What would be appropriate government responses to a fuel (e.g., gasoline) shortage? Some ideas:

1. The government could simply let the free market take over, raising prices until demand met supply...This would have the advantage of increasing supply, avoiding black markets, and working without government intervention. It does price the poor out of the market.

2. Rationing. This limits the amount of a critical item that high contributors to the economy can obtain, while benefiting those who would otherwise be priced out of the market. It also leaves open the possibility of black markets...

Other solutions? Your ideas?

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), December 20, 1999

Answers

I would imagine a combination of both would be good with the government setting limits on how high gasoline could go.

There should probably be a prioritization scheme; the millitary gets x amount, followed by police, rescue vehicles,etc. I would imagine the speed limits would get drastically lower, instead of " I can't drive 55 " it may be like " I wish I could drive 55 ".

-- Stanley Lucas (StanleyLucas@WebTv.net), December 21, 1999.

If you price the working poor out of the market, you may end up with a large number of new non-working poor requiring taxes for their upkeep.

I work for a non-profit. There is no mass transit accessible from where I live. If I cannot drive, I cannot work. I vote for rationing.

-- anon (anon@anon.calm), December 22, 1999.

For the life of me, after a lifetime of study, I still cannot believe that people's response to any question about the Free market, is to go to the VERY ENEMY THAT CREATES SHORTAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE: GOVERNMENT!!!

Left alone, Market forces, using the time honored and built-in- to- the- human- condition motive,... PROFIT, will solve the problems. In a very short time, competition rises to meet demand and down come prices.

In every instance, when government (YOUR BASIC ENEMY) is allowed to meddle in a NON GOVERNMENT FUNCTION, ie, the marketplace, temporary crises are made infinitely worse, and those who suffer the most are the very ones who scream: "Help, get the government in here"

Get the so called public servants in the door and they soon become your enslavers.

It is government interference that causes shortages in the first place. Left to their free exercise of activity, men and women always resolve issues and, so long as government is limited to the ONLY function allowable to insure the continued freedom of the individual, products and services will become more plentiful, and at greatly reduced prices, allowing more and more people to benefit.

And let's not get into any discussion about the compassion when government moves in to a disaster area to help people. This can be a legitimate function, IF the citizenry agrees to be taxed for it. However, once the tragedy is addressed, out goes the government. Beyond the assistance in an major disaster, government has no right to continue a presence in the area.

Governments sole purpose is to "prevent injustice from reigning". A negative force, doing absolutely NOTHING until a true crime has been committed, then, having been given a contract by free people, called the Constitution, government should come down hard on TRUE violations , then shut up, retreat , and wait, like your own Immune System, for an invader, kill the invader (so to speak), then retreat, shut up, and do nothing.

At one time, the government of France, before it fell to the mobs, in it's insatiable need to control EVERYTHING, had "forms" of over 30,000 words just to "determine the proper price of wheat".

HELLS BELLS, the price of wheat is what someone will pay for it. It varies from day to day according to the needs of the users, and the costs involved in storage and distribution. See: wheat futures market

In the history of the world, a free person's own government becomes their worst enemy, if you turn your back on the responsibility of keeping the SOB's in their place.

Today we live in a socialist dictatorship with laws identical to Hitler's, and in a short order you will see the day when the streets are patroled by your enemy, and you will be asked "to see your papers".

Damn!!! Why is this so hard for people to see? History keeps repeating time and time again, and people who dare to know history and try to avoid repeating it, are pilloried by the very people they seek to inform and help to remain free. Then, as the gates close on the last freedom, as they will very soon, the people who had been warned for years turn to the people they called "negative" or "unfeeling" or "horse and buggy thinkers" (or some such remark that indicates their absolute lack of knowledge in re freedom) for guidance.

"Do something", they always say.

Damn!

Unfortunately, it's been this way for centuries. KILL THE MESSENGER.

Then put your trust in the very one who intends to enslave you.

Rationing has NEVER WORKED.

You cannot "vote" for something with which others do not agree.A free person may cheerfully choose to do without ice cream or cigarettes or whiskey in order to buy gasoline. Others do not.

Those who don't have no right to restrict the ability of others to buy. The more people who CAN and DO buy, the sooner competition comes in and reduces the price for everyone.

Gas shortages are CREATED. The world is awash in oil, and governments have already conspired against you , or gas would be 75 cents or so per gallon.

Know your enemy. It is NOT the one who can buy something that you cannot. That person, by his/her thrift or whatever, is the very one who can keep the product or service available AT ANY COST until it is brought down in price where others, making free choices, can purchase it.

And they should properly be grateful that the product or service is available thanks to those who paid higher prices to begin with.

Got computer? Did you pay five or six thousand dollars for the computer alone? Your home PC, that is.

Well I paid nearly 3000 for an IBM many years ago, but only 799 for this Compaq, with a large variety of software installed and features that one could only dream of in 1983.

-- Robert Cadle (bobby1776@earthlink.net), December 23, 1999.