But OTOH, not preparing yourself and just relying on mother government to care for you may also be debatable.
Yes, it's very debatable, I can't understand that line of thinking at all.
I normally buy my own food, and like to cook. I bet many think the same way. I don't normally expect the government to bring food to my door. Despite the corona, I want to keep living my life normally - this includes being able to prepare food, without special arrangements.
Why the heck should I throw my hands up and wait for government to start bringing me food
now? Quite the opposite, they likely have better things to do right now.
So sorry everybody, but I will continue having some food in my household, and making my (our) own meals, like I always do. Due to the very real possibility of being 14 day in a quarantine, this includes bare minimum of 14 days of stock of ingredients for proper meals; realistically, a bit more than 14 days is a good margin. Call that panicking if you want; I call that the polar opposite of panicking.
The shortages we see right now are not "panicking", but people actually
realizing this in one go - too many realizes it at the same time. The realization and the action isn't incorrect at all - just too concentrated. This does no big harm - the shelves will be filled again, it's just a nuisance. But it would be so much easier if a larger percentage of people acted earlier, spreading the stocking of their 2-4 week pile (which is good to have
anyway) over a month or so; now it happens during a few
days.