The past several decades of economic globalisation was built on a relatively high level of trust in global markets - with companies generally expecting that raw materials and goods could be sourced for a predictable price in a reasonable time frame.
But recent events such as Covid and wars have revealed just how vulnerable supply chains are and now there is an increasing tendency for governments and corporations to stock pile reserves of resources.
And for us ordinary people too, just on a more household-level.
many countries are now busy building up strategic reserves in oil, gas, microchips, rare earths, you name it.
And on paper this is entirely logical. If trade grinds to a halt, those stockpiles buy you time.
But here’s the catch.
The more everyone hoards, the worse it gets for the system as a whole. Stockpiling pulls goods off the market, pushes up prices, and spooks others into doing exactly the same thing. It’s easy to see how fear and competition can set off a worldwide insecurity spiral.
And we could maybe draw a parallel with The Great Depression cwhich hanged the mindset of a generation; people got into the habit of saving and stockpiling because they’d lived through real scarcity.
And maybe we are seeing a return to this today...?
What with ao many countries scrambling for the raw materials beihnd AI tech it seems we're a long way from the free trade optimism we saw in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Now Nation States are acting much more like they are on their own...
But this isn't so much about greed and ambition, it's more due to uncertainty and fear of future shocks....
In fact I think maybe people would think governments irresponsible if they weren't preparing for future shocks, I mean we know their going to be coming, we just don't quite know when or what the nature of them is going to be!
The Covid saga open my eyes to how fragile the system is. Regardless of how well run anything is if the food supply isn't on-point the rest isn't going to matter much. People went bonkers for toilet paper. Early in life I I lived very close to a grocery store and walked their almost daily for my meals. Figured why bother stock in the fridge/freezer when I can just walk over and pick out dinner. I'm now leaning towards having a stock pile of food and goods. Done correctly - purchased over a period of time when plenty is in stock. Once I have a reasonable amount I can just re-stock as I use (using the oldest first).
I do fuck all xD
I hate hoarding
There seems to be a dash for resources lately. Poorer countries will get exploited for what they have. We ought to be looking at reducing consumption, but companies will still want to sell as much as possible.
On a personal level we all tend to buy too much stuff.
Congratulations @revisesociology! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 800000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPStockpiling requires fronting cash. Lately I'm more motivated to start gardening and making my own meals. I suppose it's bad for the economy, my spending less. But the economy is going to have to figure it out. I need to take care of no. 1.
Coming from the Balkans, we've been through war, NATO bombing, our own economical and political issues, I've seen people holding on to a lot of things because of fear and because at some point in their lives they had to leave everything behind and start over. It took me a while to get rid off that mentality of fear and lack but these recent worldwide events are really testing me, lol. Also here in Serbia we are dealing with our own political issues... Anyways, I am grateful me and my family have our own roof over our heads and a garden where we're able to grow a bunch of fruits and veggies for ourselves - this brings me a decent amount of peace in these uncertain times.
The hoarding framing makes sense when you separate cash from assets. Holding cash right now is losing 2-3% annually to inflation - that's not hoarding, that's a negative-yield decision. Holding crypto or equities is at least fighting that decay.
The interesting behavioral shift I've noticed is the willingness to take duration risk. People who used to rotate quarterly are now talking about 2-3 year holds. That's either conviction or capitulation depending on how you read it.
Do you think this is a structural shift in behavior or just a temporary risk-off response?