, which is my point about why this belief in price gouging restrictions just caused confusion. There is a way they couldnt, it was very hard to do that.

The legal reality was more nuanced than the governor, legislature and DA ever imagined because prior emergencies were never larger than an isolated area. This market distortion covered the entire state indefinitely and crossed state lines, their power was much more limited than they imagined.

They thought the federal government was going to solve this for the states and were wrong and this cost the states months, especially California due to its size and population, which is still realigning and adjusting to self-autonomy and procurement while being ahead of many other states.