During a shortage:
Commodity is available. Commodity is affordable.
Pick 1.
Commodity is available. Commodity is affordable.
Pick 1.
People who make fun of "doomsday preppers" and cast social opprobrium to those who chose to lengthen their own personal supply chain can go get fucked.
Zero sympathy to those who cry of shortages or price gouging, but thought it more prudent to buy NVDA at astronomically ridiculous earnings multiples than spend three dollars a week on a few extra household supplies at a time when said supplies were cheap.
With an insurance structure in place to provide funds during these situations, it would allow a quicker response without as much of a spike in prices. Companies could draw the funding for these increased costs from the insurance instead.
Futures trading is a prediction market. If you produce a commodity, you could, for example, place a sell order that is settled on a certain date in the future, and if you’re lucky, the market price will be below that of the price set in the order.
The buyer of the future will then purchase the commodity from you at the agreed price, or for cash settled futures, he’ll pay you the difference.
If the market price is higher, the difference is paid to the buyer, if the future is cash settled.
Sometimes an ideal market is the worst possible thing.
Or maybe you're expecting it to not be a real shortage?
EDIT: Now, if you suspect price gouging, that's different. wtfrmyinitials was referring to a genuine shortage, though.
The only change to resource allocation we need is a psychological one: specifically, to accept the idea that prepping, even at a very small level, is not insane.
So the only way to "solve" the issue is to add more supply, and "price through the roof" is as good a way to get more supply (and possibly better) as the government mandating more production.
If there is gouging, that's definitely not the case.
Not to mention people are less likely to unnecessarily hoard years worth of supplies and prevent others from using it if it's more expensive.
It's not that hard to have some extra cleaning supplies, non-perishable food, and water around. I don't understand the desire to have the government spend a multiple in tax dollars for what I could just keep in the house myself?
Sadly, whether you think it's 70% or 90% that could get themselves organized and take responsibility for their own security makes little difference in the real world because almost nobody actually does. The world went from victory gardens to big brother and people seem to prefer it this way.