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Managing a Disaster
Townhall.com ^ | April 1, 2020 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 04/01/2020 4:35:17 AM PDT by Kaslin

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1 posted on 04/01/2020 4:35:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I’m glad we have a President who is a businessman and not a lawyer.


2 posted on 04/01/2020 4:42:08 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin

8300+ Italian health care workers CV test positive

61 now dead


3 posted on 04/01/2020 4:45:13 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

Advance buying for three weeks is sensible.


4 posted on 04/01/2020 4:47:09 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Brian Griffin

Economizing of masks in hospital will compromise the policies of Universal Precautions putting hospitals at risk of liability.


5 posted on 04/01/2020 4:49:47 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Kaslin

States have absolute power tempered only by their constitutions and the federal Constitution.


6 posted on 04/01/2020 4:49:56 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: wastoute

“masks”

We elected a president to MAGA.


7 posted on 04/01/2020 4:51:49 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: wastoute

I as a lay person had the belief that universal precautions fell officially out of favor because a politically generous group was having its feelings “hurt”.


8 posted on 04/01/2020 4:55:58 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Brian Griffin

It’s not the states that have absolute power, it’s the governors of those states. Pennsylvania has a Republican majority in both the House and Senate but they have not lifted a finger to slow down or halt the unconstitutional power grab of our liberal Democrat governor.


9 posted on 04/01/2020 4:56:50 AM PDT by Russ (I)
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To: Brian Griffin

No, just the opposite.


10 posted on 04/01/2020 4:57:15 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: wastoute

Hospitals should have bought the masks up in December or January.

My neighbors’ daughter is a physician assistant and her office’s masks were requisitioned by NM for hospital use. She does telemedicine only now.


11 posted on 04/01/2020 4:59:33 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

In Florida the legal standard is grossly in excess of typical pricing I believe.


12 posted on 04/01/2020 5:02:43 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

I feel “off-topic”, looking at the thread, but with reference to the article, it does not seem to be price “gouging” to charge and pay for increased transportation costs, either.

TP is a bulky, low-value shipping product, I would imagine.


13 posted on 04/01/2020 5:08:46 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: Kaslin

The fundamental supply limits are in China, not at the retail level.

MAGA

Macron wants France to be 100% self-sufficient in PPE by 2021. France isn’t governed by idiots.


14 posted on 04/01/2020 5:11:35 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

” According to Centers for Disease Control estimates, between Oct. 1, 2019, and March 14, 2020, there have been 390,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations as a result of the flu, 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 flu illnesses and 23,000 to 59,000 flu deaths. That’s compared with, as of March 27, a total of 85,356 cases of COVID-19 resulting in the deaths of 1,246 people.”

WHAT I WANT TO SEE....is a DAILY CHART comparing flu cases, flu hospitalizations and flu DEATHs with Covid-19 stats on the same items.

NO ONE is showing this. Thanks Walter for the intro, but I want to see this info every day........


15 posted on 04/01/2020 5:24:55 AM PDT by Arlis
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To: Empire_of_Liberty

You are right on about shipping! I ordered paper bags from a company in my own state (MA) and the shipping was going to be $125 for two bales of bags, when it was about $20 a few months ago. Jeepers. Obviously I did not follow through with that one. I realize FedEx is busy, but are they paying their employees more? Gouging.


16 posted on 04/01/2020 5:29:53 AM PDT by small farm girl (....)
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To: Russ

That’s really what has me confused.

At the state level, at least in some states, the legislative branch seems to have surrendered it’s role. They aren’t passing laws about the virus. Instead, some of the governors are ruling by decree. The governor gets an idea, deems it a law, and tells the citizens how things are going to be.

And everyone shrugs and says, “OK.” Because virus.

I understand people are panicking and (I guess) this is a really serious situation, but the country has really transitioned into a wild new phase. Things are very different now.

NOTE: in the 2017 influenza season we lost 62,000 people. The Wuhan Flu death toll is unknown but may be between 50-100,000 or more. It’s not THAT much worse than a standard flu. And yet we threw our country away.


17 posted on 04/01/2020 5:33:31 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Arlis

“Thanks Walter for the intro, but I want to see this info every day......”
Walter Williams writes an article on April 1 but uses Covid statistics from March 27th. Why would he do that? He says deaths from Covid19 in the US are 1,246, but the actual death toll is 4,059, more than 3 times higher than what Mr. Williams just told you. And you want to make sure you get the information from him “every day”. But he is obviously trying to hide something - the severity of the disease. Or else he could publish current statistics instead of numbers from 5 days ago. I suggest you get you information from the link below and ignore this embarrassing cretin.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/


18 posted on 04/01/2020 5:37:31 AM PDT by brookwood (Obama said you could keep your plan - Sanders says higher taxes will improve the weather)
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To: Kaslin
"But they'll complain that's not the intention of greedy sellers who are out to profit."

This article leaves out one important basic business principle that a huge part of our population does not understand.

When you are an ongoing business you must price the inventory you have on your shelves based on the amount it will take to purchase more inventory. This is the reason a gas station immediately raises prices when the price of oil goes up. The station must bring in enough money from the gas in their tanks to purchase the next refil of those tanks. So they immediately raise the price as they know their costs are going up. So many people think a business should sell their inventory based on what it costs the business to purchase and that is entirely wrong. Since you are going to continue in the gas business if you are a gas station you must sell the gas in your tanks based on what it costs to REPLACE your current inventory.

If toilet paper is scarce the store will almost certainly see an increase in their cost so they must raise the price. Pricing is also based on the availability of resupply. If you are a gun store and ammo is very scarce at the wholesale level they will raise the price significantly to both maximize revenue in order to cover the increased price of resupply and to encourage buyers to conserve and thus keeping the stores stocked with at least some product until the wholesale market returns to normal. After all how does a gun store stay in business selling guns if they have no ammo to sell with those guns? Consumers are so ignorant of this fact they often shoot themselves in the foot (pun intended) by boycotting stores that raise prices on goods like ammo when that is exactly what they should want them to do. Then when you actually NEED ammo you can get it from "cheaper than dirt" because they raised their prices very high and they actually have ammo, whereas everyone else who did not raise prices are SOLD OUT.

In a nutshell there is no such thing as price gouging. In times of scarcity you often have high prices. That's just the way the free market works.

One last example. In times of crisis small stores will often raise the price of bottled water to $25 or so per case and people scream PRICE GOUGING. But guess what, the store will actually HAVE water to sell if you truly need it. Lastly, what do people pay every day when they buy bottled water out of a vending machine or at a sporting event or theme park? 2-3 dollar PER bottle or about $30-$50 dollars per case.

Sorry for the rant but "price gouging" is one of my pet peeves. To the point I really hope the next bottled water crisis some place where price gouging laws exist some store just puts a sign on a pallet of bottle water. "Not for sale"

19 posted on 04/01/2020 5:42:51 AM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: small farm girl

How much does Fedex have to pay to get people to risk their lives? I’d say Walter was right because the higher price got you to not ship. Which freed up capacity for something more important than bags. How do we know the bags were not important? Because you wouldn’t pay the extra shipping. At least you could get the bags if you had to have them.

Right now Amazon is slow shipping some noncritical items. A bike may take 3 weeks instead of 2 days. If wish to pay a lot more for shipping to get the bike sooner I cannot since Amazon doesn’t want to “gouge”. But I am getting gouged by the super slow shipping.


20 posted on 04/01/2020 5:58:51 AM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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