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The shortage of money is not the problem. The problem is that we have stopped making stuff. Once the warehouses all empty, there will be no more products. Al
by vanniv 7y ago
The shortage of money is not the problem.
The problem is that we have stopped making stuff.
Once the warehouses all empty, there will be no more products. All those nice things you are used to buying to make your life nice and safe and clean and fun will be gone.
The infrastructure to even make the stuff will decay and be gone.
Printing money doesn't make products. It doesn't repair factories. It doesn't prevent the coming collapse of the prosperity we have enjoyed these last 100 years.
- nopriorarrests 7y ago> It doesn't prevent the coming collapse of the prosperity we have enjoyed these last 100 years lots of people are tweeting that they are 3-4 weeks from disaster. that's some very special definintion of prosperity. These are numbers that come to mind when you think about middle age peasant.
- vanniv 7y agoYeah, they are 3-4 weeks from disaster because every would-be dictator around the world has outlawed production in an effort to enslave their populations, and it is working. We are deindustrializing the entire world as fast as it can be done. You have no idea what medieval peasant life was like -- but you are going to find out
- dominotw 7y agopeople count on being bailed out so why would they save?
- amluto 7y agoAlso the small businesses (cafes, restaurants, independent retail) that makes cities interesting will be in extremely bad shape.
- smacktoward 7y agoWhat it does do is shore up demand, which is why all those products got made in the first place. They got made because someone had an expectation that they could sell them. Nobody is going to be making anything to sell if the entire population has no money. This is why it's essential that relief go to directly to people, and that we free those people up enough from expenses that aren't directly economically productive (things like rent, say) as we can. We want people to have money to spend, so producers will have a reason to go on making things to sell them.
- vanniv 7y agoIn the short term, these kinds of measures can have an effect, sure. It produces immediate demand at the cost of reduced future investment -- which could potentially keep suppliers afloat temporarily in a crisis. But while the problem today is a demand problem, we are really only days-to-weeks away from a supply catastrophe unlike anything seen in two centuries or more. Basically, no new stuff is being made anywhere right now -- because it is illegal to do so most places -- we are all locked in our houses on threat of arrest (or worse in some countries) Right now, the local warehouses are still full, so the stores get restocked. Those warehouses will get restocked from regional ones. But, we are draining all of the buffers in all of the supply chains of all of the products. Once it all drains, there is no more supply.
- tcbawo 7y agoWe have both a supply shock and a demand shock. We can't fix the supply shock while on quarantine. We can mitigate the demand shock (somewhat) through short term stimulus
- whatsmyusername 7y agoCall me a doomer but if the demand for Honey Boo Boo, Keurig Cups, and Tuxedoes for Dogs died off I wouldn't be upset, economic devastation be damned. Climate Change says tick tock tick tock
- na85 7y agoI'm certain that when you were coming of age your parents' generation rolled its collective eyes just as hard. Rest assured your pop culture of choice is just as odious to someone as Honey Boo Boo is to you.
- patrickthebold 7y agoTo a certain extent that's true, but at a certain point, why would someone bother making things in exchange for money, if someone is just going to give them money. We need a few people to actually do work, but it's hard to figure out how to make that happen in a way that is fair.