“FREEPERS have been posting about this for way longer than that. And IIRC, POTUS over a year ago, was telling people to find other suppliers outside of China.”
But it was hypothetical until the Chinese New Year...in that China was about as reliable a supplier as we could ask for (certainly more reliable than any union-infested American operation). But with the shutdown continuing past the Chinese New Year, then it became REAL - and that’s when a fair number of us sounded the alarm - simply because the ships in China were not being loaded anymore. In other words, there was a storm heading towards us, and all of the happy talk, look-back analyses, debunking of prior false alarms, everything - it meant nothing this time. The ships were not being loaded.
As to Trump saying that we need to disengage from China - that’s only part of the problem. So we go to Vietnam, or even Mexico or Canada, for example - and where do they get their source materials from, in many cases? One guess, and this is going to bite us on most of imports and even domestic production. This assessment should have been going on for years, or at least starting Jan 23 this year (when all hell broke loose in China), but only THIS WEEK are large companies (Proctor and Gramble, Coke, and now Microsoft) started to own up to their exposure (and still not a peep from drug companies...only more happy talk). They lost a critical month when they could have been lobbying Trump to declare an emergency and get some relief from regulations (and unions) so they could start up production here. It would have helped, at least somewhat.
Well Duh-—like I said -—Freepers have been pointing all this out for years—at least some of us have. And also pointing out how China was locking up resources in other countries all over the world.
So now, it’s getting real to the people who refused to listen and attacked anyone pointing it out in the past. A little long-term strategic planning was needed, but nooooo happy days are never gonna end LOL.
DENIAL—It’s not a river in Egypt.
Should have been done years ago—and at least a month ago—just goes to prove these High priced CEO’s aren’t as smart as they think they are.
Yeah.
Everything is so interconnected now, socially, economically, and so on: It’s not even just “supply chain”. The ripple effects go on “forever”.
A lot of this on the economic side is, in “normal” times, just the economy trying to find its sweet spot in terms of efficiency. That effort can get distorted by politics, unbalanced trade deals, and so on, and also strengthened by technology, reasonable cooperation (but reasonable & fair competition, too!), among other things. All in all, it has been quite beneficial: I still find it rather incredible that - at this moment - one can buy a four star rated 4000k 43” LED TV for $160 at Wally World. Free shipping, if desired. Yeah, it’s not the “best”, and not the most reliable, but, still...
Where the system has been flawed, in terms of benefits vs. liabilities for most people, President Trump has been working to correct.
Unfortunately, highly tuned, efficient, complex systems usually have an Achilles heel or heels.