Amazon shuts down Wuhan virus price gougers & profiteers. (feel good story)

[MBisonSon]

lol you'd be fuming mad if your IP decided to price gouge you right now. If you can't even admit that...

So hand sanitizer's the only way to clean your hands?

[nguyencelll]

I see. So it's not okay for Average Joe to do it, but when insurance, banking, and healthcare companies do it, it is.

[irollurmom]

So hand sanitizer's the only way to clean your hands?

Are you going to run to the washroom every time you want your hands clean? Or would it be a lot easier to use a couple squirts of sanitizer until you can find a washroom to use?

[TurbanMon]

or retailers can limit supply like they do during their sales, i.e. 4 per person

once again, you pay with time or pay with money. People who cannot afford the time will still not be able to get any of these products. Your strategy of "limiting purchases" also does not solve the problem of people rushing to the stores, and causing long lineups where the diseases can spread. price increases will do a better job of making people purchasing when they need it, instead of stockpiling.

who are the people who can't afford time off work? the poorest.

[KilaByte]

I'm really glad to read this. Fukkers should be shut down.

Same here, imagine a ****er like that is the reason that some elderly people can't get basic necessities.

[Roidmonster55]

So hand sanitizer's the only way to clean your hands?

Here’s a good one for you....about a year ago, scientists discovered that viruses are covered in a layer of mucus that protects them from ethanol. The study showed that viruses need to be in contact with ethanol for a minimum of 4 minutes before it died. This means hand sanitizer does virtually jack chit as far as virus protection goes. Hand washing still remains the go to for prevention

[irollurmom]

once again, you pay with time or pay with money. People who cannot afford the time will still not be able to get any of these products. Your strategy of "limiting purchases" also does not solve the problem of people rushing to the stores, and causing long lineups where the diseases can spread. price increases will do a better job of making people purchasing when they need it, instead of stockpiling.

are people who are the worst off better off taking time off work to lineup for products?

People will stockpile regardless of price, or they'll go to a different store where the prices are lower. I argued with another person about this same thing. Someone will undercut you if you charge a high enough price for a product that consumers don't deem worth said price. The only reason people were buying the price-gouged products was out of panic, not because they actually thought a pack of lysol wipes was worth $70 or whatever he charged.
Retailers have literal departments and marketing agencies to determine prices. They won't just hike the price of a product because of a temporary demand. The best way to deal with this is by limiting supplies. Whether it's food, water, sanitizer, whatever, people will storm grocery stores during times of panic.

[JRMoore82]

I'm against people buying up supplies and then selling them at high profits.

However, for legit retailers who supply it and sell it regular (meanting before the pandemic) I think that price gouging, although not pleasant, prevents shortages.

Most horders are idiots that don't make that much money. Hard to horde up all the TP when it's $20 a pack instead of $4.

The chicken egg farmers here (Hickmans) started adding a $2 additional container charge cause of hoarders. They just wanted to slow people down so others could buy the eggs.

It worked. Within the 2 days of selling out people are coming in and buying two cases and leaving. $2 sucks but is minimal compared to someone buying out entire stocks

[irollurmom]

Here’s a good one for you....about a year ago, scientists discovered that viruses are covered in a layer of mucus that protects them from ethanol. The study showed that viruses need to be in contact with ethanol for a minimum of 4 minutes before it died. This means hand sanitizer does virtually jack chit as far as virus protection goes. Hand washing still remains the go to for prevention

LOL. Do you think ERs are rubbing down equipment with soap and water between patients? They're using alcohol-based cleaning products.

[nguyencelll]

Again, such a low IQ argument. Did anyone said that was OK? No, I didn't think so. I'm disappointed...

Yes. Half this forum is against people like Bernie Sanders and any kind of regulation or action taken against these monopolies or massive firms that have insane market power. Most here loathe the idea of healthcare reform. They will cheer for such regulations against an individual, but god forbid they are done against companies.

[nguyencelll]

I just looked through the thread and have not found anything of the sort.

So please, kindly take your drivel elsewhere.

Yeah. Check post history. I'm sure you're one of those people too. Go read R&P.

[irollurmom]

Not consumer level hand sanitizers though.

They use consumer-level hand sanitizers between patients. Those foam sanitizer pumps in public places/doctors offices are just the off-brand version of Purell.

Also, I wasn't talking about auto-claves or scrub downs after rotations or after a highly-infectious patient. Most doctor's offices are using consumer grade (either bleach or alcohol-based) disinfectants to wipe down stethoscopes, thermometers, etc., beds, between patients.

[Roidmonster55]

LOL. Do you think ERs are rubbing down equipment with soap and water between patients? They're using alcohol-based cleaning products.

Hospitals have pure medical grade ethanol and chlorohexidine soaps

[nguyencelll]

Hand sanitizer won't be particularly effective tbh. It's better than nothing I guess.

[ErnieMccracken]

Yes. Half this forum is against people like Bernie Sanders and any kind of regulation or action taken against these monopolies or massive firms that have insane market power. Most here loathe the idea of healthcare reform. They will cheer for such regulations against an individual, but god forbid they are done against companies.

Most people here have a very low level understanding of macroeconomics. They'll sit on ******** all day calling people libtards and liking photos of trucks, but can't tell you the basic tenets of the fractional reserve banking system.

[nguyencelll]

Last time I checked, this thread is not in R&P.

And nice ad hominem attack.

There is no ad hominem. I'm not concluding anything about you or anything you said in relation to some sort of logic deduction. I'm not attempting to refute any argument you made since you didn't make one. I made a point, and you told me not to make the point for whatever reason. There was no argument made. No conclusion was drawn. It was simply an expression of aggression against you for being annoying.

[nguyencelll]

I don't understand, this thread is related to macroeconomics in what sense?

Because it is commentary about regulation of firms. There's an implicit philosophical question here of whether it is appropriate or effective to set price controls.

[nguyencelll]

I don't understand, this thread is related to macroeconomics in what sense?



See bolded below :



Bye wincel.

That's not an ad hominem. I am sure you are one of those people, but it has nothing to do with any argument you made. I suggest you review what an ad hominem is. It is not insulting or aggressive statements. An ad hominem would be saying, for example, "you're a fuking liberal degen and therefore anything you say is BS". Something like that is an ad hominem. A lot of people think calling someone an idiot or saying they are an asshoel, etc makes it an ad hominem. It does not. If I said, "your argument is invalid because you're an idiot", THAT would be ad hominem.

Let's recap on the discussion. I made a point, and you told me not to make that point. I then said you're one of "those people". None of that is ad hominem. And you have provided nothing to invalidate my point.

[irollurmom]

Hospitals have pure medical grade ethanol and chlorohexidine soaps

1) Lab-grade alcohol is readily available in pretty much any store. It's just 95% ethanol. They use regular, 70% hand sanitizer as an in-between for patients.

2) chlorohexidine soap is used on patients during or after surgery. They're not used by medical staff except for surgery. They just use regular soap otherwise.

And for your original point, what do you think happens to hand sanitizer on your hand after it dries? It stays on your hands after 4 minutes, therefore effectively killing any virus or bacteria.

[taf1968]

Yes.

There are alternatives to having internet at home: Library, Starbucks, McDonald's, etc.

Also stop comparing the importance of the internet to ****ing hand sanitizer.

What next?

Why not swing for the fences and compare hand sanitizer to food or air while you're making ridiculous comparisons?

And what if the library, Starbucks, McDonald's had a "convenience fee" of $300/day during a national emergency? Free market, right? Private company can charge what the market will bear? These clowns took a gamble and they are stuck. Amazon and Ebay are private companies and the sellers agreed to be bound by their terms--and what they decide to change/enforce. Ooops.

Every single one of these people could set up their own website, payment systems, Google Ads, etc. and charge whatever they want starting tomorrow. Cry me a river.

[nguyencelll]

And what if the library, Starbucks, McDonald's had a "convenience fee" of $300/day during a national emergency? Free market, right? Private company can charge what the market will bear? These clowns took a gamble and they are stuck. Amazon and Ebay are private companies and the sellers agreed to be bound by their terms--and what they decide to change/enforce. Ooops.

Every single one of these people could set up their own website, payment systems, Google Ads, etc. and charge whatever they want starting tomorrow. Cry me a river.

Ideally, people wouldn't go there. But, in practice, total free market capitalism generally fails because the assumptions of perfect competition are certainly not satisfied. We don't have a continuum of firms, workers, buyers, etc. We don't have identical products, etc. There are a lot of differences between theoretical perfect competition and what we have. For example, firms like Amazon exist because there is an advantage for scale in distribution. A system unregulated would produce a winner take all situation, and Amazon would have a monopoly, for example. Similar phenomena were seen in banking, telecom, tech, etc.

[Roidmonster55]

1) Lab-grade alcohol is readily available in pretty much any store. It's just 95% ethanol. They use regular, 70% hand sanitizer as an in-between for patients.

2) chlorohexidine soap is used on patients during or after surgery. They're not used by medical staff. They just use regular soap otherwise.

Yes but this is irrelevant to the original point. This is a recent discovery in virology that deems alcohol not as effective as once thought to be. The virus has a natural defense against the very product that everyone is in a panic to get. My point is if you can’t kill the virus that we are all trying to avoid, the next best thing is wash them down a drain with soap and water

[nguyencelll]

That feeling you get one your opponent argues himself into a corner.



"you're a ****ing liberal degen and therefore anything you say is BS"
"you're one of those people ( and therefore anything you say is BS )"

You can't make this chit up LOL

There was no "anything you say is BS". You added that. You didn't make any argument. You've made zero points so far. You just told me to go away lmao. The closest thing you had to a point was that nobody said anything about the broader political argument I brought up. Whatever. I brought it up. It applies, clearly. I can do that. That's how conversations work.

I'm simply saying if you guys all cheer for regulations against this type of pricing, why aren't you more critical of our healthcare, insurance, and banking sectors? They do the exact same chit on a much larger scale.

Basically, #SANDERS2020.

[irollurmom]

Yes but this is irrelevant to the original point. This is a recent discovery in virology that deems alcohol not as effective as once thought to be. The virus has a natural defense against the very product that everyone is in a panic to get. My point is if you can’t kill the virus that we are all trying to avoid, the next best thing is wash them down a drain with soap and water

I know this. Hand washing > sanitizer. But alcohol sanitizers are very effective in killing viruses because not all viruses have the same defense mechanisms. This novel coronavirus was literally just discovered a few months ago and researchers have been working around the clock to identify its weaknesses - sanitizer being one of them.

My point is that sanitizer is a great way to keep yourself protected in the chance that you're out in public and you don't have access to a washroom.

[guest89]

I don't think anyone is disputing that people were dumb enough to buy his stuff at those prices. Especially considering that hand sanitizers don't even work when people use it as they think it should be used.

The guy is still scum, and he's trying to play the victim. He can go fist himself.

In my opinion the fact that he drove for hours to every store he could find then bought their entire inventory to fill his supply is what makes it scummy. Dude literally rented a U-Haul and drove to rural places and bought their entire stock creating shortages for those items. On the flip-side those stores probably should have created a limit for how many each person can buy. IE my local Costco will only sell 2 cases of water per member.


If he'd have bought his stock from a manufacturer or distributor he could sell his hand sanitizer for $1000 per bottle for all I care. If people are willing to pay it, good on him for being enterprising. But he kind of chose to fukk people over so I don't really care that he's likely going to get criminal charges behind this.

So just a shelf?

That shelf is worth about $150 if its like new condition. loled at saying its a Corona Virus shelf though.

[nguyencelll]

You're forgetting that this is not the R&P section.

And remember, just because someone calls you out on your BS, does not mean they are "one of those people". Maybe they just see your BS for what it is.

Whatever dude. You still aren't addressing my point. You're calling it BS. Why is it BS?

Why is it okay to regulate the individual for these actions and not the firms?

*sigh* you people

[ErnieMccracken]

Authorities are starting to get wise. $90k fine for this boyo.

https://www.nj.com/hudson/2020/03/je...officials.html

[nguyencelll]

Who said it was OK?

Reading comprehension not even once.

This is what I said.

"I see. So it's not okay for Average Joe to do it, but when insurance, banking, and healthcare companies do it, it is."

It was a sarcastic statement. I am saying that it should not be okay for either to do it. You're saying my statement is BS. I'd like to know why. What is BS about what I said? The negation of what I said would be that it is okay for one to do it but not the other or for both to do it.

[irollurmom]

In my opinion the fact that he drove for hours to every store he could find then bought their entire inventory to fill his supply is what makes it scummy. Dude literally rented a U-Haul and drove to rural places and bought their entire stock creating shortages for those items. On the flip-side those stores probably should have created a limit for how many each person can buy. IE my local Costco will only sell 2 cases of water per member.

This 100%. The fact that he created an artificial scarcity because of it is what makes him such a scumbag.

[Roidmonster55]

I know this. Hand washing > sanitizer. But alcohol sanitizers are very effective in killing viruses because not all viruses have the same defense mechanisms. This novel coronavirus was literally just discovered a few months ago and researchers have been working around the clock to identify its weaknesses - sanitizer being one of them.

My point is that sanitizer is a great way to keep yourself protected in the chance that you're out in public and you don't have access to a washroom.

I’m definitely not knocking hand sanitizer as an emergency alternative, I drive truck about 300 miles a day, and come in contact with about 8-12 customers each day. Whenever I see a bottle on the counter I take a pump of it.
Ultimately my point was people need to lighten the fuk up about hand sanitizer and realize hand washing (and NOT touching your face!) is still the best prevention.

If Corona is vulnerable to alcohol then fantastic. People just need to stop acting like owning 300 gallons of Purell is the only thing standing between them and certain death/turning into a zombie (is this the apocalypse yet?)