This is a classic example of the ostensible contrast between greed and altruism, capitalism and charity.

Economists who favor the free market know the standard arguments for letting the price skyrocket to "clear the market" when there are supply shortages and demand spikes. These are important arguments, and indeed I will review them below.

At the same time, I think in our zeal to lecture the public on the efficient allocation of resources, we economists often forget to stress an important aspect of private morality when disaster strikes. Specifically, if certain individuals experience a genuine "windfall gain" simply because they happen to be holding goods that suddenly become very scarce, then these individuals can donate their windfall to support relief efforts. In this way, there is no question of them profiting from their neighbors' suffering. Market prices are still able to perform their valuable function of communicating information about supplies and demands to everyone in the system, while the losses imposed by nature are more evenly distributed because of charitable assistance given from the lucky to the unlucky.