t00nces2 
auminer- Does you're colleague on the other forum have a FL or TX sales tax license to sell those 30 new generators...? Because that isn't a rummage sale or offering a couple of extra ones on craigslist. I'm sure the state govs of FL or TX would love (need) to have that sales tax about now. My state lives or dies by sales tax so if your colleague sold those 30 generators at 2k a piece, my state would love to have that extra $3k. Is your colleague going to declare that 30k in profit on his federal taxes...? A good way to get sideways with Uncle Sam as well, although I think I'd be much more concerned of becoming the bent-over "girlfriend" of some very large tough guys in some FL or TX big county jail or state prison than worry about the IRS. Hey, but if he thinks he can win the gamble (maybe he did already), he should go for it and see what happens.
Perhaps it sort of turns on a culture of a place. Not all places in the U.S. have the same culture or maybe its better to say that American culture is scaled, there are certain aspects at a national culture we all generally support and do but that can change when the scale changes to a region or an area. I live in the largest metro within 180 miles and its just now passing the 200+k mark in population. We've never had to deal with lots of people and we've never had to deal with lots of "rootless" people--folks who move here that have no ties to this area. But our culture maybe be changing because of the larger size as violent crime is up, although a lot of the armed robberies are done by "new" or transient people. We also don't have to deal with disasters that can knock out "civilization" for long periods of time. The most we deal with are blizzards (mostly short-lived) and tornadoes (geographically localized). We've never have had an event where a guy showing up with 30 new generators was needed, let alone desired at premium money.
You mentioned price-controls and Venezuela. That's typical in a lot of forum debates, its either the extremes or nothing. In reality, that not how big complex, generally "free" societies such as the U.S. work. There are always a balance of letting people do as much as they want to do vs. some sort of control on certain actions. Oliver Wendall Holmes, a US Supreme Court justice who had been wounded in the Civil War, once said, "your freedom to swing your fist ends when it hits my nose". Even George Washington, the first US president, had to send federalized troops to put down the Whiskey Rebellion on the frontier because it was for the good of the larger national society.
So, what works or what you think should work in your area might certainly be acceptable and normal but it might not fly in other places. I think I'll stay at here and enjoy my regional culture. Cheers!
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