I understand your argument but I feel that property rights are a natural extension of the right to life in a disaster scenario. In such an event, the bread loaf you steal takes away the right to life away from someone who could afford that bread loaf. I argue that during an emergency a "price-gouging" shop keeper isn't any less moral than one who sells at normal price and runs out in a few minutes. Both, in effect, "killed people" except that the guy who "gouged" in price may have enough cash to pay for more goods from the inflated upstream providers and may have a chance of getting a re-supply and thus, possibly extend life further. One could make the compelling argument that in the event of a large disaster, the fair-price shop keeper may be the more immoral of the two. I do agree with you, the question is far more reaching than just 'should we ban price-gouging' and I don't think we can even definitively answer it. In my opinion, the best "solution" is to simply provide a much more robust disaster preparedness plan.