Plato’s solution to price gouging

AAs the 2024 campaign season heats up, inflation remains a key issue – perhaps The central theme. However, the two candidates have very different explanations for the cause and very different recipes for solving the problem.

Vice President Kamala Harris blames price gouging for at least some of the inflation and has proposed a federal ban on the practice in the food industry. Their plan includes, among other things, encouraging more competition and preventing mergers of giant grocery chains. Harris has insisted that “large corporations must not unfairly exploit consumers to make excessive corporate profits from food and groceries.”

In contrast, former President Donald Trump has also promised to lower prices, although he has not blamed inflation on corporate greed or price gouging. In fact, he has attacked Harris’ concerns about erosion as nothing more than “full communism,” leading him to call his opponent “Comrade Kamala.”

Such debates are not new. Price gouging is a practice that dates back to ancient times. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato forbade artisans from “setting a price higher than the actual value of a commodity” and condemned them for trying to “skillfully exploit laypeople.” But for him, the solution to such a problem went far beyond limiting prices or increasing competition. Instead, he proposed a wholesale rethinking of Greek culture aimed at making people better citizens. There are lessons to be learned from this recipe for the current political debate about prices.

The ancient Greeks had a word for the disposition underlying price gouging: Pleonexia. It roughly meant “greed,” but there was more to it than that. It was perceived as some kind of illness. Those affected by it felt an insatiable greed for things that could never be acquired in sufficient quantities. No amount of money, power or admiration could ever satisfy the suffering Greeks Pleonexia.

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In the GorgiasPlato compared the souls of those who suffered from it to leaky pitchers – the more water was poured into it, the more someone had to pour more. There was no end in sight. In the Laws He complained that some of his fellow citizens wanted to “win tirelessly.”

Plato developed these ideas by observing how Athenian society developed over the course of his life. Centuries earlier, the ancient lawgiver Solon had tried to contain it Pleonexia through laws against luxury and economic inequality. But when Plato was still young, it had crept back into the city. Personal fortunes grew—as did tensions between classes—leading to three successive civil wars, while Athens remained embroiled in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans.

The Athenian historian Thucydides noted the growing and deeply troubling urge of his fellow citizens to seek “quick gratification in simple pleasures” as they craved “the pleasure of the moment.” He understood that this desire for luxury had a major impact – both on individual relationships and on the way Athens behaved as a state.

Athens began to disregard justice in its dealings with neighboring territories. Athenian soldiers stormed the city in 416 BC. by Melos and left devastation in their wake. They justified this campaign by arguing, “When one side is stronger, it gets as much as it can, and the weak have to accept it.” The Athenians’ greed was so insatiable that their leaders ended up making a huge strategic mistake. They decided to expand their empire by conquering Sicily – a disastrous calculation that ensured Athens’ final defeat in the Peloponnesian War.

Pleonexia and price gouging caught Plato’s attention because of what it represented. He watched his compatriots turn away from a common good ethos in favor of individualistic selfishness. Ordinary citizens became increasingly interested in their own affairs rather than in the affairs of the communities in which they lived. This was especially true for the wealthiest citizens. The famous fourth-century (BC) Athenian orator and statesman Demosthenes noted that there was a striking contrast between “the magnificent houses built by the rich” in the fourth century and “the simple houses built by rich men.” “We were satisfied with the previous generation.” ”

In Plato’s view, those affected are Pleonexia were willing to do anything to extract even “small profits” from their fellow citizens. And this impulse threatened to do more than just hurt individuals or other areas. It “loosened the great bonds of community.” . . that hold the city together.”

Over time, Plato feared that gouging would lead to radical economic inequality. This required a legislative solution because wealth corrupted “the soul of men by luxury” while poverty “urged.” [the soul] to shamelessness through pain.” The result of this impact would be that two radically opposing classes would compete against each other, eventually triggering another civil war.

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While Plato’s immediate solution to price gouging was a civil law against the practice, allowing consumers to sue price gougers for damages, his longer-term solution was cultural. For the philosopher, any serious solution to problems of this kind required dealing with the root cause – Pleonexia himself.

Solving this deeper cultural decay required “a sustained delivery” of educational reforms that would be embraced “out of a sense of justice” by both debtors and the wealthy. The goal was to shame Pleonexia himself. Plato imagined that all citizens would learn in schools, at religious ceremonies, at home and even in the theater that it was shameful to make unnecessary profit at the expense of neighbors. This would strengthen the standards most consistent with the state’s long-term success.

Economists have debated the causes of the 2020s’ inflation as well as the right countermeasures – many questioning whether price gouging played a major role and arguing that some of Harris’ proposals may be counterproductive. Yet it remains true that Americans are no more moral in this regard than the ancient Greeks. And if gouging played a role at all – even a small one – there are plenty of precedents for doing something about it.

Still, the best long-term solution may go beyond the kind of law Harris has proposed. Rather, Plato’s ideas suggest an attempt to change our culture, pushing Americans to think less about their own profits and more about what it means to be a good citizen.

David Lay Williams is a professor of political science at DePaul University and author of the new book: The Greatest Plague of All: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx.

Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.