Michael Munger, They Clapped, Can Price-Gouging Laws Prohibit Scarcity: Library of Economics and Liberty:
Well, but what if you seek a political solution, rather than trusting markets? What if you pass an anti-gouging law, to symbolize your opposition to scarcity? Scarcity hurts; it means that I can’t have everything I want. Let’s abolish scarcity; what then? As I have tried to argue, all a state accomplishes by passing an anti-gouging law is to ensure that there is no ice. I can’t get it for $100, or $1,000. And too many citizens say, “Help: the market has failed! Let’s call on government to rescue us!”
But they are wrong. Markets didn’t fail. All that happened was that the price mechanism was bound and gagged, held hostage in the attic of the legislature.
Almost anything can be taken to the point of ridiculousness. Anti-gouging laws can be good. They can also be stupid.
The notion that a 5% rule-of-thumb is the Final Authority over and against actual costs of transportation and time being rolled in is where the stupidity comes in.
For a regular business, selling its already-held stock of plywood in advance of a hurricane, the 5% rule might make sense. For people trucking in emergency supplies, no. You pay extra for extraordinary service. That’s not gouging.