No, price gouging has a specific meaning relating to spikes in demand often in conjunction with a disaster, like doubling gas prices during a hurricane.
But raising prices for a non-essential good will probably never be gouging.
also, peak pricing is generally legal, price gouging isn’t illegal everywhere, and the definition is sometimes vague due to, you know, how vague the concept is—the definition usually includes some version of “excessive” or “extreme” pricing.
So like, if you have trouble getting food into your grocery store after a disaster, and you have to charge a little more, you’re probably safe—the idea behind price gouging ins more what happens when all the grocery store owners quadrupled their prices as they twist their moustaches and laugh, saying, “what are you going to do, not eat?”
It’s not really price gouging. There’s no particular supply/demand crisis to take advantage of. There’s plenty of supply of streaming. Even free stuff enough for a lifetime, so it’s completely voluntary to throw this or that amount at some greedy company testing the price limits.
I honestly haven’t seen anybody complain that there’s nothing to watch, have you? Would you really say that people are in shock over the total lack of television available?
I mean, in the past week or so, I’ve seen new episodes of Only Murders in the Building, Futurama, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Sex Education, Adventure Time, Archer, Tacoma FD, Star Trek Lower Decks, and Tacoma FD. That’s just the shows I’m tracking, I’m sure I missed something good. On Thursday, we’re getting new seasons of Loki and Our Flag Means Death. and HBO cancelled Winning Time mid-season because they really weren’t that desperate for a few extra episodes.
Are subscriptions down? My friends don’t seem too upset about the “shocking lack of content” that seems to exist in your head.
They’ve been pacing themselves. They planned for the strike well before it started. It’s not going to dry up suddenly the day the actors get back to work.
yeah “price gouging” is not the same thing as “increasing prices a lot” or “increasing prices at a time that makes people think, ooh wee, that’s not a very nice thing to do.”
Price gouging is the practice of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or supply shock.
You can’t really price gouge goods with elastic demand though, where demand rises and falls with the price. Luxury goods like streaming services even doubly so because they are in no way, shape, or form necessary things. If people pay the price for a luxury good that they don’t need, then by definition it’s a fair price.
Netflix isnt a necessity. Don’t like the price, don’t buy the service. It really is that simple.
Also, price gouging is only illegal in the US for necessities in declared civil emergencies.
“Supply Shock” is not “oh no, now we have to pay writers a little more” or “we’ll have a couple fewer new shows in the next year,” it’s usually “the city’s water supply has been tainted and trucks aren’t able to get bottled water in as fast as before, now we can charge eight times as much for bottled water!” or “well, there was a hurricane that took out half the tomatoes in Italy, and for the next few weeks, the people who do have tomatoes have NYC Pizza shops by the balls.”
And the price increase usually isn’t a few dollars, but like, the prices doubling or tripling or more.
Isn’t that price gouging? Isn’t price gouging illegal?
No, price gouging has a specific meaning relating to spikes in demand often in conjunction with a disaster, like doubling gas prices during a hurricane.
But raising prices for a non-essential good will probably never be gouging.
also, peak pricing is generally legal, price gouging isn’t illegal everywhere, and the definition is sometimes vague due to, you know, how vague the concept is—the definition usually includes some version of “excessive” or “extreme” pricing.
So like, if you have trouble getting food into your grocery store after a disaster, and you have to charge a little more, you’re probably safe—the idea behind price gouging ins more what happens when all the grocery store owners quadrupled their prices as they twist their moustaches and laugh, saying, “what are you going to do, not eat?”
It’s not really price gouging. There’s no particular supply/demand crisis to take advantage of. There’s plenty of supply of streaming. Even free stuff enough for a lifetime, so it’s completely voluntary to throw this or that amount at some greedy company testing the price limits.
The supply has been cut by the strikes. Viewers want new content, not old content.
I honestly haven’t seen anybody complain that there’s nothing to watch, have you? Would you really say that people are in shock over the total lack of television available?
I mean, in the past week or so, I’ve seen new episodes of Only Murders in the Building, Futurama, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Sex Education, Adventure Time, Archer, Tacoma FD, Star Trek Lower Decks, and Tacoma FD. That’s just the shows I’m tracking, I’m sure I missed something good. On Thursday, we’re getting new seasons of Loki and Our Flag Means Death. and HBO cancelled Winning Time mid-season because they really weren’t that desperate for a few extra episodes.
Are subscriptions down? My friends don’t seem too upset about the “shocking lack of content” that seems to exist in your head.
Now? No. Because they still have things they can release. When those run out, and they will relatively soon, they will be in trouble.
They’ve been pacing themselves. They planned for the strike well before it started. It’s not going to dry up suddenly the day the actors get back to work.
yeah “price gouging” is not the same thing as “increasing prices a lot” or “increasing prices at a time that makes people think, ooh wee, that’s not a very nice thing to do.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging
Price increased. Supply shock due to strikes. Sounds like price gouging to me.
You can’t really price gouge goods with elastic demand though, where demand rises and falls with the price. Luxury goods like streaming services even doubly so because they are in no way, shape, or form necessary things. If people pay the price for a luxury good that they don’t need, then by definition it’s a fair price.
Netflix isnt a necessity. Don’t like the price, don’t buy the service. It really is that simple.
Also, price gouging is only illegal in the US for necessities in declared civil emergencies.
“Supply Shock” is not “oh no, now we have to pay writers a little more” or “we’ll have a couple fewer new shows in the next year,” it’s usually “the city’s water supply has been tainted and trucks aren’t able to get bottled water in as fast as before, now we can charge eight times as much for bottled water!” or “well, there was a hurricane that took out half the tomatoes in Italy, and for the next few weeks, the people who do have tomatoes have NYC Pizza shops by the balls.”
And the price increase usually isn’t a few dollars, but like, the prices doubling or tripling or more.