Unfortunately, the local hardware store had only two and was unable to get more because of price controls. Because his father was a good friend of the local hardware-store owner, he got one of the electric generators at the controlled price. My friend's father was delighted because he could continue to shave with his electric shaver. Unfortunately, grocery stores in town required electricity desperately to prevent thousands of dollars' worth of food from spoiling. One person would have had to suffer the inconvenience of lathering up to shave, but hundreds of his neighbors would have persuaded him, through a high price for the generator, that their desire for fresh food should take precedence.
Natural disasters provide a particularly vivid example of the harm done by price controls.
Unfortunately, governments do not need natural disasters to justify undermining social cooperation and destroying wealth by dictating prices. Governments have a long history of imposing price controls on a wide range of goods and services. And they will continue to do so until it becomes widely recognized that such controls are a particularly pernicious form of censorship.