As said by Agent K(Tommy Lee Jones, Men in Black), "A person is smart, people, are dumb". This quote is very relevant to today's world, as with the pandemic going around, a person can be smart but as a whole, we, a people, are very, very dumb. Economics and theories can very intelligently predict what a ration person will do in a high demand low supply situation such as a lock down, as, you know, economists are smart. But these predictions will soon fall apart as soon as the people get involved.
For example, a rational person will predict that when a national pandemic occurs, people will buy masks, long term food, water, and other cleaning supplies, which, to their credit, we did, but what was unexpected was toilet paper. All it takes for a people to become dumb, is for one outlier to become dumb, and be observed doing so. One person sees the headlines "self quarantine to be put in place", and has the incredibly rational idea to run to Costco, and buy several carts full of toilet paper, "just in case", a person in line behind them sees this tomfoolery, and has the equally rational idea of "oh man, I need 16 packs of Charmin Ultrasoft", and there goes the rest of the stock. With the stock gone, people notices the big empty spot in the shelves, and check to see what was there "Oh toilet paper, I need some of that", and before you know it, we are where we are, with people being dumb.
https://www.easttexasmatters.com/health/coronavirus/why-the-rush-on-toilet-paper-one-economist-believes-he-knows/
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I think a better word than dumb would be dangerous. People imitate each other, and when people as a collective act to satisfy their own personal needs, that action becomes the trend. You are apart of the collective, yet you ignore all the other people you have an impact on. I appreciate the take you are taking on the current situation, in calling out what's been going on as irrational, because thats exactly what it is.
ReplyDeleteI actually think about this quote all the time. For things like the coronavirus panic, it reminds me of when someone falsely yells "fire" in a crowded theatre, causing mass panic and people to act irrationally. Because everybody else is leaving and trying to get out the door any way possible, people start to get desperate and even violent. This also occurs when people are trying to panic-stock up on things like milk and toilet paper, when in reality you don't need to take as much as you may think.
ReplyDeleteI definitively agree that hoarding is really a compounding issue. Humans are social creatures; when we see one human doing something out of the ordinary, we too wonder if we should do the same. I really wish there was a way to fix this issue, but I'm not sure that there is. I think that it is in our nature to follow others.
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