A fool’s paradise

In my copy of Churchill’s “The Second Word War,” there’s a quote that I feel applies to our situation, in fact to all countries’ situation in this pandemic: “There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away… people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool’s paradise.”

Unfortunately, that’s the situation we are living in; those responsible are themselves deluded as to reality. And, yes, that includes the administration, but it goes much further than that.

All across the planet 20 years ago a movement started — urged on by Wall Street, Frankfurt and all those other money counters… to reduce corporate costs by avoiding the need for warehousing. “Just In Time” manufacturing became the new currency, the new mantra. Why stockpile car bumpers when you could contract with a sub-manufacturer to make them just when needed and deliver them within minutes — yes minutes — of assembly on the cars?

In publishing, all across the world, just-in-time printing became “Why print a first edition in the thousands when you can print enough, day by day, situate the plant next to Amazon distribution centers, and connect them with a conveyor belt, and let a computer program handle need and delivery?”

And so where are the stocks of anything? In stores near you.  For example, more books are in local stores than in any Amazon warehouse. And those books in that store? Owned by the publisher until the bookstore pays for them within 60 days or returns them. If they return them where do they go? You guessed it, into the just-in-time computer calculations.

Now you may be thinking that the system worked, so where’s the problem? Ask any hospital near you that is running out of supplies. Ask any manufacturer of ventilators who wants to ramp up production but can’t get parts from China, Mexico or Korea because, normally, they were only making those parts just-in-time and, anyway, how can they get them through the “no flights” rules now?

In an emergency, just-in-time supply and demand is a death knell for people across the world.

And, sorry, but there’s more bad news coming: Inflation. Two things: One, the price of the mismanagement of this emergency is already past $2,000,000,000,000 in “stimulus” hand-outs (funny, all those “detest socialism” people are the first with hands out). And that “stimulus” has to come from somewhere — taxes. Two, companies across the world have begun to realize that just-in-time is not such a great idea and they will want to stockpile equipment and components, to restart warehouses across every part of the globe. That means they will make parts they don’t get paid for right away and that costs money. You can expect everything from cars to hospital care, from milk to gasoline, from airplanes to cruises ships, and from toilet paper to books to become more expensive.

Sadly, we’re finding, by counting the dead, that those responsible for our affairs have been themselves dwelling in a fool’s paradise.

Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.

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