RWL #166 - loneliness, song, and price gouging
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! It’s the first official day of spring break 2020! Woo-hoo! Professors gone wild! Gone wild in our own little self-quarantined world, partying down with some research and maybe a little Netflix.
As of Wednesday we were officially told we would be moving classes online until Apr 6, after which the University would re-evaluate. Luckily for us there hasn’t been much of an outbreak up here in rural New Hampshire, so hopefully it will stay that way. Nonetheless, all the toilet paper has disappeared from the shelves of the local grocery store. You would think Covid-19 was a strain of norovirus. We need to flatten the curve on toilet paper hoarding. I’d like to see the grocery stores engage in a little price gouging on toilet paper so people would stop filling their closets with it. To that end, I’ve brought back one of my favorite Econtalk podcast episodes this week in listen - it’s in praise of price gouging.
In addition to the pro-price gouging podcast, I’ve grabbed a couple of other coronavirus pieces for this week, more for their emotional content than their technical aspects. You can go to the CDC for technical stuff, and it’s almost certainly changing even as I write this.
Meanwhile, after a few days of watching the empty TP aisles, I picked up an extra 12 pack, because tragedy of the commons my friends.
“For we need a little price gouging
Right this very minute
Purell in the window
TP at the spinet”
Read
What: The New Yorker, With the Coronavirus, Hell Is No Other People
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/with-the-coronavirus-hell-is-no-other-people
Why: As part of my community service responsibilities, I sit on the state licensing board for nursing home administrators. Last week we had our quarterly meeting and I had a chance to visit with several leaders from the long term care field. In my conversation with one system CEO, she told me they were trying to get visitors to voluntarily limit their number of visits. I said I thought it was nice that this was a nice problem to have, given most people I know fear getting placed in a nursing home and being forgotten. She said she had a number of residents who still had spouses living in the community who came to the nursing home everyday to be with their loved one. She had asked them to voluntarily reduce to once a week, but “that’s just what they do - they come every day.”
I’m not an expert in elder care by any means, but from what I know, loneliness is a life threatening condition. It’s also quite damaging to people of all ages, as we know from studies of solitary confinement. So let’s take care of each other during this time and make sure to stay in touch.
Watch
What: Forbes, Italians Serenade Each Other To Fight Loneliness During Coronavirus Lockdown
Why: I have lots of extended family in Milan, where the virus took early hold in Italy, so I have been watching the news from there and worrying about them. I have been in periodic touch with one of my cousins and it appears everyone is fine, but as the news became more serious, it really made the virus especially real to me. I think we all go through those stages - at first it’s something happening somewhere else to someone else, and it doesn’t feel all that real. And then it happens somewhere to someone you care about, and it starts to be more real. Now with Massachusetts having more than 100 cases, it’s encroaching on home turf.
This Forbes article includes a few videos of people in various cities in Italy singing together from their balconies. It’s a lovely expression of community.
I probably won’t be doing this myself, since no one would hear me if I sang from my porch, but maybe I’ll post a video next week if I get lonely enough. At least I have a private stash of toilet paper.
Listen
What: Econtalk, Munger on Price Gouging
https://www.econtalk.org/munger-on-price-gouging/
Why: I know I’ve posted this podcast in the past, but it is highly relevant right now. Stockouts, whether of ice, medicine, generators, or toilet paper, are the direct result of prices not reflecting shifting demand. Stores that raise prices in response to runs on supplies should be praised rather than punished. Listen to Munger to see why that is so. It’s a counter-intuitive idea, but if you listen with an open mind, I think you will agree with me.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
See you next Friday!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau