Lack of toilet paper is something I associate strongly with communism.
You say it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I guess that was also true during communism, to a certain degree. Whenever the leaders said “there will be no shortage of toilet paper, be responsible comrades and don’t panic”, of course everyone ran to the nearest shop and bought as much toiler paper as possible. That was the rational behavior, individually. (Especially because, unlike food, toiler paper does not spoil. So there is almost no downside to buying more than you need at the moment.)
In capitalism, in theory, some entrepreneurs should predict the shortages, and make a profit on that prediction by increasing production, increasing imports, and increasing costs. So instead of a national shortage, there should be a temporary national increase in costs, and some local shortages.
Lack of toilet paper is something I associate strongly with communism.
You say it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I guess that was also true during communism, to a certain degree. Whenever the leaders said “there will be no shortage of toilet paper, be responsible comrades and don’t panic”, of course everyone ran to the nearest shop and bought as much toiler paper as possible. That was the rational behavior, individually. (Especially because, unlike food, toiler paper does not spoil. So there is almost no downside to buying more than you need at the moment.)
In capitalism, in theory, some entrepreneurs should predict the shortages, and make a profit on that prediction by increasing production, increasing imports, and increasing costs. So instead of a national shortage, there should be a temporary national increase in costs, and some local shortages.
We’ll see.