I got several 3M 1870's just in time then. Heh. They weren't that expensive. It was a pretty good deal actually.
To play the devil's advocate: price gouging is market efficiency because subsidized products in times of scarcity can be over-bought and resold for more. It reduces demand to those who actually need it.
To play the angel's apprentice: price gouging is wrong when people who aren't made of money need a particular product and need to use it now (inelastic demand). The rich can also bid a product up beyond what a poor person could afford, and always prevent them from acquiring it.
I think in this situation, it might be better for the federal government to crack open the enormous strategic stockpile, distribute masks to make people chill out and seem like they're doing something on-the-ground. Even if it's ineffective if worn properly, the emotional support value may make the difference in mood and trust.
And have money to afford it, something which is not accounted for in the simplistic models of supply and demand that people are promoting with religious levels of certitude up and down this thread.
So it would seem that the real problem is wealth inequality (again!) rather than "price gouging" as such. If everyone had the same purchasing power, there would be no ethical problem whatsoever with rising prices in the face of increased demand and limited supply - your willingness to pay would accurately reflect how much you needed the product.
Essentially creating a command economy for a particular good is missing the larger picture.
It's a lot simpler to create a command economy for particular goods under emergent circumstances than to reorder the entire economy such that everyone is resembles homo economicus.
Command economies are fallible because they are run by humans with varying levels of trustworthiness and accountability. But they have their uses, and are often far mroe efficient than trying to automate the human factor away completely and live in a idealized model.
To play the devil's advocate: price gouging is market efficiency because subsidized products in times of scarcity can be over-bought and resold for more. It reduces demand to those who actually need it.
To play the angel's apprentice: price gouging is wrong when people who aren't made of money need a particular product and need to use it now (inelastic demand). The rich can also bid a product up beyond what a poor person could afford, and always prevent them from acquiring it.
I think in this situation, it might be better for the federal government to crack open the enormous strategic stockpile, distribute masks to make people chill out and seem like they're doing something on-the-ground. Even if it's ineffective if worn properly, the emotional support value may make the difference in mood and trust.