The Costs of Globalism--Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

The Coronavirus Exposes the True Cost of the China Price


Curtis Ellis
Breitbart News

We are now paying the true cost of the China price.

The China price is the ultimatum Walmart buyers give vendors: this is the price we will pay – if your factory in the U.S. can’t meet it, we have one in China that will, and we’ll be happy to help you move there.

The China price gave us an endless stream of cheap consumer goods. It was made possible by global supply chains, transoceanic containerized shipping, and just-in-time inventory management to control warehouse and carrying costs, all part of the logic of relentless cost-cutting Wall Street demanded of multinational corporations.

But the coronavirus has its own logic, and it does not respect the logic of Wall Street bankers, logistics managers, and mass merchandisers.  The pandemic has exposed the frailty of global supply chains and the fallacy of the management theory calling for intercontinental supply chains and just-in-time inventory management.

Quarantining more than 60 million people in over a dozen cities as a public health measure, the Chinese government has closed thousands of factories.