For These Prices I Could Send My Car To Summer Camp. Am I Right, Folks?

So why is price gouging illegal in hurricane-ravaged areas of Texas and Louisiana, but scenes such as this on Saturday at the LA Coliseum go virtually unnoticed? To recap, there were some Ohio State fans who paid $500 apiece for tickets to the USC game (those were the cheap ones), then had to break out the roll once again to shell out $100 for parking. Their reward? The Buckeyes scored three points. The tragedy of it all: There were $20 lots only about four blocks away. And free parking a block beyond that. From Adam Rose's blog at the Los Angeles Times:

Parking was actually advertised for a mere $100. Unfortunately for Buckeye Matt (now a resident of Tempe, Ariz.), he spent a C-note for an official parking pass, only to find the lot full by the time he arrived at the game. The owner of a nearby private lot cut him a break by only charging another $80. Nobody at Matt's tailgate had ever paid more than $20 to park at an OSU game in Columbus.

If you pay $100 for parking at any event — even if it's the Rapture — you are too foolish to earn my empathy. When parking your car is more expensive than filling it with gas, the terrorists have won. The Most Expensive Parking Space In Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times]