As a young boy growing on the backside of the Great Depression and the deprivation of World War II and its aftermath, I often questioned the driving force behind a social phenomenon called “supply and demand.”

Recently, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma shattered and set long-standing hurricane records throughout the southeast. The devastation and human misery is staggering.

Overshadowing the stunning generosity from millions and the humanitarianism of countless volunteers helping their fellow Americans, industrial beasts and anarchists rear their avaricious heads. As expected, citing a litany of customary, jaded and sorry excuses, the oil industry dominates the pillaging of precious resources from families reeling on the precipice of despair.

Grocery stores obscenely raise prices of staples beyond reach while despots line their pockets with donations meant to help victims. With homes left unprotect5ed and TV cameras rolling, looters help themselves, with obvious impunity, to family possessions.

Ultimately, what difference does it make whether businesses or hoodlums burglarize limited assets of devastated families? Since disasters breed exceptional opportunities for ignoble profits, trumpeting the doctrine of “supply and demand” somehow lends a humanitarian component to sadistic objectives.

At long last, the true meaning of “supply and demand” is no longer a mystery. Whenever misfortune strikes this nation, American ideals of ethics and honor simply collapse, providing a means for greed-driven villains to extract a last pound of flesh from hapless victims.

Roger Turcotte, Lewiston