COVID tests are completely free, subsidized by the government. You can get COVID tests at very high prices on the "black market". If you don't want to pay those prices, you stand on line at the free testing areas.
Why do you think capitalism is broken here when its working just fine. The supply of testing is too low since its free to take them officially and there is massive demand
All I can tell you is that this week, my Aunt and I were both flying out of EWR. She needed a PCR test for the flight which was supposed to be Tuesday, and she started looking on Friday, but it was almost impossible to find anywhere with an appointment available before Thursday. And even those gave a very fuzzy 1-3 day estimate for results, which is quite unhelpful when you have to take the test within 72 hours of departure.
She spent an entire day trying to find somewhere which would take walk-ins, and eventually found a place through a fiend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who could get her in, although she did have to push the flight back by a day.
From my perspective, this just seemed totally broken. I don't understand how there could not be a vendor, easily discoverable through Google which could deliver same-day or next-day results at whatever price the market would bear, even if it was $300 or $500 or whatever.
It felt like being in a developing country where things just can't be depended on to work properly.
But you're right it is totally broken: they should be auctioning these PCR testing slots to the highest bidder. But of course then there would uproar about "price gouging."
Somewhat similar to how everyone is complaining they can't find PS5s and yet Sony is unwilling to raise topics because the optics would be bad.
This specific scenario has nothing to do with market theory. It's a combination of regulation, subsidization, and infrastructure. We're not buying playstations.
(In part, because major manufacturers closed factories and destroyed inventory between spikes. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/us/abbott-covid-tests.htm...)
I'm a bit baffled as to why the Defense Production Act hasn't been utilized more during the pandemic for stuff like this.
Which of the many governments in the world are you talking about?