4 ms·

What if these are just a symptom of a despicable human behavior called "hoarding"? You can argue some hoarding is motivated by fear, but a lot of it is motivat

What if these are just a symptom of a despicable human behavior called "hoarding"? You can argue some hoarding is motivated by fear, but a lot of it is motivated by greed. I know friends working in the construction business claiming some people just upfront bought whole stocks cement during the pandemic for example. Probably a lot of these purchases are done with funny money because money was being thrown around for cheap. So I'd imagine people would ask a higher price because funny money allowed to pay those prices, all due to the greedy hoarding behavior - at the end of the funnel people were paying stupid prices for housing for example, so why not? That same friend also said that they simply had to go and buy it from the secondary market for a premium. How do you solve this problem in the future? Are quotas the solution?

callmeal 4y ago
>What if these are just a symptom of a despicable human behavior called "hoarding"? It's only "despicable" if an individual does it. But "gains advantage" when you're a company. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/business/worldbusiness/28iht-hedge.4.8517580.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/business/worldbusiness/28...
- baremetal 4y ago
  i call it hedging, not hoarding :)
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> What if these are just a symptom of a despicable human behavior called "hoarding"? It’s not despicable, it’s risk adjusting by carrying inventory. (If you inventory more than you can use, and it’s perishable, it’s a different problem.)
- libertine 4y ago
  Well it's despicable because of the consequences. In a localized market, people adjusted their risk by stocking up toilet paper, canned goods, etc. Those who couldn't afford it, or came too late, were left with nothing. In a globalized market those who have access to free money can hoard as much of it as they want. As a consequence it spreads like a disease. You may say, in the case of the USA: "well, I guess that's the perks of being in control of the standard currency for global transactions, the rest just has to deal with it" -> this won't end up well for anyone.
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > in a globalized market is despicable simply because those who have access to free money can hoard as much of it as they want Billionaires hoarding toilet paper isn't a problem. It's everyday folk. Same for practically any other thing where hoarding is blamed. When we're calling the dispersed response of hundreds of millions of people despicable, it's the system--not people--that is broken.
    - libertine 4y ago
      Not toilet paper, but micro processors, production lines, raw materials, for example. How do you tackle this? Like I said in my original comment - will we have to resort to quotas?
      - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
        > Not toilet paper, but micro processors, production lines, raw materials, for example Who is hoarding processors? The predominant driver of the current shortage is the auto industry pulling orders in the early pandemic and then raging back into gear. The only people stockpiling are groups like Huawei, and they aren't "hoarding" nearly enough to influence global prices. Broadly speaking, when a politician blames hoarding, it's a dead giveaway for deflecting from a systemic issue. The culprit is usually price gouging laws, which discourage holding emergency reserves. In this case, it was just a global supply chain system stressed by demand dynamism and stimulus spending.
usrn 4y ago
Hoarding assets is motivated by inflation much like hoarding currency is motivated by deflation. Both are bad because they prevent people from socializing.
mindslight 4y ago
> How do you solve this problem in the future? Are quotas the solution? No, doubling down on a centrally planned economy is not the solution. The solution is to stop printing trillions of dollars and aimlessly injecting them into the financial industry. Make interest rates exist again (say 5%), so that investments have to make sense. And let the asset bubbles actually pop for once, so people stop trying to create their own DIY asset classes out of consumer goods.

callmeal 4y ago

>What if these are just a symptom of a despicable human behavior called "hoarding"? It's only "despicable" if an individual does it. But "gains advantage" when you're a company. See: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/business/worldbusiness/28iht-hedge.4.8517580.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/business/worldbusiness/28...

baremetal 4y ago
i call it hedging, not hoarding :)

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> What if these are just a symptom of a despicable human behavior called "hoarding"? It’s not despicable, it’s risk adjusting by carrying inventory. (If you inventory more than you can use, and it’s perishable, it’s a different problem.)

libertine 4y ago
Well it's despicable because of the consequences. In a localized market, people adjusted their risk by stocking up toilet paper, canned goods, etc. Those who couldn't afford it, or came too late, were left with nothing. In a globalized market those who have access to free money can hoard as much of it as they want. As a consequence it spreads like a disease. You may say, in the case of the USA: "well, I guess that's the perks of being in control of the standard currency for global transactions, the rest just has to deal with it" -> this won't end up well for anyone.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > in a globalized market is despicable simply because those who have access to free money can hoard as much of it as they want Billionaires hoarding toilet paper isn't a problem. It's everyday folk. Same for practically any other thing where hoarding is blamed. When we're calling the dispersed response of hundreds of millions of people despicable, it's the system--not people--that is broken.
  - libertine 4y ago
    Not toilet paper, but micro processors, production lines, raw materials, for example. How do you tackle this? Like I said in my original comment - will we have to resort to quotas?
    - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
      > Not toilet paper, but micro processors, production lines, raw materials, for example Who is hoarding processors? The predominant driver of the current shortage is the auto industry pulling orders in the early pandemic and then raging back into gear. The only people stockpiling are groups like Huawei, and they aren't "hoarding" nearly enough to influence global prices. Broadly speaking, when a politician blames hoarding, it's a dead giveaway for deflecting from a systemic issue. The culprit is usually price gouging laws, which discourage holding emergency reserves. In this case, it was just a global supply chain system stressed by demand dynamism and stimulus spending.

usrn 4y ago

Hoarding assets is motivated by inflation much like hoarding currency is motivated by deflation. Both are bad because they prevent people from socializing.

mindslight 4y ago

> How do you solve this problem in the future? Are quotas the solution? No, doubling down on a centrally planned economy is not the solution. The solution is to stop printing trillions of dollars and aimlessly injecting them into the financial industry. Make interest rates exist again (say 5%), so that investments have to make sense. And let the asset bubbles actually pop for once, so people stop trying to create their own DIY asset classes out of consumer goods.