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The Things That Matter
The US economy has been shaken by the terrorist attack, but one particular
item is selling faster than ever. (Hint: we’re not talking about guns.)

By Diogenes

Two long years ago, thousands of ordinarily rational people were buying flashlights, portable generators, and huge quantities of bottled water—all in anticipation of the expected breakdowns in utility services that would be caused by the “Y2K bug.”

I don’t mean to heap coals on the heads of the Y2K alarmists. Their fears were not entirely illogical, and their late-1999 shopping sprees did some good for the economy. I only mean to say that a crisis—real or imaginary—can cause some very odd behavior on the part of American consumers.

The crisis to which Americans awoke on September 11 is, unlike the Y2K bug, a very real one. We know that we are in danger; that much is clear. But we don’t know how we should respond. (I am speaking here of individual responses; the policies of the nation are a different matter.) We know that another terrorist attack could occur at any moment, but we don’t know what form that attack might take. How do you prepare for an unspecified danger?

Moving the merchandise
Faced with this uncertainty, some Americans rushed back to the shopping malls and stocked up—according to their tastes—on antibiotics (with Cipro as the clear favorite), gas masks, and firearms. In doing so, they were playing a game equivalent to three-dimensional chess—making their own moves in anticipation of plans that their opponents may or may not have been hatching. Cipro will not stop a bullet; a gas mask is no defense against a bomb; and if a white powder dribbles out of what you thought was a letter from Aunt Meg, there’s no point in reaching for your revolver.

Why did so many Americans purchase so many items that could prove useless if and when the next attack comes? I have my own theory: I don’t think many American did make such questionable investments. I have no way to know how many doctors were writing phony prescriptions for antibiotics, or how many pharmacists were feeding the black market. But I doubt that many people were actually stockpiling Cipro. I suspect that reporters, looking for a story, successfully located the tiny minority of panicked consumers—just as, a generation earlier, reporters had found and publicized the handful of people who built elaborate bomb shelters in their back yards.

Yes, I do know that firearm sales soared in the weeks after September 11. Guns and ammunition also sold briskly in the fall of 1999, as the Y2K survivalists made their final preparations. But in each instance, the surge in firearm sales just happened to coincide with the deer-hunting season. Gun stores always do a brisk business in the autumn months.

So how much of this year’s boom is attributable to concerns about terrorism? I just don’t know. Personally, I’ve had my eye on a completely different trend.

Unintended consequences
Thousands of Americans did rush out to their town halls after September 11, it’s true. But most of them were not looking for a license to carry a concealed weapon. Town clerks were faced with an unprecedented spike in the demand for marriage licenses.

Marriage will not protect you from a terrorist attack. But unlike the purchase of a gas mask, it is a perfectly logical response to a crisis. Faced with the realization that our lives might end suddenly—a truth that applies to every time and place, but only occasionally penetrates our psychological defenses—we begin thinking about the things that really matter. Modern man may be fearful of commitment, but when we feel that time may be running out, we know there are some things we must not leave undone.

With our nation in jeopardy, some young men have responded by joining the US Marines. Others have mustered their courage and popped the question. (A good many, in fact, have done both.) I say thank God for the men in both categories.

Like everyone else I know, I spent hours in September watching television news reports. Among all the interviews that I saw, the most memorable was conducted with a young woman who had barely escaped from the collapse of the World Trade Center. Attractive and well dressed, she might have worked for one of the brokerage firms in New York’s financial center. But after her brush with death she was not thinking of the stock market or of her career. “Forget it!” she told the world. “I’m going to go home and have babies!”

I doubt that woman was alone. All over America, I’ll wager, on the evening of September 11, young couples looked across the dinner table into the eyes of someone they loved. The world was suddenly full of uncertainty, but their love was not.

Osama bin Laden wants to destroy America’s population. But beginning next June or thereabouts, I expect to see a little “baby boom” for which the attacks of September 11 will be indirectly responsible. If I am right, score it as a loss for terrorism, another victory for life and love.

Back to Catholic World Report December 2001 Table of Contents