Supply and Demand and Supply

In the Midwest it is expected that an upcoming blizzard will result in grocery stores running low on bread and milk. Not running out. Running low. We know that the worst storm isn’t likely to keep us home-bound for more than a couple of days, so we stock up for that amount of time.

None of us has experience with pandemics, so our response as a society was, and continues to be improvised. As a result, before the cleaning supplies disappeared or any food was in short supply, the one item that disappeared was… wait for it… toilet paper.   Not only toilet paper, but other paper products that could conceivably work as toilet paper. I’m sure plumbers have been busy dealing with paper towel clogs.

Obviously, this viral pandemic is nothing to make light of as some suffer and others pass away as a result of it. It is interesting, though, to see how the great majority of us who are left to our own devices in our homes react to the challenge.

Now, I understand that running out of toilet paper would be a bad thing. Really, I do. But, how little toilet paper did people have in their homes when this began, and how long did they think it would have to last? As I see it, people poop at about the same rate all the time. With the exception of an intestinal bug, pandemics don’t cause people to poop more. Granted, a lot of people can only poop at home now, so I guess a slight increase in home supply was needed.

I feel for the people in the paper goods industry. In the long run, the amount of toilet paper used per person per day won’t have changed. So, this spike in usage will be mirrored by a drop in demand later on. They’ll make the same amount of money overall after working their butts off trying to keep up with the pandemic demand.

Meanwhile, supplies of milk are so large that farmers are dumping some of it. Do people not drink milk at home? I know schools go through a lot of milk, but don’t those children still exist?

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. We’re all hoping that the virus goes away, though it might take a while. When it does, it’s uncertain when people will be able to go back to work. In the mean time we’re being given thousands of our dollars back, and who knows if we’ll buy milk or toilet paper or lottery tickets with that money.

I, for one, remain hopeful that someday there will again come a time when toilet paper is available, people are again drinking milk, and we can all poop without fear.

 

Blood On Hands

Finger-pointing is a very popular sport these days. Granted, only one finger gets exercise, unless there is a digital response to the finger point using the middle finger. Then two get a workout.

In Wisconsin we had the ill fortune to have our spring election during the pandemic. Calm and thoughtful minds might have dealt with the situation, OR, two parties not wanting to give the other an advantage could duke it out. Guess what happened?

With split governance in the state, some wanted to delay the election, some wanted a mail-in only election, and some wanted to hold the election as scheduled. Honestly, I don’t know which party would gain an advantage from any of those outcomes, though I have my suspicions.

The governor, on the day before the election, postponed it. I think perhaps he thought that would be too late for a court challenge, but it wasn’t. The Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him.

The next day, a Facebook poster in the state said, paraphrasing, if one person dies because of voting in person, the Republicans will have blood on their hands.

Now, that’s a fair statement unless we consider the other entities that have had the governor’s blessings to stay open throughout the pandemic starting with liquor stores, office supplies stores, insurance offices, and hardware stores… like Menards and Home Depot. If people die from COVID-19 having been to those places is their blood on the governor’s hands?

A friend who voted yesterday said she brought in her own pen (though voters were asked to use the polling place pen and take it home with them) and touched nothing else. There were plastic shields to protect the poll workers.

And 1.3 million people in the state requested mail-in ballots. At my house we voted early at the town clerk’s office as she sprayed Lysol cleaner everywhere before we were even out the door.

These challenging days bring out the best in many people and the worst in some. The words of former Obama chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel that a serious crisis shouldn’t be wasted tells the story of politicians using terrible circumstances to gain political leverage. They may feel that the ends justify the means, but if the means are wrong, they’re wrong.