Psychiatrist says stockpiling and hoarding differ - Page 4

Porcelain · ‎02-19-2014

Those of you who consider price gouging to be admirable capitalism aren't going to like it when your medicine costs $100 a pill. Or $1000 or $10,000. Or when your electric company decides to charge you $5,000 a day or you can go without. There will always be someone rich enough to pay $10,000 a pill for meds and $5,000 a day for electricity. Does that mean only they deserve it and no one else does?

Should businesses should just corner the market, eliminate their competition, create monopolies, and wring us for all they can get? It's all fun and games until you can't afford insulin.

As to hoarding and stockpiling, I think that under stress there is a natural urge to make sure you have enough. There is a drive to control the controllable and prepare as much as possible. It's stress relieving to act to head off danger.

And under chronic stress there is less decision making power available to make decisions on what items to keep and what items to let go. So some people who are heartbroken or depressed or who have something extreme going on just don't have the bandwidth to decide to recycle their old newspapers and catalogs.

They just want a little place where they can hide and be safe. It's a natural instinct to hide away to avoid looking weak to predators. You see hurt animals do it. Unfortunately in the longer term this human behavior just turns into yet another problem and source of shame and disconnection with others, so it's very sad.

Hoarding is not a moral failing. It's a maladaptive response to stress and deserves compassion. And stockpiling is just something people do in response to catastrophes and various forms of collapse, like the one we are living through right now.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

alicedee · ‎07-25-2010

A family member who works at a hospital was just diagnosed with Covid. I was able to easily go to my stockpile and fill a big bag with tp and tissues for him.

novamc1 · ‎07-02-2015

@Porcelain

<<Those of you who consider price gouging to be admirable capitalism ...>>

Kindly cite the sentence where anyone here said price gouging is "admirable".

I said capitalism is the American norm.

The fact that we live in a free capitalistic society means that we can start and operate any legal business and try to make money to the extent that we want to and can within federal, state and local laws and regulations.

The opposite would be life in a government-controlled, socialistic regime such as those found in some other parts of the world

Although price gouging is probably a matter of degree and personal opinion about value of the good or service to be obtained, it's also not illegal. If people get gouged, isn't that really their problem to avoid and solve but not ours?

shoesnbags · ‎03-10-2010

@Buffalogal47 wrote:
Interesting article. I watched a few episodes of the TV show, "Hoarders" and I know someone like that, One thing I noticed most hoarders have in common: they either have no family or have been abandoned by their families or experienced a devastating loss. They have few, if any, friends and I have always wondered if that's why they fill their lives with things instead. The acquaintance who is a hoarder is an elderly lady who took care of her mother and never married, She never had children, has no siblings and just a cousin or two. Recently she decided to sell her house that she had lived in since she was a child, and one of her cousins, who is a friend of mine, had to clean the place out. Since the woman never allowed anyone to enter her house, everyone always suspected she was a hoarder, but even my friend was totally unprepared for what the house looked like. It was floor-to-ceiling full of everything imaginable. She never threw anything out. Sad.

@Buffalogal47

That's not necessarily so. My best friend's FIL was a hoarder back when it wasn't a well known thing. So we didn't know what was wrong with him, but he was a classic hoarder by today's standards. This man had a wife and a very involved son and DIL. He had two grandchildren that he saw at the son's house. Periodically his son's family would attempt to haul things out of the house and clean up which resulted in WWIII because he became so upset. This scenario repeated itself until the day he died.

"Breathe in, breathe out, move on." Jimmy Buffett

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@novamc1 wrote:
@Porcelain

<<Those of you who consider price gouging to be admirable capitalism ...>>

Kindly cite the sentence where anyone here said price gouging is "admirable".

I said capitalism is the American norm.

The fact that we live in a free capitalistic society means that we can start and operate any legal business and try to make money to the extent that we want to and can within federal, state and local laws and regulations.

The opposite would be life in a government-controlled, socialistic regime such as those found in some other parts of the world

Although price gouging is probably a matter of degree and personal opinion about value of the good or service to be obtained, it's also not illegal. If people get gouged, isn't that really their problem to avoid and solve but not ours?

@novamc1, price gouging is illegal in many states.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Porcelain · ‎02-19-2014

@novamc1 wrote:

Although price gouging is probably a matter of degree and personal opinion about value of the good or service to be obtained, it's also not illegal and if people get gouged, isn't that really their problem and not ours?

First of all, in America it is generally illegal or against various contracts. Surprised you don't know that. We have commerce and fair trade laws that differ by locale. People try their tricks and get in trouble for it. The greed of one person is outweighed by the needs of the majority to have an orderly society and a reasonable distribution of goods. Econ 101.

Second, I'm a "person" and so are you. So if price gouging is going on it can just as easily affect us as it can affect "other people." Neither you nor I are trillionaires, I'm willing to go out on a limb and assume. So we would also be denied things we genuinely need by price gougers, and there's no way to just opt out and escape the problem if it is going on.

I've found that an important part of growing more mature is recognizing that I'm not that special. If something bad can happen to the other guy it can just as easily happen to me. So wishing justice for the other guy is wishing it for myself as well.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

novamc1 · ‎07-02-2015

@suzyQ3

I did use the phrase "within the laws".......

And in states where this so-called gouging takes place, has the state placed price controls on all products?

I'm sincerely asking about the parameters of those laws. Do they fine or prosecute a business for charging "too much" ? Has government actually set a maximum allowable price and on what type of items or services?

The feds and Medicare/Medicaid and insurance companies have effectively set maximum reimbursements for doctors and hospitals, but doctors are free to turn away these insured patients and adopt "concierge" private-pay systems, which patients can opt to join if they can afford it and want a different level of care.

Actually, this is probably veering too far away from the original topic.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@novamc1 wrote:
@suzyQ3

I did use the phrase "within the laws".......

And in states where this so-called gouging takes place, has the state placed price controls on all products?

I'm sincerely asking about the parameters of those laws. Do they fine or prosecute a business for charging "too much" ? Has government actually set a maximum allowable price and on what type of items or services?

The feds and Medicare/Medicaid and insurance companies have effectively set maximum reimbursements for doctors and hospitals, but doctors are free to turn away these insured patients and adopt "concierge" private-pay systems, which patients can opt to join if they can afford it and want a different level of care.

Actually, this is probably veering too far away from the original topic.

@novamc1, if you google "Is price gouging is illegal," you should be able to find the answers to your questions.

As to your medical paragraph, I wish that nobody could be turned away from getting medical attention.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

DottieBlue · ‎03-11-2010

@novamc1 Very interesting article. Thank you for posting it.

furbabylover · ‎08-24-2011

@Shanus I agree with your statement. Our society has fallen under the spell of labels, mostly promulgated by psychiatrists who have managed to drug a good portion of our culture. Notice that suddenly everyone is "bipolar". Isn't that amazing? Now that the subject of people with cluttered houses has been labelled "hoarding", we have yet another pseudo-syndrome for which psychiatrists can push another pi!!. Give me a break. I stock my house for hurricanes. Uh-oh! I just started another pseodo-syndrome: Stockist.