Woman Urges People To Stop Hoarding Supplies After Witnessing The Coronavirus Chaos

Hoarding. That’s a word we used to mostly associate with dragons who protect the treasure in their caves. The coronavirus health crisis has shown that some of us have a small dragon inside of us. A dragon that likes stockpiling and hoarding products because we fear our lives may be in danger.

From toilet paper and hand sanitizer to food with a long shelf life, some people are buying up massive amounts of things and leaving very little for everyone else who might actually need these things. Twitter user NatFigBar shared a post she saw on Facebook about how we should all avoid our instinct to stockpile things because everyone else is doing this. Because this hurts others more than it helps us.

Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.

While some people supported NatFigBar’s message that we should all calm down, others responded that this is a question of survival and that they and their families come first.

Twitter user NatFigBar shared a Facebook post about stockpiling chaos during the coronavirus crisis

Image credits: NatFigBar

Image credits: NatFigBar

What we’re seeing now is a battle between social responsibility and survival, public and personal interests. At the end of the day, it’s up to all of us to come together to get over the crisis, not fragment into tiny competing factions.

But is stockpiling supplies a rational thing to do in situations like the one we’re in now? David Savage, associate professor of behavioral and microeconomics at the University of Newcastle in Australia, thinks so, up to a point. However, he told BBC Worklife that it’s “not rational to buy 500 cans of baked beans for what would likely be a two-week isolation period.” In other words, there’s a golden balance between doing nothing and buying everything in sight.

There’s a difference between disaster preparation and panic buying

Meanwhile, Steven Taylor, a professor and clinical psychologist at the University of British Columbia who wrote The Psychology of Pandemics, warned that irrational stockpiling can lead to price gouging and scalping.

“If the price of a roll of toilet paper is tripled, that’s seen as a scarcer commodity to acquire, which can lead to anxiety,” he pointed out.

Tailor also explained that we have to make a distinction between disaster preparation and panic buying. The former is rational and useful. The latter is irrational and fueled by anxiety. We try to reduce that anxiety by buying more than we need and queueing for hours on end.

“Under circumstances like these, people feel the need to do something that’s proportionate to what they perceive is the level of the crisis. We know that washing your hands and practicing coughing hygiene is all you need to do at this point,” Taylor said.

“But for many people, hand-washing seems to be too ordinary. This is a dramatic event, therefore a dramatic response is required, so that leads to people throwing money at things in hopes of protecting themselves.”

Some people agreed that hoarding supplies is the wrong way to go about things

Image credits: SJimons

Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.

Image credits: twitter.com

Image credits: LaurenzSide

Image credits: SeremaStorm

Meanwhile, others explained that they see the situation as a question of survival

Image credits: AndyMbbsc

Image credits: AndyMbbsc

NatFigBar reiterated that this is no time for selfishness

Image credits: NatFigBar

Here’s what some other people thought

Image credits: i_mehaff

Image credits: youthmrwhite

Image credits: DeeJayDragon

Image credits: sam_j81

Image credits: JohnPearce984

Image credits: Porkcutletbowlx

Image credits: clareking1977

Internet users debated the pros and cons of stockpiling goods

Source: boredpanda.com

Rating Woman Urges People To Stop Hoarding Supplies After Witnessing The Coronavirus Chaos is 5.0 / 5 Votes: 2
Please wait...
Loading...