Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1180, Price Gouging.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1180.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in B-U-T-F-L.
Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at ESLPOD.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Pedro and Elisa about companies that increase their prices suddenly.
Let's get started.
Haven't you heard?
There's a hurricane coming.
People will be stocking up on basic necessities.
I know that.
But that still doesn't explain why you've decided to jack up prices.
We're in business to make money.
That's price gouging and you know it.
There are laws against that, and plus we shouldn't be exploiting people's fear.
I'm not responsible for that hurricane.
And I didn't tell people to hoard.
I'm not hiking prices so high that people can't afford it.
I'm just increasing them to discourage hoarding.
That's all.
I don't know.
It still doesn't feel right.
It feels like we're profiteering.
No, we're not.
We're making a sound business decision.
Hey, where are you going with those?
I'm putting some of these items in the back to reserve for people who can't afford your new prices the poorest and the most vulnerable in our community.
You're not suggesting we give those items away?
You'll thank me later for helping you to assuage your guilty conscience.
Pedro begins by asking Elisa, why are you changing the prices on all of those items in the store?
An item is simply a thing that you sell in your store.
Elisa says, haven't you heard?
There's a hurricane coming. people will be stocking up on basic necessities.
A hurricane H-U-R-R-I-C-A-N-E is a violent storm with winds that move in a circle, in a circular motion.
These are called typhoons in some parts of the world.
Basically, in the Atlantic Ocean, these storms are called hurricanes.
They are the storms that typically affect the eastern and southern part of the U.S.
In certain parts of the Pacific Ocean and other oceans, they're called typhoons.
But it's the same weather phenomenon.
People will be stocking up, Elisa says.
To stock.
S-T-O-C-K up is a two word phrasal verb meaning to buy a lot of something and save it to use later.
If there is a hurricane coming...
It's possible that the stores will then be closed and so you will want to stock up.
You will want to get a lot of things that you will need so that you can survive.
We would call these things basic, B-A-S-I-C, necessities.
Necessities comes from the word necessary.
It's referring to things that you actually need to live, such as food and water.
So Elisa is raising the prices, changing the prices on the items in her store, because everyone is going to be coming and buying basic necessities.
And one of the features of what we call a market economy is that the price of something depends on both how much there is of it and how much people want it.
And if there isn't very much and a lot of people want it, the price goes up.
Elisa is expecting more people to want to buy things from her store, and so she's raising the prices.
Pedro says I know that, meaning I know there's a hurricane coming, but that still doesn't explain why you've decided to jack up prices.
The phrasal verb to jack J-A-C-K up means to increase very significantly in a very short amount of time.
Pedro had never studied economics in school, it appears.
Elisa says A spike S-P-I-K-E here refers to a sudden increase in something or in the amount of something.
The spike Elisa is referring to is a spike in demand, D-E-M-A-N-D.
As I just mentioned, there are two things that determine price.
Basically, demand is the amount that people want something.
Supply, S-U-P-P-L-Y, is how much of something there is.
People adjust their priorities.
People decide what's important to them, in part, by what they buy.
If something is very important to you, then you may not buy certain things in order to have money to buy other things, things that might have a higher price.
That's one of the things that price does.
It communicates information to you about how much something is available and how much other people want it, and allows you to make decisions based on that information.
Elisa says that she is taking advantage of, meaning she's trying to get a benefit from the increase in demand or spike in demand during this emergency situation the hurricane.
We're in business to make money, she says.
That's the reason that she has her business.
Pedro says that's price gouging and you know it.
Price gouging G-O-U-G-I-N-G is not so much an economic concept as it is a moral determination or an ethical judgment on people who do, in fact, raise their prices suddenly when someone needs something and wants it very badly during an emergency situation.
To gouge someone is to be unfair in the price that you charge that person.
Price gouging is the idea that if you raise your prices significantly for something that someone wants and needs very badly, if you raise it significantly and quickly I think is the idea here then you may be accused by some people of price gouging, of being unfair to people because you have raised your prices significantly.
Pedro says there are laws against that.
I'm not sure if that's true in most places in the U.S.
Perhaps it is.
No doubt in some places that might be true, or in other countries that might be true.
And plus, meaning in addition, Pedro says we shouldn't be exploiting people's fear.
To exploit, E-X-P-L-O-I-T, means to take advantage of someone or something in an unfair way.
To hurt another person in some way that involves the advantage that you have over that person.
Pedro thinks that raising the prices would be exploiting people's fear.
I'm not sure why it exploits people's fear, but that's what Pedro thinks.
Elisa says, I'm not responsible for that hurricane, and I didn't tell people to hoard.
H-O-A-R-D.
To hoard.
Very important.
You pronounce the last consonant there.
The D means to buy a very large number of things more than what you actually need or more than you could even use.
Sometimes people use this verb when they have some sort of psychological problem, when they collect all sorts of things in their house and their house doesn't have any more room anymore because they're hoarding certain things.
But in this situation, to hoard means to buy more than what you are really going to use, just because you perhaps are afraid that you will no longer have enough.
You will run out, to use the phrasal verb.
So Elisa says she's not telling people to hoard.
She says, I'm not hiking prices so high that people can't afford it.
To hike, H-I-K-E, a price means to increase it dramatically.
She says she's increasing her prices, but not so high that people can't afford it, meaning that no one could actually buy it.
That would be stupid for her to do economically, of course, because if she raises the price so high that no one can buy it, then she won't make any money.
I'm just increasing them, meaning her prices, to discourage hoarding.
That's all.
To discourage, D-I-S-C-O-U-R-A-G-E, means to make other people not want to do something.
Elisa is saying that she's increasing her prices so people don't hoard, and presumably there will be more of these basic necessities for other people.
I'm not sure if that's exactly her reason and neither is Pedro.
He says, I don't know.
It still doesn't feel right, meaning it doesn't seem correct.
It doesn't seem like it is ethical.
It feels like we're profiteering.
Profiteering, P-R-O-F-I-T-E-E-R-I-N-G, means to make an unfair profit.
Usually, the idea here is that you're making a large amount of money, but you're hurting other people while doing it.
We only think this typically of other people or other companies that raise their prices suddenly.
If we're benefiting from it, well, we don't normally consider ourselves to be profiteering.
Elisa says, no, we're not, meaning we're not profiteering.
We're making a sound business decision.
The word sound here refers not to noise or something that you can hear, but rational logical, well thought out.
It's a sound decision.
It's a good, reasonable decision.
Hey, where are you going with those, Elisa says.
Pedro responds, I'm putting some of these items in the back, meaning in the back of the store, to reserve for people who can't afford your new prices.
To reserve, R-E-S-E-R-V-E, here means to save something that you are going to use at a later time.
Pedro says the poorest and most vulnerable in our community are going to be the ones he's going to give or sell these items to.
Vulnerable, V-U-L-N-E-R-A-B-L-E, means easily hurt or damaged.
People who according to Pedro, won't have enough money to buy these basic necessities.
Elisa says, you're not suggesting we give those items away.
To give something away means to let other people have it for free, to not charge them any money.
Pedro says you'll thank me later for helping you to assuage your guilty conscience.
To assuage, A-S-S-U-A-G-E means to reduce, to make less intense.
Something may assuage your fears, may make you less afraid.
In this case, Pedro wants to assuage Elisa's guilty conscience.
C-O-N-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.
Your conscience is what tells you whether something is right or wrong.
If you are guilty, you've done something wrong.
So a guilty conscience is the idea you have that you've done something wrong.
And that's what Pedro thinks Elisa is doing by raising the prices on basic necessities.
So he's going to give some of the things the store sells to people who he considers poor and vulnerable, so that Elisa won't feel so bad in the future, when she will no doubt regret having raised the prices.
That's why he says you'll thank me later, when you realize what you are doing, for helping you assuage your guilty conscience.
Elisa, of course, isn't very happy with Pedro for doing this.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are you changing the prices on all of those items in the store?
Haven't you heard?
There's a hurricane coming, People will be stocking up on basic necessities.
I know that.
But that still doesn't explain why you've decided to jack up prices.
There's nothing wrong with taking advantage of a spike in demand during emergency situations.
We're in business to make money.
That's price gouging, and you know it.
There are laws against that.
And plus, we shouldn't be exploiting people's fear.
I'm not responsible for that hurricane and I didn't tell people to hoard.
I'm not hiking prices so high that people can't afford it.
I'm just increasing them to discourage hoarding.
That's all.
I don't know.
Still doesn't feel right.
It feels like we're profiteering.
No, we're not.
We're making a sound business decision.
Hey, where are you going with those?
I'm putting some of these items in the back to reserve for people who can't afford your new prices the poorest and the most vulnerable in our community.
You're not suggesting we give those items away.
You'll thank me later for helping you to assuage your guilty conscience.
Be sure to stock up on ESL Podcast and listen to all the wonderful dialogues written by the wonderful scriptwriter, our very own, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
