Never, Ever, Ever Give Up

Anybody have any toilet paper?  I don’t know about you, but I think that running out of toilet paper is a serious thing.  Maybe the French have a good idea, and we should all start using bidets.

I enrolled in Economics 101 when I was earning my BA.  I withdrew almost immediately after I had a chance to take a look at the text and the course syllabus.  I’m afraid I will never be an Economist.  I can, however, use common sense.  I think the economy will rebound after the Coronavirus lockdown is lifted, because people have not been able to buy the things they need.  They haven’t been able to get together with friends and relatives.  You get sick of your own cooking.  How about going out for some pancakes?  Anybody want to take in a movie?  Or, how about sending the kids back to school?

For a while, some people will have less money to spend because they have been laid off or lost their jobs.  The income of many others hasn’t been interrupted.  Regardless, people are going to spend what they can for the things that they have not been able to get.  Ultimately, this will put people back to work, and then they will spend their earnings for what they have not been able to get.  Eventually, things will even out and get back to “normal.”

An artificial scarcity of consumer goods has been created by the restriction of buyers’ access to those goods.  The problem has been made worse by hoarding.  The higher the price, the more product producers will make available.  However, the more something costs, the less consumers will buy of it.  People will be trying to balance their need for groceries against their need to pay their mortgage.  As the wild card of artificial scarcity diminishes, the push-pull of supply and demand will eventually create an equilibrium.  Until then, we hope the government will be on guard against price gouging.

I urge everyone to be patient until it is safe to go out again.  Then, I urge everyone to just buy what you need.  Don’t panic.  Those who hoarded toilet paper will be stuck with too much.  They won’t be competing with the rest of us when it becomes available again.

God bless each one who reads this, and God bless the United States of America.