…on “price gouging” (otherwise known as the law of supply and demand) in the wake of Hurricane Charley. The Mises Institute preemptively responded to this, but it never slows down the economic ignoramuses at the New York Times:

Janet Snyder, a pharmacy technician in Cape Coral, said several men in two pickup trucks spotted her roof damage and offered to lay down a temporary covering of plastic sheeting. They wanted $600, about four times what she figured was the right price, based on 15 rolls of plastic that usually sell for $10 each.

OK, so Janet is clearly no business major, but how dumb is the reporter to pass this on without comment? She seems to think that the men’s labor should be free, and that she should only have to pay for materials. In the real world, even with no hurricane, she wouldn’t get free labor. She certainly can’t expect it when there is so much to be done.