Modern Politics: "Justice," Michael Sandel, Harvard University

94 pages of Notes; 30,000 words, many visuals

1. Doing the Right Thing
In the summer of 2004, Hurricane Charley roared out of the Gulf of Mexico and swept across Florida to the Atlantic Ocean. The storm claimed twenty - two lives and caused $ 11 billion in damage. 1 It also left in its wake a debate about price gouging.

At a gas station in Orlando, they were selling two - dollar bags of ice for ten dollars. Lacking power for refrigerators or air - conditioning in the middle of August, many people had little choice but to pay up. Downed trees heightened demand for chain saws and roof repairs. Contractors offered to clear two trees off a homeowner’s roof — for $ 23,000. Stores that normally sold small household generators for $ 250 were now asking $ 2,000. A seventy-seven - year-old woman fleeing the hurricane with her elderly husband and handicapped daughter was charged $ 160 per night for a motel room that normally goes for $ 40. (pg. 3)

Higher prices for ice, bottled water, roof repairs, generators, and motel rooms have the advantage, Sowell argued, of limiting the use of such things by consumers and increasing incentives for suppliers in far-off places to provide the goods and services most needed in the hurricane’s aftermath.
If ice fetches ten dollars a bag when Floridians are facing power outages in the August heat, ice manufacturers will find it worth their while to produce and ship more of it. There is nothing unjust about these prices, Sowell explained; they simply reflect the value that buyers and sellers choose to place on the things they exchange. 6. (pg. 4)


30,167 words, 94 pages of Notes; many visuals