Whenever I think about Joe Biden as the standard bearer for the DemoDisneyDixiecrats, defecation springs to mind -- and with it, the need for toilet paper amid the rigors of the pandemic.
Here's another explanation of the same fundamental lesson: an economic system organized for maximum profit on the part of the producers isn't necessarily built to be resilient in times of crisis.
What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage, Will Oremus (Medium)
It isn’t really about hoarding. And there isn’t an easy fix.
Georgia-Pacific, a leading toilet paper manufacturer based in Atlanta, estimates that the average household will use 40% more toilet paper than usual if all of its members are staying home around the clock. That’s a huge leap in demand for a product whose supply chain is predicated on the assumption that demand is essentially constant. It’s one that won’t fully subside even when people stop hoarding or panic-buying.
And this repeat from last week:
COVID-19 and the “Just-in-Time” Supply Chain: Why Hospitals Ran Out of Ventilators and Grocery Stores Ran Out of Toilet Paper, by Louis Proyect (CounterPunch)
"Hospitals began to run out of masks for the same reason that supermarkets ran out of toilet paper — because their “just-in-time” supply chains, which call for holding as little inventory as possible to meet demand, are built to optimize efficiency, not resiliency."
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