[tomder55]

Speaking straight from the Pulp & Paper Industry: The Toilet Paper shortage is a case where EXTREME consumer demand is outstripping the capacity of the producers to put this product onto the market. The industry can take measures to keep up but the implementation of these measures are not automatic and will take possible production line downtime to make the turnover. The most immediate and best potential method to meet this challenge is to "convert" some Tissue Machines away from making Paper Towels and into making Toilet Paper: If this can be done quickly enough, the Toilet Paper producers and keep ahead of consumer demand....otherwise, its shaping up to be a very unpleasant next several months in the PERSONAL HYGIENE arena!

The answer is price gouging . If people thought it would be cost prohibitive to stock up on 2 months supply then they wouldn't and there would be plenty for everyone .

[talaniman]

My buddies wife said she was stocking up for her whole family in case their household ran low. That's the secondary market for ya!

[paraclete]

that's stupidity for you

[talaniman]

Not for those that trying to survive that the good economy hasn't embraced. There has always been a second economy in America and if you can understand eating rats and bats and dog and cats in other parts of the world to survive, then understand what the working poor or the poor in any country does to survive. Not everyone has a bidet, even in America.

You tell a poor person to hunker down at home that means stock up, and toilet paper is but one item to be stocked.

[Vacuum7]

Can you say GREED? Biblical....it has been written how man reacts when confronted with hardships....and man will do anything to survive....as will any animal.

[talaniman]

Some need more toilet paper than others especially over months. The problem seems to be the supply chain can't keep up with the spike in demand and lets be real, the toilet paper rack isn't the only ones in the store empty.

I don't think that's all greed but how some are preparing for the worst. LOL even congress people are selling those stocks for cash while they can. What you got no stock to sell? Me neither. No 401K to lose either, I'm old school, I sleep on my money rather than let a rich guy use it to get richer.

I hope dems don't jump to fast with resignation talk, because I have no doubt they have stocks and may be dumping some of it too!

[paraclete]

You tell a poor person to hunker down at home that means stock up, and toilet paper is but one item to be stocked.

I ask you how much toilet paper does one person use in a day, is it one roll? Since this "crisis" began I have observed my own stock of the product and I don't think I am any closer to shortage that I was two weeks ago, the last time toilet paper was readily available in my community. It is foolishness to stockpile toilet paper since other methods of hygiene exist, I also observe that other items are rapidly disappearing, pasta, eggs, milk, however we will survive with some belt tightening afterall we can always eat cake

[talaniman]

I have no doubt that people buying a lot of toilet paper have kids, and no other options to wipe their a$$.

[paraclete]

everyone has other options

[Wondergirl]

everyone has other options

Such as? (Don't flush them, though.)

[paraclete]

Use your imagination, toilet paper is a recent innovation, for centuries it was unknown, but telephone books, newspaper, take a leaf out of the chinese book and don't flush the wipe, brush, sponge, bidet, washer, etc, etc, etc

[talaniman]

UGH! Maybe a sock in the pinch on a foreign pot. Hey when ya gotta go ya gotta go, toilet paper or not.

Pity the fool who don't wear socks!

[Wondergirl]

Use your imagination, toilet paper is a recent innovation, for centuries it was unknown, but telephone books, newspaper, take a leaf out of the chinese book and don't flush the wipe, brush, sponge, bidet, washer, etc, etc, etc

My Nebraska and Idaho relatives' outhouses didn't have a flush mechanism, so pages from the Sears catalogs or city newspaper worked fine. Just be careful -- spiders were in their webs and splinters were on the seat.

[paraclete]

UGH! Maybe a sock in the pinch on a foreign pot. Hey when ya gotta go ya gotta go, toilet paper or not.

Pity the fool who don't wear socks!

no need to waste your socks tal lots of other things available the Indians have a solution, quite literally a tin of water but then they have a diet where they are not dealing with solids

[talaniman]

I doubt my diet allows me to trust a tin of water, and socks are easily available in a pinch, and I do have a drawer full if needed, so it's not a waste. Socks are just plan B when you aren't at home, and no toilet paper is available when the spirit moves you. Now if you have stinky feet or dirty socks you may well have to consider alternatives. You wear a T shirt don't you or have clean draws on when out and about?

Pity the fool that wears dirty socks AND underwear!

[tomder55]

LOL

even congress people are selling those stocks for cash while they can.

What you got no stock to sell? Me neither. No 401K to lose either, I'm old school, I sleep on my money rather than let a rich guy use it to get richer.

I hope dems don't jump to fast with resignation talk, because I have no doubt they have stocks and may be dumping some of it too!

I don't see this Republican /Democratic ;blue /red .There is more than enough evidence that our Representatives in Washington live by a different set of rules that exempt them for activities that would be criminal for us . Since 2006, while the median congress person continued to get richer, the typical American household saw their wealth decline, dented by the 2008-09 financial crisis. Lawmakers ;both parties use their position to enhance their wealth through influence peddling and privileged information to make better investments. Like I said ,forget trying to prosecute ,this won't even get past the Ethics committee. That's because most of them to some degree use information they get in hearings to enrich themselves .Current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity .Oh they were very clever about it . 2012 they passed a prohibition that the emperor signed to great fanfare . A year later they gutted it in legislation he also signed that did away with the on line disclosure provision of the law. Now to find out what trades have been made means going to the basement of the Congressional offices and requesting a print out . So for you and I want to find out when and if our representatives are trading ,it requires us to take a field trip to Washington.
They go into hearings and confidential meetings understanding new legislation is going to come out and are free to trade on that information.
If a lawmaker learns an upcoming bill will grant a company a large government contract, which could boost that company's stock, he or she is free to buy that stock ahead of the bill's public introduction. Ethics rules do not even require them to divest from industries they have direct jurisdiction over .And if they are not directly involved in the actual transactions more often than not it was their spouse or family member who profited from the information . Here is the solution ; don’t let public officials be active investors. Forget blind trusts . require them to divest of individual stocks . If they need to be in the market they should own mutual funds and index funds only.

https://www.npr.org/.../how-congress-quietly-overhauled...

[jlisenbe]

Tom, your post is so true. It's true of both parties. It is astonishing how they have figured out that there is supposedly no connection between taxes levied and spending approved. They count on our blindness and ignorance.

[paraclete]

it is a question of which came first taxes or spending, a politician can always see an urgent need funded by taxes or as it is better known OPM

[jlisenbe]

Clete, it's especially true after the intentionally blind public accepts the "reality" of continuous deficit spending. It will be our downfall.

[paraclete]

Yes and it seems to be infectious, after years of belt tightening and bringing the budget into surplus, my government has gone mad spending billions on a stimulus package that sets the process back years and this from a conservative government who continually touts economic responsibility