"Welcome tourists to Kentucky, our friendly Commonwealth is happy you came. Oh, by the way, your hotel room's normal rate has been doubled, tickets to UK games have tripled for the very best seats, and a house for the night for the WEG might run you a mere $5,000..but y'all come back, hear!"
Surely they will, and don't call me Shirley.
We have a law now preventing price gouging in certain limited situations; in weather emergencies primarily. Stores can't just keep on raising prices for food, gasoline, generators, emergency supplies and the like. The attorney general is responsible for investigating and charging offenders.
But it's much too limited, as almost everyone must have thought reading a recent news story that a place for the night at the WEG might cost up to 5 grand. Surely this offends every Kentuckian’s sense of fair play; besides being economically counterproductive. If you want people to come back and visit us often, that's not the way to do it.
We let hotels in Louisville triple rates for the Derby; why? It's the same room as the week before and week after. Why? Because they can, and there's no law to prevent it. But there should be, and we ought to ask A/G Jack Conway if he would support broadening the current law to include these examples, as well as the candidates next year for his job.
To those of you unrepentant capitalists who feel this is the law of supply and demand in action, meadow muffins! Can you say Greed? I knew you could, and greed is not good. Competition regulates capitalism, not greed. In the long run, unrestrained greed will ruin capitalism.
Let's get our price gouging law updated, and, oh yes, drop those 500 best UK basketball seats back to something affordable by Joe Six-Pack.
I’m Just Sayin’….
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