this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Supply chains have become ridiculously complex, though. Like 20 years ago a cell phone manufacturer talked about how just about every piece of a phone was ultimately shipped back and forth across the Pacific about 6 times before being sold in the final product. As raw materials, as base components, as more complex components built from others, after branding, packaging, etc. And although perhaps more and more manufacturing has moved into Asia, I doubt the complexity has decreased or that any particular mind to this kind of waste has been designed into our system generally.
I'm sure there are things to fix about the container ships themselves, as others have pointed out. But another solution is simply to use them MUCH LESS!
Consumerism is a cultural problem, not a supply chain issue. Convince rich popular people to show off their frugality.
The answer to shorter supply chains is local resource exploitation. That means dirty mines and factories, or convincing China they don't really want money. Both of those are really hard to sell.
It is both. Capitalism encourages supply chains to be formed based purely on metrics such as cost on the production side. Nothing is planned further than what will minimize the cost to the company, so that profit is maximized. While roughly the same amount of consumption is done by the working class in its consumptive capacity, this does lead to greater consumption and waste by corporations as part of the production process. When we take control of our workplaces, we will be much better able to account for and make rational decisions regarding such externalities.
And to some degree, it's also pointless to try to separate "culture" from "economics". They influence each other. People don't consume simply to consume, but because of the pressures put on us by the system. We drive not just to drive, but because we need to get to work and school, and because capitalists have destroyed our public transportation options. The reverse—our affect on the system of capitalism—is much less powerful these days, as we've allowed ourselves to become powerless and subjugated ourselves more and more to the class war. Certainly cultural elements will be necessary to overcome this, like building a culture of loyalty to one's fellow workers and the unions which empower us, and eschewing advertising's daily effects on our habits. But to imply it is "just cultural" is missing a lot.
A worker controlled company will be just as profit focused, the only difference being who the profit benefits. It's not a fix for external costs.
Again, you're worried about the economics, not the culture and government. If you don't have a working culture, you're never going to have the economics you want.
First off, you're wrong. Capitalist-owned companies have a mandate to grow due to the ever-increasing demand for return on investment, and those who control the company have no disincentive for the maximization of profit (this shit is as old as the field of economics itself, so you might want to read some leftist literature and catch up). Worker-owned organizations can choose to grow or not, as they wish. And they have built-in disincentives against the maximization of profit, as they are the ones who must labor to produce it, and they also must suffer the consequences of bigger and more complicated work environments. So while capitalist organizations will ALWAYS be forced to the limit, worker-owned companies have much more room to choose, and to consider factors like how their behavior affects their communities, their environment (externalities), and the rest of their quality of life.
Second, I wasn't talking about a single capitalist company. I was talking about a whole economy built around them (capitalism). That, by the way, inherently includes talking about government (the modern nation-state is built to protect, uphold, and enhance capitalism, for capitalists). And it also inherently is about culture, which as I already pointed out is influenced by economics every bit as much as the other way around (far more so, in fact).