5 ms·

Everything looks crazy when you look at the details but the fact that we could all stay home for months and the world largely kept chugging along with only mino

by vasco 5y ago

Everything looks crazy when you look at the details but the fact that we could all stay home for months and the world largely kept chugging along with only minor pricing changes and delays should give you an indication of how resilient supply chains are. No food was missing, no essential goods, largely the world stopped and yet all the important goods kept flowing. It's incredible to me how food shortages didn't hit multiple countries for example, which would be an indication of problems.

estaseuropano 5y ago
Sorry but you are sorely mistaken. The disruption for well-off people in rich countries was fairly minimal, but in other parts of the world and even in the poor areas of rich countries people felt the effects. Food insecurity in some countries is higher than ever, not to mention effects like years.of education missed (e.g. Philippines had 18 months of home schooling).
- panick21_ 5y ago
  People are suffering, but we were not close to the end of civilization.
jazzyjackson 5y ago
i dont know what you mean by “we could all stay home”, most people never stopped working, amazon deliveries kept coming, butchers and meatpackers never slowed down, and transpacific cargo ships kept moving (long beach port snafu notwithstanding) also, I did have to go without my preferred brands of couscous and fresh olives for some months, so as far as i’m concerned the end was nigh
londons_explore 5y ago
> No food was missing Speak for yourself. A branch of my extended family all starved to death, together with lots of people in their town, and I was talking to them every day, but still couldn't get them food in time. It likely wouldn't have happened without the pandemic. Staple food prices have gone up a lot (like more than double in some regions), and availability gone way down because the one guy with the truck decides to not deliver to the more remote regions cos he's making more money now doing more local deliveries.
- samvher 5y ago
  That sounds really awful, condolences. It's bizarre to think that high tech services (assuming you spoke to them over the internet) were available while primary needs were not being met. Do you have thoughts on what could have prevented this at a system level?
  - londons_explore 5y ago
    No... There will always be people living on the margins of survivability. Either too poor to afford food, and at risk of starvation... Or in a place too hot for humans... Or too dry for humans... If nobody lived in these places, then as population grows, people would be displaced to these places. People at those margins then die when conditions change. I wish those people weren't family. But if it weren't them, it would have been someone else.
    - culi 5y ago
      I'm so sorry that happened. Your story really highlights the huge disconnect between how the rich and the poor felt the effects of the pandemic and subsequent supply chain disasters. May I ask which country this happened in?
      - londons_explore 5y ago
        Chad
- bserge 5y ago
  > without the pandemic Without the response to the pandemic. The virus is not responsible for the idiotic shitshow humans put up to "combat" it (spoiler: it didn't work, but at least we can live with it, I guess).
- MerelyMortal 5y ago
  > A branch of my extended family all starved to death, together with lots of people in their town I'm sorry for your loss. I can't imagine a whole branch of the family tree dying. Can you say where this happened?
newsclues 5y ago
People in factories, ships, trucks, farms etc didn’t stay home.
- bluGill 5y ago
  Many people in factories did stay home. When the pandemic started my office was in a factory and i was told I wasn't allowed in the office. To get some test equipment sitting on my desk I had to get permission a week ahead of time. Likewise a lot of factory managers didn't go to the factory. The people working the line in the factory need to go to the factory. However my company was paranoid that something would happen to them. If enough people working the line get sick production stops and then all profit stops. By contrast if a lot of people not on the line are sick but production continues - over a year is balances out.
  - newsclues 5y ago
    And yet many factories continue to operate. Notice how we have a backlog of ships to unload and not empty ships? That’s because factories continued operations.
    - bluGill 5y ago
      Exactly the point: factories operated, but the managers tried (to various level of trying, some not very good) to protect the factory.
culi 5y ago
> we could all stay home for months Maybe Hacker News was able to stay home for months but none of my friends making minimum wage--sorry, essential workers--ever got a break. I think you're dramatically overestimating how many people actually got to stay home and for how long. And obviously there's big class divisions between who does and doesn't get to stay home as well

by vasco 5y ago

estaseuropano 5y ago

Sorry but you are sorely mistaken. The disruption for well-off people in rich countries was fairly minimal, but in other parts of the world and even in the poor areas of rich countries people felt the effects. Food insecurity in some countries is higher than ever, not to mention effects like years.of education missed (e.g. Philippines had 18 months of home schooling).

panick21_ 5y ago
People are suffering, but we were not close to the end of civilization.

jazzyjackson 5y ago

i dont know what you mean by “we could all stay home”, most people never stopped working, amazon deliveries kept coming, butchers and meatpackers never slowed down, and transpacific cargo ships kept moving (long beach port snafu notwithstanding) also, I did have to go without my preferred brands of couscous and fresh olives for some months, so as far as i’m concerned the end was nigh

londons_explore 5y ago

> No food was missing Speak for yourself. A branch of my extended family all starved to death, together with lots of people in their town, and I was talking to them every day, but still couldn't get them food in time. It likely wouldn't have happened without the pandemic. Staple food prices have gone up a lot (like more than double in some regions), and availability gone way down because the one guy with the truck decides to not deliver to the more remote regions cos he's making more money now doing more local deliveries.

samvher 5y ago
That sounds really awful, condolences. It's bizarre to think that high tech services (assuming you spoke to them over the internet) were available while primary needs were not being met. Do you have thoughts on what could have prevented this at a system level?
- londons_explore 5y ago
  No... There will always be people living on the margins of survivability. Either too poor to afford food, and at risk of starvation... Or in a place too hot for humans... Or too dry for humans... If nobody lived in these places, then as population grows, people would be displaced to these places. People at those margins then die when conditions change. I wish those people weren't family. But if it weren't them, it would have been someone else.
  - culi 5y ago
    I'm so sorry that happened. Your story really highlights the huge disconnect between how the rich and the poor felt the effects of the pandemic and subsequent supply chain disasters. May I ask which country this happened in?
    - londons_explore 5y ago
      Chad
bserge 5y ago
> without the pandemic Without the response to the pandemic. The virus is not responsible for the idiotic shitshow humans put up to "combat" it (spoiler: it didn't work, but at least we can live with it, I guess).
MerelyMortal 5y ago
> A branch of my extended family all starved to death, together with lots of people in their town I'm sorry for your loss. I can't imagine a whole branch of the family tree dying. Can you say where this happened?

newsclues 5y ago

People in factories, ships, trucks, farms etc didn’t stay home.

bluGill 5y ago
Many people in factories did stay home. When the pandemic started my office was in a factory and i was told I wasn't allowed in the office. To get some test equipment sitting on my desk I had to get permission a week ahead of time. Likewise a lot of factory managers didn't go to the factory. The people working the line in the factory need to go to the factory. However my company was paranoid that something would happen to them. If enough people working the line get sick production stops and then all profit stops. By contrast if a lot of people not on the line are sick but production continues - over a year is balances out.
- newsclues 5y ago
  And yet many factories continue to operate. Notice how we have a backlog of ships to unload and not empty ships? That’s because factories continued operations.
  - bluGill 5y ago
    Exactly the point: factories operated, but the managers tried (to various level of trying, some not very good) to protect the factory.

culi 5y ago

> we could all stay home for months Maybe Hacker News was able to stay home for months but none of my friends making minimum wage--sorry, essential workers--ever got a break. I think you're dramatically overestimating how many people actually got to stay home and for how long. And obviously there's big class divisions between who does and doesn't get to stay home as well