Price Gouging…Why Is It Allowed?

I don’t really understand why our government is allowing price gouging. I do understand that the cost of oil is up, but did you know that the cost of a gallon of gas in Iraq is just .39 and right now the average price in the US is about $3.50. I do understand that oil costs us more than it does in the US, but I have started thinking that the local food companies are taking advantage of the increase in trying to claim that it is costing them so much more to produce and transport products than it actually is. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that there has been a cost increase to the companies, and I don’t mind contributing to absorbing that cost, but the prices of groceries are climbing so intensely that the sticker price on some items is up to almost double what it was just 6 months ago, and quite honestly the gas prices have not risen enough to truly warrant those types of increases on each product. I have spoken to some people about this, and many people are buying the fact that it is costing these companies so much more to produce and transport these items, but I am not biting. It seems to me that stores, food manufacturers and transport companies are using this difficult financial time to convince consumers to pay more for their items, and it is working. A friend recently told me, don’t worry the gasoline prices should come down again in the next 6 months, and my response was, do you really think that the grocery prices will? This kind of price gouging should not be tolerated, and our government had better intervene before this problem gets completely over the top.