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Comment by laweijfmvo | Hacker News Reader

Can we NOT start another fake scarcity scare? Businesses are importing less (from China, in this case) due to tariffs because they expect demand to drop due to the increased prices that would be passed down to consumers. They are not going to stop importing goods that have inelastic demand, where everyone will just have to absorb the higher prices. PLEASE do not start panic buying, which does create [temporary] shortages and generally causes unnecessary harm :/

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A huge percentage (35%-65% depending on what source you believe) of American families are living paycheck to paycheck are are therefore extremely price sensitive. They are the ones buying cheap stuff in Walmart.

Not everyone will be buying expensive hothouse tomatoes come winter. People who can no longer afford to buy imported produce will change their habits and just buy more unhealthy stuff that they can afford.

Do we import much food from China? Real question. South America, yes. But China?

No, Mexico mostly, but still tariffs there of course.

I agree we won't see empty shelves, excepting maybe some food items, as if people don't buy things due to the higher price, they'll just sit on the shelves.

I'd caution that no demand is totally inelastic though. The classic example is people not reducing their insulin use if the price goes up, but in actual practice, people absolutely do just that.

Why are you dismissing legitimate concerns of ordinary Americans here? For a family that lives paycheck to paycheck, even a 10% increase in cost of an essential item (like baby formula) can be catastrophic. If you are able to absorb the increased costs or give up basic items, good for you. Not everyone can.

It's the US, we are definitely going to panic buy, and we'll do it at the very last second to make sure the stress and shock is attenuated.

that's basically the goal here, getting people to panic spend to squeeze the last little bit out of the COVID debacle before things return to normal.

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