Workers who keep global supply chains moving are warning of a 'system collapse.'

[ancianita]

By Hanna Ziady, CNN Business
Updated 10:24 AM ET, Wed September 29, 2021

In an open letter Wednesday to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups warned of a "global transport system collapse" if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.

"Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years' worth of strain on transport workers take their toll," the groups wrote. The letter has also been signed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). Together they represent 65 million transport workers globally.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/29/business/supply-chain-workers/index.html?fbclid=IwAR24hgQZ37_NzlU_rYjKyrDaqFtCya3UmZOt5AcMVWtb-mmZaR6mC3IMYss




A rant from the Atlantic:

Americans Have No Idea What the Supply Chain Really Is

Behind shipping delays and soaring prices are workers still at mortal risk of COVID-19.

By Amanda Mull

...Both at home and abroad, labor is the ghost in the machine. The supply chain is really just people, running sewing machines or loading pallets or picking tomatoes or driving trucks. Sometimes, it’s people in the workforce bubbles of foreign factories, eating and sleeping where they work, so companies can keep manufacturing sneakers through a Delta outbreak. The pandemic has tied the supply chain in knots because it represents an existential threat to the lives of the humans who toil in it. The fact that Americans now can safely go on vacation does not mean that people half a world away can safely make new bathing suits for them. The normalcy sought by consumers was created by all of this hidden work, and that normalcy has always been threatened by dangerous working conditions. No one can expect things to go smoothly until everyone is protected.

[NBachers]

1. Gee, maybe our workers shouldn't have been fired, our factories shut down, dismantled, shipped

overseas, and allowed to collapse into ruins here.

[Canoe52]

4. But but but, the "job creators" make more money that way.

America, land of the free, home of the dumb.

[calimary]

59. Land of the free - free to be dumb.

[jaxexpat]

30. Yeah, but look at the upside.

Americans have not been forced to be aware of the working conditions our invisible minions endure nor watch endless violent and oppressive struggles for worker (human) rights worldwide unfold on TeeVee. We got cable!

Besides, our closed factories make for great cottage industry locations. All's we need are immigrants to work in them.

[orangecrush]

34. You said it.

Had two good paying jobs sent overseas one after the other, and became homeless for the first time in my life in my 50's under George Bush.

[cstanleytech]

57. True but even then we would be facing potential problems as

there are a number of things we would still need to import to produce goods such as rubber.

[yaesu]

2. I'm seeing it happen already and the slow drip will turn into a gush and will take everyone by

surprise when it really should have been planned for.

[Hortensis]

40. How, tho? International industrial systems and everything they require

Last edited Thu Sep 30, 2021, 09:00 AM - Edit history (1)

just grew over the past 200 years as many millions of individual enterprises attaching themselves wherever and however they could plug in, loosely constrained by governments. No one has the power to control it, tho national and international institutions try.

On the plus side, it's really taken a lot to bring us to this point. But the hits continue -- all over the planet at once.

We're mercifully retired and have food set by. Is that the planning you mean?

[Marthe48]

3. I try to buy only what I need

and have put off buying things I can wait for. I lost 50 lbs since Oct. 2019, and have been 'closet shopping' for a year. I had my friend alter some pants so they don't fall down. I'm not bragging. I don't want to shop, and even when I buy groceries, I wonder how the people are doing, the ones who picked the vegetables, packaged the meat, or the household supplies. I hope that those people make it through this horrible time with a minumum of loss or sickness. (it is past the time we can realistically hope that they lose no one or completely avoid illness. If you have to leave your house to work, you are at risk.)

I am grateful they keep plugging away so I can get the things I can't do without.

[KT2000]

5. Workers are in the cost column

Corporate CEOs are reaping the bonuses that should be due to the workers. They reduced labor costs and get their bonuses. Workers are pinched for more while CEOs report to their stockholders how they have saved on labor costs and the stockholders say YAY!! here is a bonus.
We are going through a period of correction and I hope CEOs take a hit as well. Put workers in the column of partners instead of costs.

[canetoad]

26. I'd like to be as confident as you are

That the correction will be in favour of workers, or at least, equity.

There is no way that one human is worth renumerations thousands of times more per day or hour than another human. As a species we have utterly lost our perspective on the value of other humans.

[Delphinus]

36. Your last sentence ...

As a species we have utterly lost our perspective on the value of other humans. says it all.

[Hortensis]

41. Agree. Some of us have, for sure. There's a little self correction

among some of the very wealthy, but that's like any other charity. The only powerful corrections occur when people in general insist on them. Well over 200,000,000 Americans are eligible to vote, and as Pelosi reminded us, we need to eliminate these ultra wealthy classes before they eliminate our power to.

[OldBaldy1701E]

32. Unfortuntely

Unless we actually make some 'corrections', this is all just theatre. Politics as usual, just hoping the public gets distracted by the next faux outrage perpetrated by the media at the behest of their rethug overlords so that they can quietly drop the entire idea into the beltway garbage can. I was really hoping that your assessment of the situation was what was going to happen, but we had our window to get this ball rolling, and it is still sitting on the tee.

[Eyeball_Kid]

6. My brother ordered a bathtub from a factory In Wisconsin

He lives in Illinois. He ordered the bathtub 10 months ago. It hasn’t shipped yet.

I bought a couch two weeks ago. I live in the PNW. The couch factory is in Mississippi, but won’t be delivered until 6 months from now.

So….yeah.

[spooky3]

8. Crate and Barrel always had a fall furniture sale. This is the

first year they haven’t, because they can’t be sure of supply.

[MyMission]

11. Socks made in Wisconsin are also backordered, or delayed indefinitely

My boss put an order in this week, spoke to a sales rep who was telling her about each item, what wasn't available at all, or not in a color we wanted, etc. She thinks she'll get about 65% of what she tried to order.

I'm in NC, and we also sell 3 brands of socks that are made here. 2 of them have had manufacturing and shipping delays. We got an order this week that was placed 11/30/20. 10 months to get a sock order. So...yeah.

And people are talking about shipping delays, manufacturing issues overseas, and the supply chains being disrupted. I've seen it here in the US, during the pandemic lockdown and after things began to open up. Some US manufacturing is waiting for foreign parts, as well as retailers waiting for products made elsewhere. But stuff made here is backlogged too.

[leighbythesea2]

7. Delays, delivery slides, containers and

Price increases. This is the rumblings inside co's.

Containers have gone up 5 fold. Because of unloading/work force shortage. That includes the US ports.
Covid vaccinations and shut downs in the manufacturing countries. Worker shortage everywhere, on US side too.

Some of it, of course, comes down to the low price model that evolved from moving manufacturing in the 90s.

Once we got used to low prices it was a race to the bottom, on min wages too, here. Min wage stagnated.
Prices promised to be low (by walmarts and the like), and "continually lower". I remember reading about it then (mother jones and utne reader) and was/am working in it, (apparel).
The warnings were always there, right? That the system is set on a precipice, and exploitation/vulnerable populations bear the brunt.

It is not transparent to the average consumer, how fragile it can be.

[Tadpole Raisin]

9. I saw that article yesterday about dozens of cargo ships off

The coast of CA. I’m waiting for a shipment which is on one of those ships but thought it was just COVID restrictions which is what the company implied.

I’ve heard many times over the years that our ‘just in time’ delivery system was at risk and people who thought we have 2-3 days of supplies would be shocked to learn that it could actually be 2-3 hours. Think snow storm shopping and empty shelves x 100 for days on end.

I’ll have to pay more attention to this situation as it appears the problem is due to multiple issues

Thanks for the heads up.

[ancianita]

12. I've been keeping an eye out for signs of collapse. I'll look for the article you reference.

One clue should have been the empty shelves over panic buying back last year when lockdowns hit the country, and the whole reality about how toilet paper isn't ever warehoused.

We've been hearing about supply chain problems as mostly symptoms of getting back on track, but this news changes that media framing.

For the last month I've thought the first real clue of real hardship would be the first failed harvest, but instead, it's been lack of international coordination over consistent covid testing, vaccination, and hazard pay. If governmental leaders can't or won't do that right now when one disaster affects across continents, if they don't meet weekly, like Biden did by zoom, then humanitarian international law will come to nothing, and every nation will be only working with its immediate neighbors. Maybe.

[madville]

17. The ports at Long Beach and Los Angeles

have only been running a day shift apparently due to "labor shortages". The article I read said they are exploring adding a night shift. Another problem is there is an empty container shortage to send back to China, some of the shipping contracts require the ships to bring back empties so after they get unloaded they have to wait for enough empties to get loaded before they can leave.

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. Want to see that effect in reality?

Another problem is there is an empty container shortage to send back to China, some of the shipping contracts require the ships to bring back empties so after they get unloaded they have to wait for enough empties to get loaded before they can leave.

The major rail lines out of LA, where the overwhelming majority of incoming loaded containers head east, are the Union Pacific (UP) headed pretty much straight west toward Arizona and the Burlington Northern, Sante Fe (BNSF) which climbs up and over the Cajon Pass and heads toward Northern AZ, New Mexico and beyond.

Long Eastbound trains will have several locomotives in the front, perhaps a couple in the middle and one or two at the end of the train. The Westbound trains full of containers will have half as many locomotives, because all the containers are empty.

[Delphinus]

38. Interesting.

Thanks for sharing that information.

[SunSeeker]

29. Yes, the empty container shortage is huge problem.

I live just south of Long Beach/Port of Los Angeles, and there are currently 77 huge container ships sitting off the coast. But they all look loaded with containers to me.

[hatrack]

39. Yeah, just-in-time supply chains work great, until they suddenly don't . . .

Car's in the shop, and the service department has to order a part, so I'm not holding my breath.

[LymphocyteLover]

66. just-in-time indeed seems to be a big part of the problem

[hatrack]

69. That and off-loading/off-shoring/whatever lots of our manufacturing people and skills . . .

Turns out that having the ability to manufacture stuff in your own country can be a good thing.

[LymphocyteLover]

70. but but but Thomas Friedman said the world was flat!

[Hortensis]

42. From what I read, a good part of the port backup is from increased demand

as pandemic problems eased off a bit and spending increased, resulting in more goods coming in than usual.

A good reason, but of course doesn't mean the supply chain troubles aren't getting critical.

I'm out of a favorite jarred salsa, an old staple I usually have a couple extra jars of in the pantry, but it's been out at the store I usually shop at for more than a couple weeks. Silly, but with this discussion I just checked another store and will get it there (while I can?). My kids would understand my "panic buying" salsa.

[Farmer-Rick]

10. One little pandemic and the supply chain almost collapsed

OK one awful pandemic. But damn Obama had a plan in place WTF did the idiot Trump do? Why are our systems crumbling so easily?

This capitalist system Is a very fragile little baby. We deserve better.

[ancianita]

13. Yes. Collapse doesn't have to happen all at once, but very slowly. We could be seeing that.

Why do our systems crumble so easily?

Because one party sees profit in disaster capitalism. they and their donors would rather profit from human suffering, smaller population costs, than invest in humans and their pesky free wills.

Yes, we do deserve everything that we could possibly want, Farmer-Rick. But. I gotta say, and hate to say it, but the bottom line will be that we deserve what we fight for. The few have hoarded against the many, and the many are becoming too worn down to claw it back, and yet for our children we're going to have to do this.

[Hortensis]

43. Actually, to my view, millions of hits around the planet for two years

and continuing have been required to destabilize the supply chain to this point, so I don't see it as all that fragile. Especially in this nation, where food and medications are still plentiful and will be for the foreseeable future. This is good.

As to not so good, whether we deserve better, I question that as a blanket statement. Sure, many people do -- they always did what they were supposed to to meet their responsibilities to themselves and everyone else. But how about the 70 million who voted Republican and the 80 million who didn't vote at all in the last election alone? Look what they've done to everyone. Just what do they deserve? More than what they've done to everyone?

Well over 200 million voters, yet we're being exploited and abused by maybe 70,000 families who persuaded enough voters to deregulate business and cancel benefits. Regulations and benefits our once-feckless but wised-up predecessors fought for and bequeathed us.

I've been waiting a lot of decades now for the current generations to act as if they deserve more. If capitalism actually did fail in spite of their extreme negligence, they'd for sure finally hurt so much they'd act. And god help us for what they might do in desperation. As for socialism, how well would it do with all the same feckless victims letting it fail and be corrupted, one hopes until they couldn't take it any more?

[Farmer-Rick]

85. I get what you're saying

Here's an interesting article about how we deserve better.

"The average American income is about $35K per year. That’s about $2400 a month, if you’re lucky, after taxes. What bills are we up to? $1200 for a crappy apartment. A few hundreds, let’s call it two or three, for connectivity. And another $500 or so for basic utilities. That leaves you with about $400 for the month, or just $100 dollars a week.

That’s American life. That’s why Americans feel so poor. Because they are. American life is a gigantic rip-offf.
The average American — after subtracting basic bills of shelter and utilities — has just $100 to spend on food, clothing, kids, medicine, all the other necessities."

https://eand.co/do-americans-know-what-a-massive-ripoff-american-life-really-is-8804aa6b65fa

It's an interesting read of how less expensive it is to just "live" in other developed countries.

Yeah, there're are a full compliment of idiots in the US who are easily manipulated and conned. It's due to a lousy education system and indoctrinating children with magical thinking and God mythology. The filthy rich arranged it so they can continue to use America as a giant wealth extraction system.

[Hortensis]

86. Yes, just looking at how the wealth we create should be distributed,

I agree. Emphatically.

I don't agree with blaming the wealthy or public education for the personal failings that show up in political behaviors. If that were the case, most products of public education would be feckless fodder for corrupt politicians. And that's simply not the case. Hundreds of millions receive good educations in public schools -- because it's in them to benefit from them -- and those who have it in them do go on to make responsible, decent political decisions.

Absolutely improve education. But better traditional education will do relatively little more for those who fail education because of little to no intellectual curiosity, who resist learning for lack of interest and quickly forget.

And/or for those who are unsuited/resistant to truths that come through education and replace them with more pleasing notions in adulthood. Every devoted Fox viewer is an example, while trumpists who're trying to make tRump their dictator while chanting "freedom" and "lock her up" are outstanding examples. How to reliably implant at least greater respect for truth in those who want it for sure, but is it possible for everyone?

12 years to graduate millions every year who don't remember and don't really understand the value of our representative government -- because it's not in their nature to feel that those who disagree with them should have a say -- is a huge failure. But not because they never heard of the concept. Some really do believe it's right to steal elections when majorities are fooled into not knowing what's good for them.

[Farmer-Rick]

87. Good points.

Interesting reading your thoughts.

I really can't argue with your logic.

[lame54]

14. Customers complain and are perplexed at all the unavailable items...

I'm shocked at the amount of items that are still available

[ancianita]

15. Point taken.

It could be explained by the scale of this effect, that it takes longer for a big ship to sink than smaller ones.

Collapse can be gradual.

[ancianita]

16. A couple of relevant books on collapse, copyrighted this year, because timing is key:

Last edited Sun Oct 24, 2021, 12:22 PM - Edit history (2)

1.
This is a broad based look at what collapse means:



2.
This one is way deeper, with international sites, studies and activities to get people involved in hoping by coping:




If you've only got time for one, read the second one. It's scarier but way more informative and useful.

[Grokenstein]

18. I've got to visit two supermarkets to get the groceries I need (okay, want).

They're both within walking distance, but it's weird that the items I can never get my hands on at Lucky are available at Safeway and vice-versa. It's not even a brand thing; if I want to get a particular Stouffer's dinner to nuke, or a certain flavor of Liteway kefir, it will be at one...or the other. Almost never both.

I know, I know, first world problems. But is it a sign of trouble down the road?

[Karma13612]

23. Don't think so.

I experienced that before the pandemic. It’s almost as if it’s coordinated. It might have to do with ? Wholesalers. Or maybe contracts with the suppliers directly.

In any event, it takes two stores minimum to do my weekly shop. Sometimes three even.

We live 17 miles from our town with food stores for our needs. Closer to us is a tiny independent gas/convenience store and a Dollar General. They are a lifesaver very often.

[chia]

33. I think Lucky and Safeway are owned by the same parent company.

If so (hard to follow all the grocery buyouts and mergers) it might be part of their planning, to have different stock at each store.

[ancianita]

49. Stocking decisions can be as much about management as supply chain, so there's no one sure sign.

But when we find that car companies can't supply parts or housing construction companies have to wait for their own supplies, then you see signs. Can companies afford to stock up these days? It's hard to know; even the president is trying to get a read on the supply chain issues. Which is why we the public need journalism to help out.

[ripcord]

19. I left trucking and went back to school

I am getting inundated with job offers, some of them pay pretty well and have sign on bonuses but to be honest driving a truck is a shitty job. Everyone is trying to screw driver, they try to get them to go over hours, they will give them loads that are overweight and will argue about ways to underpay them constantly.

[3Hotdogs]

21. I agree with most of this paragraph. However,

the weight of a container is the responsibility of whoever filled it. You may be responsible to verify the weight at a commercial weigh station but the responsibility is on the person who loaded it.

[ripcord]

22. The weight of the truck is the responsibilty of the driver not the shipper

The driver gets and pays the ticket,the problem is that you can get a ticket on the way to or while returning a trailer that weighed heavy. It costs drivers time to have to return an overloaded trailer that they aren't paid for, jobs are paid in miles not time.

[roamer65]

20. I can see it in the car dealership lots near me.

They are putting what few new and used vehicles they have onto the new car lots all together.

Their used car lots are nearly empty.

[Karma13612]

24. It's a great time to sell

Your leased vehicle if close to the end of the lease. They are desperate for inventory.

[roamer65]

25. Im just gonna drive the wheels off my car.

2017 Chevy Cruze.

Gonna try to make it last until 2024.

If it gets worse, we will all be driving an American version of the Trabant soon.

[Lancero]

35. My car got killed after a run in with a deer...

My cheapest option for a replacement, aside from a 300k mile special, was to buy the same make/model with a blown engine and swap engines.

[roamer65]

45. Yikes.

That shows how tight the market is right now.

[Lancero]

48. Well, the engine is low mileage for the age as well.

85k, so I'm expecting to use this car for a few more years. If it was a 150k mileage engine, I wouldn't have considered it.

And as a side bonus, I've got a big box of spare parts for it.

[roamer65]

83. 👍

[Karma13612]

84. Haha!!!!

Cute car from pix on wiki. 🥰🤣🚙

[SunSeeker]

28. The supply chain for cars has already collapsed. Car dealerships are basically empty here in CA.

That's why the price of used cars has shot up 40%. There are no new cars to buy.

[roamer65]

46. It reminds me of what I read about 1942-1945.

During those years of WW2, there were no vehicles made for civilian use.

Only a few 1942’s got out in late 1941 and now they are a very expensive classic car.

[SunSeeker]

88. That is totally what it's like. I guess we are in war, in a way.

We're in a war with a virus...and stupidity.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. "Labour is the ghost in the machine" because the rich like it that way

Workers are not respected by many upper-middle class and upper-class (economic).

They feel workers should be seen and not heard and preferably not seen at all.

[ancianita]

50. Amen. And it's been past time for all who get a paycheck to see how they're all seen.

The rich (those who manage behind fictional personhoods) are going to decide what gets to market and what doesn't, as in, what they want, and not what workers need. Workers can live like animals for all they care. They cut off workers in Venezuela over the Orinoco Belt war and they'll do the same in the U.S. after they get rid of those democracy lovers.

[LymphocyteLover]

68. workers of the world-- unite!

it's fucking time

[bucolic_frolic]

37. Yay Just-In-Time (JIT), the MBAs told us the system was efficient and foolproof

and new and improved because they made more money carving it up!

Tell an MBA he's a jerk each and every day!

[GopherGal]

52. The race to the bottom means JIT...

which counts on everything working just right to get the raw materials/parts to where they're needed "just in time" without any muring of safety.

Margins of safety cost *money* and therefore must be done away with.

[bucolic_frolic]

78. And we see what happens with the chip shortages as soon as a critical choke point breaks

One delay in the system backs up previous inputs, and stalls upline output. It is a great, cost-efficient supply chain system, until it isn't. Faced with disruptions there is no backup plan unless each point of manufacture has stockpiled parts for themselves, which would be expensive and counter to the whole concept of JIT.

[ProfessorGAC]

72. I'm Right Here

You can call me a jerk. Not that it would be warranted, but you can call me one.
MBA students are NOT told that JIT is a magic bullet. The concept does NOT require cutting inventory costs no matter what.
Some morons with MBAs interpreted it that way.
But, proper JIT doesn't require imprudent levels of safety stock.
The company from which I retired uses JIT for packaged inventory.
Even during the pandemic, they ran out of nothing. Not even the active agent in disinfectants & sanitizers. There was always both bulk & packaged inventory available for shipment.
Too many nickel squeezers got rewarded for saving 5 grand by cutting safety stock levels, putting at risk $50,000 in sales. On Edit: should note that most calculations on the carrying of nonperishable inventory grossly overstate the cost. So, that $5k they "saved" was probably that number times the cost of line of credit cash, or 2of the reported number.)
The problem isn't having an MBA. It's getting one without actually learning anything.
There are tons of very good, smart, & logical people with MBAs.
I'd like to think I was one of them. (Admittedly, my MBA was the third advanced degree so I had clear credentials otherwise.)

[bucolic_frolic]

76. Well, Professor, I disagree

I've taken gradute level Quantitative Methods, and JIT was dubbed the latest and greatest, it would cut costs to the bone and allow skilled managers to tweak every last inventory-carrying cost to make a highly efficient system of extraction, production, assembly even amongst differing divisions, companies, or suppliers. All you had to do was get the components to the operation at the very last minute.

So you're right, getting an MBA without learning anything is a problem.

[ProfessorGAC]

82. Was Taught Very Differently Where I Went

Honestly, there was never any "cut to the bone" talk.
It was more about not wasting money, but some cost of carrying inventory was an assumed cost of business.
It was never discussed as a zero cost way to manage production & planning.
In fact, it actually makes no sense to target bare bones inventory. That's plain stupid.

[DBoon]

44. system collapse has destroyed entire civilizations

The book focuses on Cline's hypothesis for the Late Bronze Age collapse of civilization, a transition period that affected the Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Cypriots, Minoans, Mycenaeans, Assyrians and Babylonians; varied heterogeneous cultures populating eight powerful and flourishing states intermingling via trade, commerce, exchange and "cultural piggybacking," despite "all the difficulties of travel and time."[1] He presents evidence to support a "perfect storm" of "multiple interconnected failures," meaning that more than one natural and man-made cataclysm caused the disintegration and demise of an ancient civilization that incorporated "empires and globalized peoples."[1][2] This ended the Bronze Age, and ended the Mycenaean, Minoan, Trojan, Hittite, and Babylonian cultures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1177_B.C.:_The_Year_Civilization_Collapsed




Not a single event but a series of blows the cumulative effect of which societies could not survive. Their tightly interconnected trade networks were their downfall.

[ancianita]

64. In the first book I posted above, research is presented to show which kinds of civilizational models

are most resilient. There's a lot of information in the collapsology world about what survivable forms collapse can take so that humans thrive.

[lonely bird]

47. A host of things are at work

Shortage of computer chips perhaps due to shipping and manufacturing issues as many are made in China. Tariffs imposed by the Orange Idiot. Cost of shipping containers. Bottlenecks at ports. Some container ships are so far away from the port that they cannot drop anchor.

In the industry that I am in the issues do include tariffs and shipping containers but also some of our own idiocy. When the Texas grid collapsed the petrochemical plants in Texas went offline. Much equipment was damaged. The result is shortages in chemicals used in a variety of industries as feedstocks to make other chemical or raw materials for finished goods. Many of those same plants normally have scheduled maintenance which they decided to keep in place in Q3/Q4. This meant replacing equipment which required new equipment being shipped from Europe or elsewhere. Three isocyanates, MDI, TDI and HDI, are in short supply. They are used in things like urethane foam insulation, polyurethane coatings and so on. There has been shortages in some pigments. Sherwin-Williams, AkzoNobel and PPG, the largest paint companies in the world, have lowered earnings forecasts due to raw material shortages. Raw materials coming from China, Japan and South Korea are now competing with space on any available containers with electronics and other consumer goods being shipped for the holiday retail season.

[mopinko]

51. been buying music equipment for my son.

setting him up w a drum kit and recording stuff. headphones, etc.
there's a couple items that have a 2-3 wk delivery time, even through amazon.
an amp for his headphones being the big 1.

no idea how long it will take for him to get the custom office chair i sprung for.

[ancianita]

53. You're safe with the Big Distributor and logistics monopoly in the West, one would think.

Unless you deal with third parties.

[ProfessorGAC]

74. One Major Supplier...

...of recording & sound modification gadgets were backordered several months. That was Behringer.
They still haven't refilled the pipeline because chips & components are still in short supply.

[mopinko]

77. our hard find ws fii0

amp for his monitors. couple weeks delivery. spendy.
he looked around, found it cheaper, i cancelled the 1 i had, only to find out that the other place was sold out. several other sites were, too.
so, reordered, added a week.

he has everything now, thank ja. what a ride.

[BobTheSubgenius]

54. A somewhat surprising adjunct to this story that is also having an effect on commerice.

A world-wide shortage of shipping containers. The overseers of China's more-or-less centralized economy kept their foot on the gas, despite lowered demand, and a lack of available infrastructure outside their borders. This has resulted in incredible backlog in just about any durable commodity they produce.

There are huge holding areas full of stack-up containers containing dolls, hammers. flashlights...just about anything you can imagine. Of course, the travel restrictions have left thousands of containers sitting at other spots in the web of global commerce, as well.

My next door neighbour owns a micro-brewery, and, by way of explaining the big jump in price, his malt suppliers told him that their cost of shipping a container of sacks of grain went from slightly under $2000 to slightly under $9000.

[ancianita]

55. Wow, great point. I've counted MANY storage areas of shipping containers around Chicago + environs

like Joliet and the south end of the Lake Michigan. I still have no idea what that can mean though, which can be a number of production and distribution decisions at once, uncoordinated, for all we know.

For example, do these countless acres of container storage mean, then, that we have little to no manufacturing or other goods to trade back such that shipping is cost effective? Are we a graveyard in what's become a huge world trade imbalance?

I'm no macro economist and have no clue, but your observation is so interesting that I gotta ask dumb questions.

Like, what good is wealth hoarding if the world's wealthy rule over economically dying nations?

[Calculating]

58. They believe their wealth will protect them as society crumbles

Same deal with climate, they're basically in the "we're screwed, better steal everything not bolted down stage"

[BobTheSubgenius]

61. Yes, they do, and there are a couple of other factors, as well.

They are typically rich and OLD, meaning that they won't have to deal with a lot of the consequences they are meting out. And, to the paranoid uber-wealthy, there are options not available to the merely affluent.

When the villagers approach the gates, a helicopter spirits them away to their private jet, which then takes them to a compound, fortress, whatever, that is impervious to attack except by well-equipped and motivated military assault.

At least, that's what I'd do.

[BobTheSubgenius]

60. The point you raise in your first para is a good one, one that has an answer in two parts.

The centralized planning model is huge in the case of China, but, I think, all the evidence you mention "here" is ostensibly because of market forces. It's possible, of course, that there is collusion going on, but that's nothing new and certainly not confined to this smallish sphere.

Your second para has questions that are hard to answer, because we are almost surely not getting the true and comprehensive story. That we are being swallowed by trade imbalance and similar forces - like offshoring, for example - is undeniable. The extent, explanations and outcome(s) are probably unknowable by peons like ourselves. No offence intended at all!

And, finally, your questions are not dumb in the least. If I had good answers, I'd impart them, but, because I don't, I'll offer what I've said many, many times over the years. Don't feel bad about not having all the answers, no matter what the subject. No one was born knowing this stuff.

[ancianita]

63. Thanks very much. I intend to read up on what current macroeconomists are describing,

because they're certainly not gatekeepers of trade or production, but at least I can get an idea of whether this is part of the "Reset" plan I've been hearing about.

Over the last few years, my daughter, heavy into buying and using cryptocurrency along with XRP(?) Ripple, her biggest investment, is recently into this "Reset" theory about the world's money and commodities.

Before I leave the planet, I'd just like to get an idea of the road ahead for my grandchildren, and maybe make it bear left to the collective health, welfare, surviving and thriving lands.

[BobTheSubgenius]

71. I feel exactly the same.

[ProfessorGAC]

75. I Don't Think So

We live very near some of those you described as the Joliet area.
There are intermodal transfer stations about 10 miles from where we live. 18 trains go in & out of those two terminals each day, along with the 120 trucks coming & 120 trucks going for each train. Literally thousands of trucks, at least 6 days a week.
Yes, some of those containers are empties, waiting to be filled. I worked a couple miles from one of those yards.
I'm not kidding, trucks going into and out of that yard were 2 per minute, all day long.
I'm sure some are sitting idle long term, but seeing bunches of containers doesn't mean goods aren't moving.

[ancianita]

79. Okay, thanx for the info. It's just that what I've seen doesn't dissipate, but what do I know

[ProfessorGAC]

81. There's SOOOO Much Movement

Unless you actually drove by their gates a lot, I think it would be easy to think all that stuff just sits there.
I drove right past one, to & from work every day.
Amazing amount of activity, yet there's always these 7 high stacks of containers.
The weight of all that stuff everyday is just immense!

[Caliman73]

56. This is not good.

I do take offense at the implication that Americans Have No Idea What the Supply Chain Really Is. Many of us do. Many of us try to buy locally and reuse and hold onto things as long as possible to not burden the workers in areas where they are exploited.

The problem is that large corporations with wealthy owners and shareholders, have, as many people here at DU already pointed out have stretched out the supply chain, globalized it, and drive inhumane working conditions for the sake of more profit. I mean, I will not lie. I love Prime shipping and getting something I want or need within a few days, but I am willing to give it up. I also know that me giving it up, isn't really going to do anything because if Bezos or any other wealthy person can squeeze another nickel out and into their own pockets, they will do anything to get it. Government is the only entity powerful enough to change the behavior of these very rich and powerful corporations, which is why they are trying SO HARD to block the BBB bill and stop Biden's agenda.

Americans cannot "safely go on vacation". They have been sold/told that things are better, for the sake of the economy. So that people can make money. I know that small businesses, the mom and pop burger joint down the street, the small chain of motels, vendors and suppliers rely on commerce, but again, this is being driven by large, wealthy, multinational corporations whose CEOs were not able to get that extra Gulfstream Jet last year.

[ancianita]

62. No, it's not good.

Thank you for your thoughts. I only hope we can get the most powerful government to put Big Corps back on its heels.

Overall I hear you saying that the few are not good for the health and welfare of the many. Now that those who take cover behind fictional personhoods (and they are findable) have to settle for no growth, the rest of humanity can be choked into an impoverished, unhealthy, dangerous jungle of existence, because they think they have no choice but to thin the herd now by any means. Still, I know of at least one intentional community out there already working around that.

It is absolutely not good. We have to look for those orgs that know how to build coping skills to collectively build hope, because to beat back the chokehold of that few will be a chaotic battle, first because they command the signal-noise environment and will make communications about anything but them; next because they control, at least for a while, mobility, borders, and the basics of life.

[FirstLight]

65. Labor shortages at home too... are they connected?

Everyone likes to blame the shortage of workers in service industries and the like as "people would rather get their unemployment than work" as well as "people refuse to work for less than living wages"

But is there more to it? Did we lose enough people to COVID that it's impacting the labor force?
Did these workers find jobs remotely?
Are they choosing to re-enter school/training programs while on unemployment aid?

Maybe there needs to be another thread to address this question...Im certainly baffled and I KNOW it's not as simple as "oh they just want to not work and get their unemployment"

[ancianita]

80. I think so. But not in the way we think. You're right, there probably needs to be a thread on this

because I've not read answers to most of your questions, just the first one.

Re your last comment, there still is a valid argument for a universal income that might be a big governmental buffer during a pandemic/economic transition, and I agree, it's not as simple as what workers want or don't want. Everyone wants meaningful work, but how that happens isn't yet clear, but a new generation is working on it, along with resisting dishonest austerity and privatizing forces, from what I can tell.

[LymphocyteLover]

67. what's particularly frustrating/maddeing is hearing wingnuts blame this on Biden

when FFS he's only been trying to find a solution, but this sort of crap gets endless traction on the right.

[Demsrule86]

73. We need to manufacture here....look at out autos brought to a standstill with a chip shortage...

My supermarkets have empty shelves...so far getting what is needed but this is a security issue.