Public Shame, Hoarding and Panic Buying
The Issue:
At a time of great stress, up to and including the prospect of fatal loss of life for thousands to an inexorably growing pandemic, we see acts of panic, desperation as well as courage. Many of us are still able to put aside personal concerns to focus on doing acts of simple kindness and compassion for others.
We are witness to widespread panic buying. According to psychologists, the rationalization is that shopping is one of the few things that a person can control. Many of us are capable of being irrational, panic-buyers, seeking a key to future uncertainty through buying goods we may never need, in quantities that don’t make sense. We don’t want to leave ourselves vulnerable to hunger. We soothe our anxieties, vulnerability, and uncertainties by buying, shopping, owning and hoarding. This behaviour is variously called calamity capitalism, shutter and shelter in place, and bulk panic-induced shopping.
Resellers of disinfected wipes, or toilet paper or masks are engaging in buying low and selling high, a basic of commercial trading behaviour. These profiteers are being pilloried and “shamed” in the press for profiting from health misery. In some cases, their on-line promotion posts and accounts are being taken down by social media platforms.
Ethical and Moral Dilemmas:
When are personal hoarding and reselling morally odious? Is it a matter of the product being coveted or the amount of profit made? Hoarding for personal use is somehow wrong but tolerated, whereas selling at a profit is a more serious and morally odious practice. Individuals who seek to make a short term profit are being called out in print and social media for violating some kind of communal norm.
Legal and Values Dimensions:
We acknowledge that there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness. There is fear. But there does not have to be hate. Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness. Yes, there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul. Yes, there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Further Reading
Military Times: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2020/03/25/hoarding-during-coronavirus-not-much-has-changed-since-wwii/
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/us/coronavirus-preppers.html
About the Author:
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