What is Price Gouging?

This is a term which has come up alot recently. Mostly, it applies to gas prices. What else has been termed price gouging? Not much I can think about but let me give you a couple. Housing prices are clearly being gouged. I believe the government should step in and prosecute home owners who are selling their homes above a minimum profit level. After all, housing is one of our life needs, like food and water and it is not fair for these home owners to earn anything above some minimum profit. Also, it will help to allow poor residents better affordability to achieve the American dream.

The price of a college education is also a clear example of gouging. General inflation has run less than 2% per year over the past 15 years. However, the cost of a public school education has increased about 7% per year over that time. That is more than triple the CPI over the same time period. Additionally, public schools are not "for profit" institutions and because they do not need to make profits, school costs should remain the same over time or even go down. I think the government needs to look into the factors that are causing this gouging.

I would suspect it has something to do with the exorbitant wages of the administrators and educators. I have heard that the average salary of a public school teacher in the state of Oregon is $45,000 per year, plus benefits that add nearly another $30,000. That is total income of $75,000 per year for someone who only works for 75% of the year. This is definately price gouging. Wanna take a gander at the average income in my community? This income would push these "average paid" educators into the richest 10% of the income scale. That is definately gouging.

Before we start complaining about gouging on a product that is not a necessity, and for which there are significant amounts of alternatives (hybrid vehicles, carpooling, higher CAFE standard vehicles, public transportation, etc.), we should look at those goods and services which are necessary for life. I say it is high time to start putting homeowners behind bars who have the gall to sell their homes for what someone is willing to pay them. Later, we can put gas station owners in jail for selling a product that people willingly purchase and for which there is significant competition.