I think that diagram is too complicated for some folks here.
If buyer's don't like a price, they don't have to buy - simple as that.
If CTD started selling PMags for $0.50, I think the most adamant hater would gladly pile in to clean them out.
Thing is, in this market, with all the uncertainty with the BHO administration and both buyers and sellers are pricing that into their buying patterns.
Consider this, what if he next batch of Pmags from the factory cost retailers $50? If a company like CTD sold 100 of the last batch for $20, with a 50% margin to reclaim their purchase price and cover their operating expenses (let's say $10 per mag), that would mean they would only be able to buy 20 more newer mags.
Price fixing ALWAYS causes supply shortages, and the question the anti-capitalists here have to ask themselves is what do they prefer, expensive PMags or no PMags?
This is why there is nothing wrong with "gouging," especially for "necessities." If something was life critical, I'd rather there be expensive supply, than no supply - just look at the Canadian Health Care system to see this in practice. The reason there are ridiculously long wait times for many critical medical procedures, is because the government price fixes those services lower than what the market values them at, and so shortages emerge as the reduced cost to those services mean they are consumed in an excessive matter that does not realistically reflect demand.
Conversely, if CTD charged $100 and made a 90% margin on those same 100 mags, they could then buy 180 of the newer, high price mags, ensuring a supply surplus that, if demand is not sustained, would put them at a loss. Let's say the factory price for the mags stays the same, and the cost to CTD to source the mags stays at $10, the increased purchasing power CTD has from selling PMags to suckers at $100, means they can thus buy 900 more of the mags - which if they buy, would give them incentive to reduce the price substantially - even to the point of selling them cheaper than before the crisis began.
Blaming retailers for raising their prices is pretty stupid - simply refusing to buy at such a high price is already a scathing rebuke to such retailers. As a buyer/consumer you have final say over what you do with your money and you have no one to blame for your personal decision to buy something at an increased price but yourself.
