Capitalism Corrupted: Price Hikes and Price Gouging

Whether it is rent or toilet paper, Capitalism works to make a profit even if you would need said items to survive. So let’s look into some examples of price hikes and price gouging and see what we can learn.

Tis is what bottled water prices were in Texas after Hurricain Harvey

What are Price Hikes?

Price hikes are what usually happens when demand for product vastly outnumbers the supply of a product. For instance, if a hurricaine hits polluting the water supply and you need bottled water, some stores will jack up the price of bottled water to such an extent that it is technically criminal.

Price hikes can also happen during gentrification, etc, when your landlord decides to vastly increase the price of rent in a way of getting extra money or to sell the place to richer buyers, often harming the people who have lived there for years. This is often not due to any solid reason, like property taxes spiking, etc.

For example, during the early days of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, people would buy a ton of toilet paper, soap, hand sanitizer, etc. As a result, the shops would b completely out of these items. This caused many people to buy up stock of these items early, just to try to sell them for massive prices on sites like Amazon and Facebook Marketplace.

Cost of wipes after the Coronavirus Pandemic Panic Shopping started

Not only does Capitalism allow this to happen, but actually promotes this to happen. With supply and demand as a key feature of Capitalism, being swindled is not a glitch in the system, but a part of it.

In fact, this is one thing that Nestle is notorious for. They buy water public water supplies from people who need that water to survive, and then they sell it back to them at an extremely high price. Fiji water is yet another brand that is known for this. These are just a couple of the many examples of this happening.

Why water should be a human right

In times of crisis, one should not have to become sick or die due to not being able to buy access to necessary goods. Medications, water, food, etc, should not be seen as commodities when one needs them for survival.

Flint Michigan residents are still dealing with disgusting polluted water years after the Flint Water Crisis happened. They have to spend extra money on bottled water just so they can drink, cook, and bathe. This is not right, but is a feature of how Capitalism exploits the poor.

Hopefully, in time, we can work to make sure that people are no longer exploited out of greed. It is disgusting that anyone even defends this system to the degree that they do, but I mostly blame misinformation. Until then, I will be working to do my part to make the world a better and easier place to live in to the best of my ability.

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