A current event that has been affecting many people across America are shortages. This has been caused by several cargo ships that have not been able to dock and a low amount of workers within the supply chain. This is causing food and supplies to take longer to reach stores and prices to go up. As of September 14, there were 56 cargo ships that were stuck off the coast of California, unable to dock and the average wait time was 8.5 days (Towey, Kay & Cain, 2021, para 1). In addition, due to labor shortages there are less people working at the docks and in transportation to get these supplies where they need to be. These ports in Southern California are where about one-third of U.S. imports come through, and are also the main source of imports from China (Towey, Kay & Cain, 2021, para. 6). Because of delays in the supply chain, shipping prices have been increasing as well the prices for a wide variety of goods. Some items have been completely out of stock as well. These shortages put strains on many businesses as they may not be able to find enough workers or have specific items in stock. Customers will be less satisfied because they cannot find what they need, and prices for substitute items could increase as well. With holidays coming up, customers may not be able to get what they need in time for either Thanksgiving or Christmas as many retailers have been predicting various toy and electronic shortages later this year (Winters, 2021, para. 6). This shortage has been and will continue to affect people’s lives, businesses and even jobs - it can be hard to predict when it will turn around. Workers and productivity are essential to grow an economy and to keep it going, and if a labor shortage continues, it can continue to impact our economy more than what it has been.
References
Towey, H., Kay, G., & Cain, A. (2021). An all-time high of 56 cargo ships are stuck waiting off the California coast, as shipping ports hit their 4th record backup in three weeks. Business Insider. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/shipping-delays-china-supply-chain-record-ships-stuck-california-ports-2021-8?op=1
Winters, M. (2021). Will Supply Chain Issues Really Sabotage 2021 Holiday Shopping? LifeHacker. Retrieved from: https://lifehacker.com/will-supply-chain-issues-really-sabotage-2021-holiday-s-1847682085
Gabrkea, I appreciate your take on the supply chain shortage. I would say there are many factors causing the issues we see today. For far to long companies have thrived on keeping inventory at warehouses low to reduce operating cost and storage fees. A dollar that a car company spends to warehouse computer chips as a hedge against supply chain troubles is a dollar that it cannot use on something else, including bonuses for executives or dividends for shareholders. Monopolistic tendencies also help explain shortages. Beef is scarce and prices are high, but this fact is largely because meatpackers have consolidated and eliminated capacity as a way to bolster prices and profits. (Supply chain, 2021) For sure, the surge in shipping caused by the pandemic did lead to some of the shortfalls. As we know from reading, many shipments went to nations that are not exporting and resulted in a pile up of containers in ports out of the normal supply chain. (supply chain, 2021) Another factor not being discussed is the increased demand for products. Many Americans have shifted the money spent on fuel and food while working away from home to home offices and gyms. As one economist put it "Demand grew so rapidly in the past two years that it's equivalent to about 50 million new Americans joining the economy." (Business Insider, 2021) While it can be easy to explain all this away on the pandemic I think we have to look within as well. Americans account for almost one quarter of the global GDP, while representing less than five percent of the world population. (weforum, 2020) Maybe we can look within to see what we can do without or reuse. If we did this, we could for sure reduce the strain on the global supply chain.
Reference:
Goodman, P. S. (2021, October 22). How the supply chain broke, and why it won't be fixed anytime soon. The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/business/shortages-supply-chain.html.
Goodman, P. S. (2021, October 22). How the supply chain broke, and why it won't be fixed anytime soon. The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/business/shortages-supply-chain.html.
Goodman, P. S. (2021, October 22). How the supply chain broke, and why it won't be fixed anytime soon. The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/business/shortages-supply-chain.html.
Yes there are some interesting and unfortunate developments in trade right now not made better by new trucking regulations in California preventing independent truckers from serving the ports now.