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Originally Posted by Mikey_D
It has nothing to do with my "solution", it is just common sense to stock up with supplies and even more so when 75% of other people have already done it before you.
It absolutely does. There's no reason to think our supply chains are in danger of imminent collapse. Look at what's happening in Italy, and what happened in China, and that hasn't been an issue. But if everyone were to run out and get three months' supplies, that would certainly test that supply chain. And if you think 75% of other people have 3 months' supplies, well, you must live in a much different place than I do.
As I said, there are reasonable solutions between a few days, and three months.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikey_D
You also haven't addressed a key point that I made which is that increased purchasing stimulates increased production, and at a time where the supply chain hasn't yet been affected, so many producers of food and personal care products are available to increase production.
If everyone went out tomorrow and tried to buy 3 months' supplies, to start with, we'd have more chaos at the grocery stores than we already do. Any increase in production would take weeks, if not months, to show up in stores, leaving the vulnerable with even less to purchase. And I don't expect the increase would be that large anyway - they would have to view this as a bubble, as there's no reason to expect massively increased consumption to match the initial hoarding. Also, this is food production, not manufacturing - one doesn't snap fingers and grow more food instantly.