Supply Chain Pain
One of the many strange consequences of the pandemic is the supply chain crisis. We only noticed this ragged web of manufacturing, purchasing and logistics when products stopped appearing seamlessly on shelves. We never thought much about those cargo ships, I’m willing to bet, until we saw them parked outside U.S. cities waiting to get into port like people without a reservation outside a popular restaurant.
I find it ironic that this is a crisis entirely of our own creation. If these products weren’t being shipped from overseas this issue wouldn’t exist, or would at least be much smaller. For a few cents on the dollar, we sent our manufacturing heritage to China. This isn’t a political statement. It happened equally during all kinds of governments. It’s not a grudge against the Chinese either. They were offered needed work and they took it. We would all do the same.
However, I can’t help thinking it would be better if we had kept those jobs in our country. Businesses outsourced them to lower production costs, but is this the best thing for the country? Those production costs were the paychecks of millions of Americans.
I don’t have a magic solution to this problem other than to say that it is in our best interests to have as many products as possible made in the U. S. Personally, we go out of our way to support American small businesses.
Also, once again, we encourage you to support those of us who aren’t lucky enough to worry mainly about what they may or may not get via the supply chain. The link below is the last one we used but there any many others. Please consider helping.
Red Cross Tornado Relief
And though it may sound strange coming from someone who sells things, I hope you all have a great holiday season enjoying things that can’t be bought.