Deinonychus antirrhopus

The biggest price gougers are people who buy stuff worth a lot to them, at a low price.

For example, say, aspirin at 3 cents a pill. This is profiteering by consumers of aspirin! Aspirin is worth much more to them than that.

In short, every voluntary transaction involves price gouging on both sides. That's why it's voluntary.

I wasn't aware that Milton Friedman was a cartoonist!

The notion that individuals carry the kind of market clout to negotiate on some equal (let alone superior) footing with corporations, allowing them to gain special treatment close in effect to price gouging, is a charming part of the mythology of capitalism that Friedman enjoys promulgating, but it's far from the truth. The rare case of an individual having such powers over their employer and employment situation would be the exception.

There is simply little or no comparison to the 'job maximization' abilities of an individual to the price setting and gouging possibilities of a cartelized industry solely providing a necessity of modern life.