I have to chuckle every time I hear the government accuse people of price gouging.

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist filed lawsuits Tuesday against two hotels he said engaged in price gouging and other unfair practices as people fled Hurricane Charley.

These are the same people who use the threat of lethal force to seize money from citizens to pay for government goods and services. I wonder if the state of Florida temporarily rescinded their hotel and restaurant taxes in the wake of the storm? I doubt it.

I'm too lazy to cover the subject thoroughly, so I'll let Neal Boortz take a whack at it:

First we have the guarantee in the United States Constitution that the government will not interfere with the operation of valid contracts between individuals. An agreement by one to sell and another to purchase a chain saw for three times its common retail price is a contract between two individuals. As long as that contract is voluntarily entered into, and there is no fraud involved, and the parties are of the legal age to execute a contract ... the government has no legitimate cause to intervene.

I'm told that yesterday some reporter from the Fox News Channel said that chain saws were being sold in the path of Hurricane Charley for "more than they're worth." Think about this for a moment. If you needed a chainsaw to clear some trees around your home, would you willingly go out and pay more for that chainsaw than it is worth to you? The value of that chainsaw increases with your need for it. If the cost exceeds that value you will walk away. The actions of free people operating in a free market set prices. The only time you will see a product costing more than it is worth is when the government steps in and interferes with basic economic liberties by setting the cost of a product or service. Social Security comes to mind. There is no doubt but that for the average American Social Security costs far more than it is worth. Few people would willingly shell out that kind of money for such a pathetic disability and retirement plan.

In Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations you will find this line: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

If social security isn't price gouging, I don't know what is.