Can someone explain the bottled water craze to me?
I don’t want to sound xenophobic or racist, but in my personal observation, the panic buying starts with people from foreign countries where food shortages are not uncommon, like China. Panicked that it will be like their home country, they come into Costco and stock up on rice in a panic, followed by water and other essentials. Other people observe this and panic too, or panic that there will be nothing left, so they also begin to stock up. This infectious behavior is then touted by the media which helps spread the panic even more.
So essentially, there are two viruses. One medical virus and one panic virus. The fact is that it’s very unsettling to see that not a single website online or store in your neighborhood has any hand sanitizer, Clorox, or other items left. That alone causes panic.
But why stop there? What if everyone rushes the banks worried about a financial collapse like the Great Depression? Shouldn’t we quickly get our cash out now while we can? Shouldn’t we buy gold? What if the power grid goes off? Shouldn’t we stock up on generators and batteries? What if we can’t obtain medicine? What about a zombie apocalypse?
The first thing we need to do is stop the damn panic.
Poll