Supply chains, shipping, and local commerce

[squirrelitude]

A good piece on international shipping and why it's all bollixed up right now, and is just going to get worse:

https://medium.com/@ryan79z28/im-a-twenty-year-truck-driver-i-will-tell-you-why-america-s-shipping-crisis-will-not-end-bbe0ebac6a91 (h/t siderea)

Note that this is specific to *ports*, which as I understand it largely affects international shipping. Domestic is less affected. There are still shipping issues domestically, but not as bad as the ports, since the ports have more restrictions and less capacity.

It seems like this is a *great* time to refocus on getting what you need from the local economy. Food is pretty easy to get from local sources, here in New England, but also think about furniture, clothing, tools, etc. Electronics... is probably a harder one. Medicine, too. Not everything can be sourced locally; we have an international economy for reasons. And local commerce is still going to be affected by international shipping issues, in second-order ways. But something to keep in mind.

Comments

[writerkit]

Medicine is the one that worries me. I don't do a ton of shopping to begin with and I've been working on building up stockpiles of the things I *can't* get locally, but while I'm not quite at the point of "will literally actually die" without my prescription drugs, functioning would become near impossible.

[elusiveat]

One question: would reducing the shipping demand for stuff other than medicine and electronics ease the strain on the system, or just reduce the profit margins enough that the system would begin to collapse entirely?

Another question: is this something that can be solved politically? For example, would some or all of the businesses in this chain do better if they were nationalized?

(I feel like maybe I shouldn't read too much about this issue because given my personality I'd probably end up trying really hard to figure out how to solve the problem, and I'm pretty sure that *that way lies madness*.)