Successfully dealing with shortages

• Panic buying makes people feel in charge of the situation, while seemingly mundane measures like hand-washing, which are actually impactful, seem ordinary.
• The problem comes when people overbuy in their over-panicked state of mind (irrational stockpiling), making the shortages worse than they really are.
• Speculators also take advantage of panic buying and raise prices of essential items like face masks, forcing companies to take appropriate measures.

..is a principle which makes people do things so that they don't feel regretful later. 

People are panic-buying for the same reason too, with social media and news media amplifying the sense of scarcity.

We can’t control the existence of the new virus but we can control how we respond.

• Practice social distancing as much as possible.
• Cancel or postpone any events that you have planned, or make them remote.
• Practice safety measures, like washing your hands.
• Help others in more vulnerable situations.
• Hold off on visiting elderly friends or family members.
• Don’t hoard.
• Don’t tie up medical resources you don’t need.
• Use your time wisely. Try a new hobby, or read up on something that interests you.
• Batch your online orders to reduce the need for inefficient shipments.
• Don’t spread misinformation.
• If you get sick, isolate yourself at home as long as symptoms remain moderate.
• Cherish the people you love.

Feeling anxious can lead to quite harmful behaviors, as one tends to always choose the safe path. 

For instance, when stressed over a certain situation directly related to goods, you might feel the need to buy too many products, a fact which, over time, will result in others not having what to buy or you having bought too much and wasting the very products you bought.

When faced with difficult periods, like the pandemic we are all dealing with at present, individuals seem to tend to associate luxury goods to a greater safety level. 

Furthermore, research has shown that people believe to be able to distance themselves from danger only by purchasing luxurious and expensive products.

Studying the natural disasters of the past, sociologists agree that while news reports lean towards the negative, a vast majority of people, good samaritans, doctors, nurses, government servants stay calm and help to the best of their abilities. While there can be panic and fear, caring for the other becomes common.

Economists and politicians often have views based on logical projection and past data, but human beings are an evolving race, and many assumptions now need to be overhauled.

A crisis helps draw awareness towards our fellow human beings, with our starting to embrace dependency, community, and solidarity, something not visible in normal circumstances.

Though we have to keep a physical distance in these strange times, we embrace each other more warmly.

• Humor, in a way, protects us from life's grim reality. We joke because if we didn't, we'd cry.
• Humor and laughing are also a social vocalization that includes some and excludes others. Jokes establish who is inside the group and who is not. We laugh with people to belong, and at others to exclude.
• In our current crises, humor is everywhere because fear is too. Laughter binds us together against a common enemy.

Poking fun at the ills of the world is only funny if they are considered benign. No one is making memes about child abuse that may increase during periods of enforced domestic isolation.

Observations about people's behavior can be funny if they poke fun at a social norm in a relatively inoffensive way, such as hoarding toilet paper.

According to research, we get a dopamine surge from buying stuff that causes us to want more and more.

Delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later also makes is more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.

Some online shops have made it especially easy to shop with a one-click buying process. Most major retailers offer free shipping, and only one in ten consumers return stuff they've bought online.

Americans are also taking up more space with all the stuff they are amassing. Self-storage units are rapidly increasing too.

The financial crisis of 2008 showed that the system can buckle anytime and money may not always be worth the same.

As we get hyper-connected, the state-backed authority of currency, and what Money is really worth, is being rethought. Society has historically tried to invent new forms of currency, most recent being Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.

The idea of Facebook's Libra, an attempt to create a new currency made from the architecture that powers Bitcoin, is that the value of new money is not derived from state authority, but a combination of mathematics, global connectivity, and trust that resides in people using Facebook.

Once you have ideas, you want to put your ideas to work. If you do that, you can start creating value. When we create value, we generate income.

During the pandemic for example, most restaurant owners had to focus on other ideas to generate income. Building wealth is not easy. We need a constant supply of ideas.

It is anything that will increase your wealth without personal labor.

• Businesses. This is a broad asset class. You can buy dividend-stocks on the market, and then the companies will pay you a share of the profit. You can start your own business. You can buy into other private businesses.
• Bonds. When you invest in bonds, you collect interest just like your bank is collecting on a mortgage.
• Books. A good book will generate cash for a long time.

Assets that don't generate cash, but might increase in value.

• Land. A piece of land generates cash when you rent or lease it.
• Collectibles such as art or watches.

Hoarding is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Hoarding is accompanied by varying levels of anxiety and often, depression as well. Peculiar commonalities among hoarders include severe emotional attachment to inanimate objects and extreme anxiety when making decisions.

Hoarding can be just a personal preference, but it can be viewed as a disorder when that behavior starts to negatively impact daily functioning. Symptoms of a hoarding disorder:

• There is difficulty getting rid of possessions, regardless of their value or lack thereof.
• The difficulty in discarding possessions is due to distress associated with getting rid of them.
• The difficulty in discarding possessions leads to clutter and compromise of living spaces.
• Hoarding creates clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning, including the ability to maintain a safe space.

• Hungary’s Budapest Metro became operational soon after London in 1896. It is now a world heritage site.
• This four-line network had various expansions and extensions and features the world’s first automated metro route back in 2014.
• The travel time saved each year by the fourth line, called M4, is about 14 million hours.

• The same year when the Budapest Metro opened(1896), Scotland inaugurated the world’s third oldest metro system.
• The route remains untouched and carries 13 million passengers every year.
• The subway network has seen a number of upgrades and makeovers including extensive modernization of all the stations and replacement of trains and ramps.