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Confusion and Poor Messaging Led to Hoarding, 嘿嘿视频 Experts Suggest

Might Be Illegal

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Toilet Paper Gone
Getty Images.

Hoarding is wrong, and you should not do it, all our experts agree. But the reasons people are overbuying 鈥 and that you cannot always find toilet paper, milk, eggs and cleaning supplies after several states issued 鈥 are complex.

Experts at the University of California, Davis, one from the Graduate School of Management and the other a psychiatrist, agreed there was some messaging by political leaders and others that scared people into overbuying. Wednesday (March 25), they were in conversation on this subject with news anchors at Sacramento television station .

Another 嘿嘿视频 professor analyzed the law and found that hoarding is not necessarily illegal.

People acting rationally

, professor in the Graduate School of Management, who has expertise in organizations, said his expertise moves around the edges of the current pandemic. He has opined about the hoarding issue recently.

鈥淐ommentators often portray people as irrational when they rush to the store and buy everything in sight, calling it 鈥榩anic buying.鈥欌

Palmer
Donald Palmer, Graduate School of Management

鈥淏ut in this case,鈥 he said, 鈥渕ost people were likely acting rationally.鈥  

Consumers got unclear messages

鈥淧ublic health and political figures issued pronouncements exhorting the public to make sure they had a 30-day supply of necessities.,鈥 Palmer said. 鈥淪o people went out right after the pronouncements and purchased abnormally large quantities of the things they usually purchase. The fact that this mass buying often resulted in rising prices made matters worse. Those who live paycheck to paycheck 鈥 and there are many in our society 鈥 likely were particularly quick to shop, because they could least afford the rising prices.鈥 

He said in a : 鈥淚 think the hoarding and the panic buying is a product of a number of things, one of which is the fact that when you are not getting a message which you can trust about the situation, you are left to figure things out on your own. One way to figure things out on your own is to say, 鈥業鈥檓 going to imagine the worst.鈥欌

Bad for the community

chief wellness officer at 嘿嘿视频 Health, and a professor of psychiatry, said in an interview in that the message that isn鈥檛 getting out is that 鈥渨e will get through this. 鈥 And people are going to need to help each other, and one way to help each other is not to hoard large amounts so your neighbors have nothing 鈥 .鈥

鈥淭his is about helping the community, and you help the community if you don鈥檛 hoard.鈥 鈥 Peter Yellowlees

Some hoarding may be illegal

Federal law provides for restriction of hoarding, and it may soon come into effect, said a professor of law who teaches criminal procedure. 鈥淔or purposes of national defense, the allows the president to designate certain things as 鈥榮carce materials鈥 and restrict accumulation 鈥榠n excess of the reasonable demands of business, personal, or home consumption as he deems necessary,鈥欌 he noted.

Gabriel "Jack" Chin
Gabriel 鈥淛ack鈥 Chin, School of Law

As it happens, President Trump issued an  this week delegating authority to the secretary of Health and Human Services to designate items under that law. The concern, though, is about 鈥減ersonal protective equipment and sanitizing and disinfecting products,鈥 Chin said.

Toilet paper might not be covered

If HHS acts, the federal government may be able to take legal action against individuals or corporations for hoarding these essential goods. But consumer goods such as toilet paper or food are not likely to be designated as scarce materials, Chin said.

As for buying goods and making a profit on reselling them, the current law only really applies to businesses, not individuals, he explained.

California passed a law after the Northridge earthquake in 1994 against price gouging. It applies during a national, state or local emergency declared based on an outbreak of disease or for almost any other reason, he said. Aimed primarily at businesses, it prohibits them from selling鈥 products or services at more than a 10 percent increase of the pre-emergency price, unless the seller can prove that a greater price increase is based on increased cost of goods, labor or materials. The restriction on price increases applies to a wide range of goods and services, including food, emergency supplies, medical supplies, housing, and repair and reconstruction services.

The law, Chin said, does not prohibit hoarding of toilet paper, medicine, food or anything else. 

鈥淥verall, it is fair to say that these laws are controversial and hard to enforce, but they appear to be constitutional. They are controversial because there is a general principle in this country that you are allowed to speculate,鈥 and sell products for a higher price, he said.

鈥淥n the other hand, not everything is a matter of money.鈥

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