Montana Jones' Last Adventure

Now we come to the end of our tales about Montana Jones.  I've taken you along as he avoided bill collectors, dumped his car in the harbor, and cut off his own finger.  I've shown you how ornery he is and how deserving of disdain, even ridicule – provided you are out of reach.  The question remains, what happened to Montana Jones? Where is he now?

Always the opportunist, Montana was fishing the Banks in August of 2005 when a tropical storm over the Bahamas became a big storm by the name of Katrina.  He followed the news and when the dikes burst, Montana was sitting in the bar with the rest of the fishermen discussing how awful the situation was, and how badly the government botched the job. 

“They ought to have supply and hospital ships follow storms like that right into the coast.  That way they'd be right on site with what everyone needs,” Steve Burnap said.

A light went on in Montana's mind and he jumped off his barstool and took off out the door that very minute.

His plan only took a day to implement.  He offered his boat as collateral on a loan and gathered together every cent he owned.  Then he called in favors and borrowed money from everyone he knew. Montana Jones was going into the supply business. 

He leased a light duty freighter and stocked it with lumber, toiletries, tools, wheelbarrows, light bulbs, generators, and medicine.  Then he sailed around Florida into the gulf and right up the coast of Mississippi.  It was the perfect plan. Those people had needs and Montana was going to provide them with with all the help he could.  At a handsome profit, that is. 

He sold out the entire ship for at least three times what he paid and then he went back to Florida to restock.  He repeated this operation five times, upping the prices every time.  They weren't going to be desperate forever, was his reasoning. 

On that sixth trip into land, he was surrounded by the Coast Guard.  The ship was confiscated, his cargo seized, and he was arrested.  He was held without bail in Mobile, Alabama and was eventually going to be tried on charges stemming from price gouging in the wake of a declared disaster.  As a Yankee accused of preying on the victims of the storm, his lawyer didn't like his chances with a jury of Southerners, so they eventually pleaded out.

It cost him all of his profits and three years on a ten year sentence.  He'll be out this year, in fact.  And I'm sure the stories of Montana Jones will continue unabated. 

- rick, waiting for more.

Comments

[a rose is a rose]

i can forgive a lot. i can't forgive price gouging on victims of natural disasters. (ok, who the hell am i kidding. i CAN'T forgive a lot)

[Cele]

It was such a worthy and good idea, but so sad greed stepped in.

[bex]

Interesting...

although I have to ask, what is the 'acceptable' profit margin during a declared disaster? Triple margins isn't usury... he must have done something really sleazy towards the end.

[NFlanders]

Even though price-gouging offends our sense of justice, in this case, it seems the most efficient way of distributing goods in the time of a disaster. As soon as Montana was arrested, his flow of goods from FL to LA was stopped. Clearly, since people were willing to pay exorbitant prices, the goods were not otherwise reaching them. What does putting him in jail accomplish? It saves disaster-stricken people money, but it also ensures they won't get what they need.

If people (even slimy people like Montana) have an economic incentive to get, say, generators or bottled water to people in need, then suddenly, there will be more generators and bottled water flowing through private means into the area. Which is morally worse, charging 5 bucks for a bottle of water, or staying at home at not getting those people any water at all? I say the latter.

[CV Rick]

NFlanders - letting the market prevail and balance resources, right? That's kind of the capitalist view that the markets, allowed to function freely will correct all wrongs. Unfortunately, as it's correcting all those wrongs and making everything equal in terms of resources, people are dying. What's a life worth? In your economic incentive view, life has a discrete value and people who have access to some degree of wealth have lives of higher value than those who do not.

For some, that's an attractively sociopathic view, glorified by a psychotic free market where profits are privatized but risk is socialized (i.e. government welfare for the wealthiest corporations, whereas individuals who find themselves in debt risk are expected to sink alone).

For me however, sociopathy isn't attractive.