If you met with an unscrupulous profiteer in Casablanca at Rick’s Café American in early 1941** to sell diamonds, this is what you were told when offered a painfully low price. The Nazi occupation of France happened less than a year ago and you are so desperate to get the fare for the clipper to America you accept 10,000 Francs for your irreplaceable family treasure worth 250,000 francs.
Supply and Demand; after basic cost of materials the most important factor in setting a price for goods and services. You might imagine that when all costs are tallied and a reasonable profit added that would be enough. You are so naive grasshopper! Look around the world now in the hands of giant corporations and their toadies in congress where profit and stock price rules decision-making.
If you are truly worried about the next catastrophic event like a pandemic, zombie apocalypse, gigantic meteor, mid-term elections or apparent lack of empathy in the world today, better stock up on toilet paper and dried beans or expect to pay the inflated price.
(**Editor’s Note: Some may consider it a blessing in disguise but Rick’s Café American was closed soon after this incident as Inspector Renault, The Prefect of Police, discovered just after he collected his winnings that there was illegal gambling going on in the back room).