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Look Untog, on the one hand, we have what you saw with your own eyes.

On the other hand, I just finished my freshman year in economics, and when we draw a dotted line across the X of supply/demand, then there's this little triangle see? Shade it in. Yeah. So anyways that's what happened. BTW, there's no axis for "natural disaster" on my graph so clearly that's irrelevant. I don't know why you're bringing up red herrings.




Highly demanded products do sell out during natural disasters, and it does cause shortages. In reality, not theory.


Yes, of course, but it does not follow that those products are being optimally allocated by price like a normal economy. Normal economies adjust to produce more, natural disaster is a temporary state with different rules.

It becomes a public policy issue (we have too few and how to apportion in the short term) rather than an economic issue.




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