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well, this thread was started in a different world wasn't it
So, smart people of the Fern.
Things are, like, pretty fucked right now. A cavalcade of events, with the reinforcement of Government responses to said events, have led us down dangerous economic paths, both macro and micro.
My question is, what's next? Do we as Western societies (and economies) learn lessons, and become more self-reliant? Do we take back manufacturing? find ways to be less reliant on energy from OS? Do we work on our transport infrastructure?
Do companies move away from their Just on Time method of inventory management?
Or do we stick our heads in the sand, refuse to learn lessons, and just hope this all goes back to normal?
I do not trust private enterprise to do what is best for a countries population, but will Governments? Will a Government be brave enough in these times to stand up and lay out an actual future for a Country? Or will we just get ongoing election bribes of middle class welfare, and the promise of "jobs and growth" based on nothing more than hope?
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@mariner4life I'm going to bet on a heavy dose of the latter option.
If national or act get in. Open slather immigration mild tax cuts. Same problems
If labout greens stay more of the same but with worse and worse regulations that starve the productive sector to save the earth.
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Let's also add in that we have sold thousands of hectares of food producing land to be carbon sinks for offshore companies.
I think future food production and meat is a bit worrying right now.
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@mariner4life said in Is this thing sustainable?:
well, this thread was started in a different world wasn't it
So, smart people of the Fern.
Things are, like, pretty fucked right now. A cavalcade of events, with the reinforcement of Government responses to said events, have led us down dangerous economic paths, both macro and micro.
My question is, what's next? Do we as Western societies (and economies) learn lessons, and become more self-reliant? Do we take back manufacturing? find ways to be less reliant on energy from OS? Do we work on our transport infrastructure?
Do companies move away from their Just on Time method of inventory management?
Or do we stick our heads in the sand, refuse to learn lessons, and just hope this all goes back to normal?
I do not trust private enterprise to do what is best for a countries population, but will Governments? Will a Government be brave enough in these times to stand up and lay out an actual future for a Country? Or will we just get ongoing election bribes of middle class welfare, and the promise of "jobs and growth" based on nothing more than hope?
IMO work that comes back onshore will do so solely as a result of reduced logistics and automation. Ultimately reduced costs without an Apple effect capable of charging a premium win in the market place, so just in time manufacturing wins long term.
Ultimately as a cynic and borderline nihilist, I take the political temperature from America and the signs aren't encouraging: A political class that is only interested in itself, getting and expanding power and the benefits that accrue. We're seeing that already and with increasing contempt - they barely hide it anymore. They'll just lie to the electorate, at least half of whom are too stupid to not pick sides.
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@dogmeat said in Is this thing sustainable?:
Well one thing that is already happening is our supply chain is pivoting away from JIT and moving towards holding stock. Some mega distribution centres being planned.
does the transport infrastructure exit to enable that to be efficient?
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@mariner4life that will likely be one part of the changes, but will it be efficient? or what sort of cost gets passed on to us consumers? yet to be answered... but I bet prices aren't going down anytime soon.
More local production would be good - especially for stuff in NZ like building supplies - autonomy and control of supply end-to-end may outweigh per unit prices and margins. Like us sending logs to China for processing then buying back the various products.Setting aside the war for a few seconds the stuff happening in the EU about energy plans is really interesting. As is the level of cooperation that seems to be building. Who knows how far that'll go, or will last, but some stuff that has been shaken may not return to status quo. For things like energy etc that could be great news longer term.
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“The farrago of magical thinking, technocratic hubris, ideological delusion, self-dealing, and sheer shortsightedness that produced the crisis in Sri Lanka implicates both the country’s political leadership and advocates of so-called sustainable agriculture: the former for seizing on the organic agriculture pledge as a shortsighted measure to slash fertilizer subsidies and imports and the latter for suggesting that such a transformation of the nation’s agricultural sector could ever possibly succeed.”
“Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka called off an ill-conceived national experiment in organic agriculture this winter. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the country’s farmers to organic agriculture over a period of 10 years. Last April, Rajapaksa’s government made good on that promise, imposing a nationwide ban on the importation and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and ordering the country’s 2 million farmers to go organic.
“The result was brutal and swift. Against claims that organic methods can produce comparable yields to conventional farming, domestic rice production fell 20 percent in just the first six months. Sri Lanka, long self-sufficient in rice production, has been forced to import $450 million worth of rice even as domestic prices for this staple of the national diet surged by around 50 percent. The ban also devastated the nation’s tea crop, its primary export and source of foreign exchange.”
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@Kid-Chocolate that is a horror story.
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Pitchforks and torches.
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I’m beginning to think people in the third world might have reasons to hate the guts of those of us who reside in the first.
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@Bones We need more of your money otherwise the world will fall apart. Sorry I don't see the urgency and will vote for any politician who does not subscribe to your fear mongering. May I suggest he limits his carbon foot print and eat a salad.
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@broughie said in Is this thing sustainable?:
@Bones We need more of your money otherwise the world will fall apart. Sorry I don't see the urgency and will vote for any politician who does not subscribe to your fear mongering. May I suggest he limits his carbon foot print and eat a salad.
Funny you should mention it
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@MiketheSnow they'll eat the farmers meat but want to tax them for farting. They have no credibility.
Is this thing sustainable?