You forgot to mention any downside possibilities. You made tens of thousands selling water to people who had spare money and maybe just kept the water in reserve doing nothing, when people with no on-hand money potentially died for lack of clean water.
IMHO, market transactions work poorly when both actors can't walk away from the transaction. ie. when the free market has significant constraints in the "free" precondition.
Allowing gouging means resources go to people with money in an completely disjoint optimization function vs an optimization for valuing human life in an emergency. I think that's not only inefficient, it's unethical.
IMHO, market transactions work poorly when both actors can't walk away from the transaction. ie. when the free market has significant constraints in the "free" precondition.
Allowing gouging means resources go to people with money in an completely disjoint optimization function vs an optimization for valuing human life in an emergency. I think that's not only inefficient, it's unethical.