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besides labor costs, it doesn't make sense that an item that is bought in from X company with an HQ in Y country has to be manufactured in Z country and shipped thousands of miles to the consumer.
the amount of carbon generated from our reliance on third world countries must be ridiculously high, and wasteful.
if businesses would not abuse cheap labor that china and other third world countries offer, we wouldn't be in this mess (or at least it wouldn't be as impactful) besides labor costs, it doesn't make sense that an item that is bought in from X company with an HQ in Y country has to be manufactured in Z country and shipped thousands of miles to the consumer. the amount of carbon generated from our reliance on third wor…
if businesses would not abuse cheap labor that china and other third world countries offer, we wouldn't be in this mess (or at least it wouldn't be as impactful) besides labor costs, it doesn't make sense that an item that is bought in from X company with an HQ in Y country has to be manufactured in Z country and shipped thousands of miles to the consumer. the amount of carbon generated from our reliance on third wor…
I imagine that the whole thing cascaded from that. Online orders that would normally take a plane trip got redirected to the surface, and then the pipeline kept backing up. Until the world is connected and back to normal, bottlenecks like this will probably still exist.
> Since they were first deployed in 1956, containers have revolutionized trade by allowing goods to be packed into standard size receptacles and hoisted by cranes onto rail cars and trucks — effectively shrinking the globe. If you want to know more about this, there's a pretty good book on it: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
Where's Flexport when you need them? Weren't they supposed to disrupt this space?
turns out that disrupting things in software is easier, disrupting physical things in the real world that are heavy and cumbersome, more difficult.
if businesses would not abuse cheap labor that china and other third world countries offer, we wouldn't be in this mess (or at least it wouldn't be as impactful) besides labor costs, it doesn't make sense that an item that is bought in from X company with an HQ in Y country has to be manufactured in Z country and shipped thousands of miles to the consumer. the amount of carbon generated from our reliance on third wor…
The "success" of the current model relies on (a) low production costs (not only cheap labor but also less social security, lower safety standards, less regulations for environmental protection, local governments that take care of troublemakers etc.) and (b)cheap energy which is needed for cheap transportation.
Regarding point (a): Now that the Chinese workers are becoming too expensive (=they want two bowls of rice instead of one), companies are moving, like locusts, to other countries.
And point (b): As you said, the carbon footprint is terrible.
if businesses would not abuse cheap labor that china and other third world countries offer, we wouldn't be in this mess (or at least it wouldn't be as impactful) besides labor costs, it doesn't make sense that an item that is bought in from X company with an HQ in Y country has to be manufactured in Z country and shipped thousands of miles to the consumer. the amount of carbon generated from our reliance on third wor…
I don't understand why you have been downvoted. "abuse" is the right word. The "success" of the current model relies on (a) low production costs (not only cheap labor but also less social security, lower safety standards, less regulations for environmental protection, local governments that take care of troublemakers etc.) and (b)cheap energy which is needed for cheap transportation. Regarding point (a): Now that the…
As soon as the pandemic started, airmail services stated to shut down. Normally, airmail packets “hitch a ride” on commercial airliners already making the trip. But when those ceased, airmail service stopped. So what happened? All of the pending airmail got switched to “surface mail,” which is code for shipping on a boat. I had several packages go from an ETA measured in days to an ETA measured in weeks and months. I…
This reads as "subsidised by fliers" to me