Your assignment is to listen to this podcast with Russ Roberts and Mike Munger on the topic of price gouging. It will contain a discussion about Supply and Demand and prices at work.
An article written by Mr. Munger is also available if you prefer to read over listening to a podcast.
Important! : If you are focused on the “morality” or “Greed” of the story, then you will have missed the key points of the assignment. Remember that morality is an individual belief structure, and it changes between culture and time. Morality is simply defined (Links to an external site.) as beliefs about what kind of behavior is good or bad. On the other hand, greed is very simply defined (Links to an external site.) as a selfish desire for more than is needed. We could debate the fact that we all have more than we need … this is not a relevant topic for us to cover here and now.
What is paradoxical here (and what is much more interesting) is how self-interested people can achieve the greater good without that being their intention.