Oh, So Everyone’s a Supply Chain Expert Now
As I get older, I think about the parts of my experience that already feel historical. Using landline phones and memorizing numbers. Taping songs off the radio. A favorite TV show that you had to rush home for. Life without a computer, let alone internet access. But this year, I’ve realized one of the biggest cultural shifts in my time is something I barely thought about before: Since the turn of the millennium, we have come to expect the near-instantaneous delivery of any product we care to name.
This revolution in consumer convenience — ushered in by the rise of Amazon Prime, which debuted in 2005 and drilled the need for lightning-fast shipping into the mind of every American — is exacting a severe environmental toll. It has also obliterated the notion that we can’t always get what we want right away. Our on-demand lifestyle is now at odds with a supply chain crisis brought about by 19 months of a global pandemic. In fact, the problems of labor and material shortages, transport slowdowns and expensive trade have been worsened by demand from buyers in the West, “who saved enormous amounts of money during 2020 and early 2021 and are now spending it,” per Bloomberg’s analysis. The result is inflation and long delays.
It’s the first time in my adult life that I feel like “there are things that I want, can afford, and am legally permitted to have but I cannot attain in a reasonable amount of time simply because of societal failure"
