Posted on 03/13/2020 11:49:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
People are beginning to hoard toilet paper. I went on a normal shopping trip to buy toilet paper last week and could not find any because of all the panic-buying. Social media is full of people storming grocery stores and fighting over two-ply. Hand sanitizer is extremely difficult to find. The Clorox plant up the road from me is running 24 hours to keep up with demands.
But the toilet paper?
The run on toilet paper should be the biggest signal that an economic stimulus plan is not going to work right now. People are being driven by fear, and they are being told to stay out of crowds. People are stocking up on toilet paper because they are convinced they are going to get quarantined or otherwise stuck in their homes.
Giving businesses money, making loans cheap and encouraging people to get out and shop is not going to help. What might actually help is giving people exactly what they expect -- ordering everyone to stay home.
But this presents a way more complicated solution than some want to acknowledge. Shut down schools? And what about the nurses and doctors who have small children. What do we do with those kids?
What about the workers in the restaurant industry who work hourly and won't get paid if there are no customers? If the restaurant can't get revenue, it can't meet payroll. Should the restaurant apply for a loan from the government to pay the workers and possibly risk the financial future of the restaurant? Perhaps. If the restaurant is going to go out of business otherwise, why not try to keep it afloat for some time? But for how long?
Do we make people apply for unemployment in person when we want them not to congregate? Do we start paying people, and, if so, what do we do about the debt and inflation and the value of the currency?
If the government isn't ordering people to essentially shelter in place nationwide, how is this going to contain the virus? If the government does order people to shelter in place, what about the workers who cannot get paid? What about vacation deposits?
These are not easy answers. But they are demanding answers at this point.
What we know about the coronavirus is that it is orders of magnitude more deadly than the flu and highly contagious. What we know is that people are already convinced they are going to be quarantined in their houses and are stockpiling. What we know is that restricting travel will restrict the spread of the virus.
The public is panicked and needs to see serious, grown-up leadership in Washington right now, as well as some bipartisan unity. The public is expecting Draconian efforts and has already baked their expectations into their toilet paper buying habits. The Washington solution seems to be that both sides of the aisle have different, competing economic stimulus plans. They will undoubtedly do both, further driving up spending, the deficit and the debt. I just do not think it will matter right now.
The president can fly Air Force One over major cities and dump freshly printed hundred dollar bills out of the belly of the plane, but if people think they're going to get the coronavirus, they still are not going to take that cash and go shop, eat out or mingle in large crowds. They won't even go to the bank to deposit it. They will, like with the toilet paper, simply stockpile it till the crisis is over.
Before any stimulus can work, the public must trust the health care response. To trust the health care response, President Donald Trump cannot be competing with his own administration's message. The economic fallout is going to grow far worse than the virus unless the Trump administration gets publicly aggressive and gets buy-in from Congress.
Unfortunately for all of us, there is a bipartisan problem in Washington. Both sides have "electionitis," and the only cure is denying the other side any sort of public successes in order to beat them in November. It is not yet known how many Americans will die in the process.
My brother in laws wife called, want to know how insane this is..her brother lives in San Diego and ordered toilet paper off of amazon, they left it on his front door(It does not come a box in a box so anyone can see it says toilet paper on it) SOMEONE STOLE IT off his doorstep..this is the world we are living in, people are stealing TOILET PAPER
I just looked it up. You are right... most people drinking the RDA pee 6 to 7 times a day. I thought I must be severely dehydrated or have a huge bladder. I do drink about 64 oz a day but only pee 2 or 3 times. Huge bladder apparently.
My point still stands though. Women can wipe with a washcloth and throw it in the laundry for pee if worse comes to worst. No need for this crazy run on TP.
It is borderline insane. A bunch of lemmings.
Don’t cry for me Venezuela.
If the President offered one hundred rolls of toilet paper to every household he is guaranteed re-election! ;-)
#101: This is a really “Crappy Crime Paper Caper”.
#104: There are so many Democrat verbal aholes that each one would need more than a hundred rolls of TP on a good day.
Yup, driven by fear.
Within a few weeks reality sets in and those panicking now will realize that they over did it.
The Fake News bashed Bush over Katrina and W did nothing.
The Fake News is already trying to pin Corona on Trump, but Classic Trump, he’s fighting back.
This will not end well for Democrats
I did the same with 5.56 a couple weeks ago, for the same reason.
Fixed
People are acting like morons.
Toilet paper? WTF! I can understand pharmaceutics, guns and ammo, but toilet paper! WTF
BFLR
People are acting like morons.
They aint acting.
L
Never..... ever underestimate the power of TP.
Good point. Also, a lot of people tend to use more than they really have to per each bathroom trip...unless not feeling well, people can generally get by with less.
Extra care in washing :-|
There is sometimes an option to request it be put in a plain box...may not be available on everything though.
I set up Amazon Key delivery last year for my garage (requires accessory be installed). I have a camera that monitors my garage (but not the expensive one Amazon tries to sell with it)...optional but highly recommended. A lot of items can be delivered that way. I was OK using Amazon Key for garage delivery but not the one they have that allows them to enter your house.
Amazon Locker is also available in some areas to help protect purchases (though those are for smaller things of course).
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