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Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

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Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They didn't want a $400 locally knitted sweater, made from neighborhood sheep. They wanted a $40 sweater that was made as efficiently as possible, and $360 of change. Except that the difference was never that large and never had to be that local. What happened was that they didn't want a $42 sweater made on the same continent over a $40 sweater made on the other side of the world, because it gave back $2 in change.…

>the different was never that large Here's a basic sweater for $3.19: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/women-s-autumn-clothi... Find me one made in the US within a factor of 10 of that price.

The trick you're using is that Alibaba is essentially a wholesaler and most non-boutique US wholesalers don't list prices on their websites because bulk customers negotiate. I can't even find one that lists wholesale prices for that kind of sweaters.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#202
post #54

This is the cruel and predictable result of a society that has meticulously and senselessly offshored/outsourced most its industrial capacity. If your country can't manufacture, from raw materials , all the electrical/electronic/mechanical components, the tooling, the equipment, and the chemicals (industrial and pharmaceutical alike) it needs to keep everything running, you're dependent on these hyper-fragile and con…

this sounds like a dog whistle

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#203
post #198

This has happened to my company and a few others I know. We have about $15K of packaging stuck in China. If this is doing anything (to me personally), it's making me reconsider shifting more of the supply-chain to the US. In many cases, the prices aren't really that different.

I think you probably want to hold off your decision till this ends, moving out of China to be more resilient only works if You can be sure the country you are moving to won’t have the same issue

Resilience doesn't come from moving out of one place into another, it comes from having operations in multiple places.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#204
post #50

This has happened to my company and a few others I know. We have about $15K of packaging stuck in China. If this is doing anything (to me personally), it's making me reconsider shifting more of the supply-chain to the US. In many cases, the prices aren't really that different.

> it's making me reconsider shifting more of the supply-chain to the US. In many cases, the prices aren't really that different. If the prices weren't really that different then why did those parts of the supply chain go to China in the first place?

The standard of living in China has skyrocketed over the past 20-30 years. It's not as cheap as it used to be.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#205
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many whistle-blowers trying to alert the public to this disease did the US government throw in prison?

eh, the US doesn't exactly have the greatest track record on whistleblowers...

..and I'm in no way suggesting that the US has a good track record on whistleblowers. I'm simply saying that it's a major stretch to argue that China has done a better job managing the Coronavirus outbreak given all of the reports of suppression that we've seen come out of there.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#206

This has happened to my company and a few others I know. We have about $15K of packaging stuck in China. If this is doing anything (to me personally), it's making me reconsider shifting more of the supply-chain to the US. In many cases, the prices aren't really that different.

> In many cases, the prices aren't really that different.

What industry are you in? If you mean China isn't that different than [Vietnam/India/Mexico/etc] then I can see it. I used to work in Medical Devices for 5 years, and the cost of manufacturing something abroad (one company had several plans in Mexico) was astronomically lower than manufacturing in the USA.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#207
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they seem to be handling this crisis better than we are so far.

By imposing a draconian lock down on all citizens (even those who havent tested positive)? I guess...

Yes, one that was _extremely_ effective.

Personally, I wouldn't want to sacrifice my liberties to a PRC-style quarantine, but to insinuate it wasn't an astoundingly effective way to control the spread is false.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have nothing against you, but I wish more people would get burn by the sms 2fa without backup/alternatives. Maybe at some point we will realize that it's a terrible idea.

Any 2FA is inherently susceptible to losing one of the factors. It's designed to deny access when only one factor is present, so this is kind of a feature not a bug, and part of the security-vs-convenience tradeoff. Do you have any specific reason to think SMS 2FA in particular is a terrible idea?

For 2FA specifically, SMS is weak because of its vulnerability to SIM swap attacks[0]. There's been a few reported incidents where attackers stole cryptocurrency from accounts protected by SMS 2FA[1].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_swap_scam

[1]: https://btcmanager.com/sim-swap-attacks-amplify-companies-re...

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the different was never that large Here's a basic sweater for $3.19: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/women-s-autumn-clothi... Find me one made in the US within a factor of 10 of that price.

The trick you're using is that Alibaba is essentially a wholesaler and most non-boutique US wholesalers don't list prices on their websites because bulk customers negotiate. I can't even find one that lists wholesale prices for that kind of sweaters.

A minimum order of 2 is hardly wholesale. But fine, here's the ebay version instead, for $2.90: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Women-Wool-Knitted-Jumper-Cashmare-...

Again, the factor of 10 thing.

Re: Coronavirus has disrupted supply chains for nearly 75% of U.S. companies

#210
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they seem to be handling this crisis better than we are so far.

They created this crisis by silencing whistleblowers and hiding case numbers. Don't forget they banned wildlife markets during SARS, but allowed them again a year after. This is going to happen again.

And how do you account for the fact the US have been known this virus for a month since the Chinese outbreak, and still does very little to prepare for basic things like testing?
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