Asia’s spiraling supply shock is coming for America (CNN)
Posted by ccarriecc@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 120 comments
"Supply shortages probably won’t approach pandemic levels, Brown said. But time is not our friend. The oil and gas industry expects widespread shortages across multiple categories of goods if the strait remains closed heading into the summer, Gildea said."
RedJerzey@reddit
I know trump wants to take down China by blocking all their energy imports, but doesn't China make the majority of our medications?
We can deal without the stores filled at the local "dollar tree", but you show up at CVS for your schizophrenia meds and they are out... we gonna have problems. Same goes for grandpa's heart medication. (Unless there is a secret plan to let all the sick die off)
TheSensiblePrepper@reddit
85% of all APIs, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, come from China and India. With India, 80% of the APIs they have come from China.
And before anyone asks, no it is not possible to get the APIs needed from anywhere else.
So all China has to do is stop sending the APIs to us. The US would have a mass die off in about 100 days.
davidm2232@reddit
So what would happen if the US went to war with China? I'd imagine they would stop selling to the US
TheSensiblePrepper@reddit
They have already been reducing the amount they are sending us since 2022.
If we pissed off China enough, like we are doing by cutting them off from Oil from Venezuela and Iran, they could just stop entirely. The US would be in a very bad spot very quickly and the Government knows that.
Imagine what would happen in the US is Walmart was empty and the country was completely out of medications that people need to live. It wouldn't be pretty.
davidm2232@reddit
It seems like we should have a contingency plan for this. It's not exactly a surprise that China is not the US' strongest ally
TheSensiblePrepper@reddit
We don't because when it comes to APIs, we don't have any options. The only "contingency plan" is the Strategic Stockpile but that is going Government and Military Use. They won't be handing it out to civilians. It would be gone to quickly.
This is why it is critical that you stock up on any medications you and yours might need.
davidm2232@reddit
Stocking up is only a short term solution
TheSensiblePrepper@reddit
I agree.
Your best goal would be to try and stock up on a year supply of any medication that you absolutely need. This will keep you alive well past the mass die off that would result. The hope would be that we have some solution by then.
There is no good answer to this problem we created.
vxv96c@reddit
They do actually want people to die IMHO.
WolfDragon7721@reddit
I think they do but honestly it's hard to tell whether this a deliberate scheme or just incompetence.
abovedafray@reddit
I think the bulk believe for some reason their medication is some how different for hurting the right people.
RedJerzey@reddit
They want to be in charge, but 8 billion people is too many to handle. Especially the old and sick people. They need obedient workers, not drains on the system.
SoupOfThe90z@reddit
Nope, the machine was working. Some diaper wearing monkey decided to shut all over the machine and throw the world into a shitstorm.
I believe right now where we are at as a civilization, we can end things like world hunger, homelessness, better education and healthcare throughout most of the world. It just happens that there are groups of people who would rather keep the world fighting to benefit themselves or believe that their religious beliefs are more important
vxv96c@reddit
💯💯💯💯💯
The planned obsolescence of humanity is way more profitable for them than progress. It's sick.
RedJerzey@reddit
You can solve most things if you throw enough money at it. But there is way too much corruption to do any of this.
lololollieki@reddit
It’s true.
greendildouptheass@reddit
rare earths
mystery_biscotti@reddit
I thought most of it was produced in India, but that may have shifted since I last looked.
RedJerzey@reddit
Other countries produce a lot, but the raw materials are coming from china.
03263@reddit
but they're also under Greenland!!!
RedJerzey@reddit
Let's go get them.
At this point it's time to admit we are an imperial nation.
If we are an imperial nation... let do it right and take it all over. That should make the liberals happy bc if we are all America... there are no borders 😆
gra8na8@reddit
It’s all one big conspiracy because people want to raise the birth rate in America. This will drastically affect the cost of condoms and make it more expensive to have birth control in the United States. I’m kidding but also kind of not if you look at the supply chain.
FaradayEffect@reddit
You think condoms are expensive, wait until you find out how much diapers are going to cost... and car seat, and crib, and kids clothes and shoes, and all the other essentials those little babies end up needing.
davidm2232@reddit
Abstinence is free!
geolchris@reddit
Do you think the average MAGA is really that forward-thinking?
Serious-Ad2573@reddit
they think? to them that a dem dirty commie liburals thing
geolchris@reddit
Hah, fair.
heloguy1234@reddit
100%. I’d say daycare was the most shocking expense. It was so difficult to find a slot in my city that we had to go with whatever was available and what was available was the most expensive school in town. I’m not exaggerating here; it was more than our mortgage.
Pretty_Eater@reddit
We have no close family. We can't afford daycare. My wife and I have alternating work hours so once of us can be home for our child, she works nights. It sucks. We barely see eachother, and when we do she is so sleep deprived to just make it work. It sucks. It has taken a toll on our relationship, we talk about this, talk about sticking it out to a potential better future because how the hell would we manage better if we were separated?
It's so much more than money, children will put such a strain on your relationship. I love my child, I can't imagine a life without them, but the money part is only one side of the stress.
People need to realize that your life kind of just stops once you have a child (At least early years), just about every moment is taking care of them.
Can you do that? Stop your hobbies, stop going out? I know it's not like that for everyone but damn it's like that for some of us.
DO NOT HAVE KIDS UNTIL YOU ARE READY.
TeaPrimary1147@reddit
People actually don't even need to have kids. There are millions without homes. Life on earth is wage slavery and hell ending in diseas and death while.fighting all.manners of demons seen and unseen along the way.
ABoutDeSouffle@reddit
It really gets better, promise. Sure, we had daycare (different country), otoh we have more than one child. It took a toll on our relationship, but now they are older and the relationship has become more solid b/c of what we went through.
JamesRawles@reddit
Do not have kids, got it.
heloguy1234@reddit
The first 4 years are tough but it gets progressively easier as they gain independence. During that time the best you can do is the best you can do. Super important to carve out a little time for your partner and remember that they are putting in as much as you are.
blahblahspeak@reddit
The only good thing that Trudeau did in Canada was bring the cost of daycare down to $10 a day.
MoonAndStarsTarot@reddit
Good luck actually getting one of those spots, especially if you are in rural or remote communities. The average daycare cost in Vancouver, for example, is around $1500/month on a per child basis. If you live in somewhere rural in BC either there are no childcare options or you're paying a very high cost because there might only be 1-2 options and they can charge what they want.
Southern_Air3501@reddit
Holy crap! That's terrible. Im glad im done with that phase. Best of luck to you and your family
ravens-shadows@reddit
Don't get me started on college
McRibs2024@reddit
College as we knew it at this rate is off the table. Saddling 20 somethings with 250k+ student loans is outrageous. Trade school, or community college then state school is the likely path. My oldest is years away from college and I shudder to think what those numbers will look like when it’s time for him to look
heloguy1234@reddit
Lol. I, fortunately, have some time to build up his 529. So glad we only had 1 and I don’t know how people with 2 or 3 kids get by let alone plan for retirement. Had grand dreams of upgrading to a proper house, I always wanted an attached garage, but it looks like we will be riding it out in a cramped 2 bedroom cape instead.
Shoddy-Childhood-511@reddit
We'll have more daycare workers once AIs take all the higher status bullshit jobs in advertising, etc. :)
Independent-Bug-9352@reddit
yeah but that requires foresight. maga have sex; make babies; forced to keep baby 'cuz indoctrination and reversal of Rose, and they're stuck to live in poverty, work lots, listen to right-wing podcasts, then get in a feedback-loop of anger when their poverty is blamed upon immigrants or trans or some other convenient vulnerable scapegoat in the moment.
McRibs2024@reddit
That’s assuming those pushing birth rates actually care. They’re the same ones that don’t want universal pre k cause muh taxes, and tend to be on the public school is an evil indoctrination center train too
mystery_biscotti@reddit
"Why isn't your wife staying at home and homeschooling?"
Yeah. It's only gotten worse in the last 30 years. 😞
Alarming_Jacket3876@reddit
Have you seen how f#@&ing expensive condoms are? It's insane.
DaneAlaskaCruz@reddit
You guys pay for condoms?
They're free like candy at so many places around me.
Like: STD clinic, medical clinic, underwear shop, sex toys shop, and gay sauna.
DieselPunkPiranha@reddit
I'm amazed gay saunas weren't banned in the US. I'd didn't even know they were a thing until I started travelling Europe.
nw342@reddit
If we banned gay saunas, where would our closeted senators go to relax?
Serious-Ad2573@reddit
the senate?
jfarrar19@reddit
illegal gay saunas so they have blackmail on each other to keep to the script.
ravens-shadows@reddit
/me taps right foot ...
Best-Temperature5595@reddit
I stock piled a few years worth at the last pride festival. I will trading those like bitcoins.
Serious-Ad2573@reddit
dont those expire in like 6 months to a year?
Shoddy-Childhood-511@reddit
I'll be funny when we reach 1 condom = 1 btc. lol
Irverter@reddit
https://xkcd.com/2280/
It-s_Not_Important@reddit
Especially when pulling out is free!!!!
DieselPunkPiranha@reddit
Buy 'em in bulk on Amazon. Give some to your friends. Cheaper for everyone that way.
Far_Out_6and_2@reddit
The bigger you are the more you pay
Puzzled-Berry-2450@reddit
might be time to snip snip, boys! lol
hooptysnoops@reddit
already has https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/commodities/articles/condom-prices-might-skyrocket-thanks-184251050.html
No-Serve-9134@reddit
False. The people that are pushing for a higher birthrate believe that birthrates will be curtailed by law and other methods. They also believe at some point it won't matter due to transhumanism and the eventual end of humanity, but in the in-between those with more family members will have more power similar to monarchy's of the past. Those "people" think they are throwing us a insider bone as they bring about the apocalypse. And no, none of what I wrote is a conspiracy. All acknowledged by Theil and his cronies.
sin_loopey@reddit
Man I guess it’s a good thing I mostly have sex with women, since I took out my IUD ages ago.
The_Vee_@reddit
I thought the same. Sure is odd condoms are going to be expensive when it's quite apparent the government wants births.
GWS2004@reddit
They took away abortion and are coming for birth control next.
ThreeKiloZero@reddit
Most of it is shit we probably dont need to be spending money on anyway.
Moochingaround@reddit
Like fertilizer, who needs that shit.
abdallha-smith@reddit
Time to use chicken shit or find something else, don't wait to react until the wall comes crashing ?
Dazzling_Outcome_436@reddit
Rabbit poop is easier to start up than chicken poop. It's a "cold" manure, meaning that it can be used right away without composting it first. Also rabbits take up less space than chickens. Chickens will give you eggs, but chicken breeds are either good for meat, good for eggs, or somewhat good for both, and you're rarely allowed to own roosters in town. Rabbits are good for meat, but you have to get around the mythology and taboos people have about rabbits. If rabbit ownership is limited by law at all, they're easy to hide from enforcement.
Artistic-Salary1738@reddit
I don’t need to breed rabbits, I already have enough rabbits pooping in my yard.
missbwith2boys@reddit
I've been debating getting some. But I think that may be a bit too much at the moment.
03263@reddit
you can use my poop
Moochingaround@reddit
Way ahead of you. Permaculture homestead. But there's a huge part of civilization that can't survive without chemical fertilizers.
missbwith2boys@reddit
yeah, compost plus chickens gets me pretty far.
Less homestead-y on my half acre lot, but I do what I can.
abdallha-smith@reddit
I know emerging countries can't at a large scale and that's unfortunate but developed countries should not rely so much on world trade.
Sovereignty should be a goal for a lot of things.
Wall Street will not be happy about it tough.
Loxatl@reddit
Bug poop. We run a bug farm. I go through massive oil drums worth of killer NPK ratio bug poop that looks like sand. And it immunizes plants due to the present chiton and such.
I will say, starting to get a lot more calls about it but still mostly from hemp guys.
SusanMilberger@reddit
Can you drop some links or any kind of info really, on bug farming?
abdallha-smith@reddit
This is the way
Do what you can with what you have nearby first
Then if necessary go further
03263@reddit
Just have everyone send their poop to farms they can spray it on the fields
BigBlueEyes87@reddit
Fertilizer is pretty important shit.
bottle-o-rockets@reddit
Some might say the most important shit of all.
sicfigure@reddit
literally
thehourglasses@reddit
Some enterprising individuals will reintroduce night soil as a fallback, don’t worry.
Ashamed-Country3909@reddit
They did that.
That's why 60+% of California's farms are very, very, very contaminated with pfas.
ColdBru5@reddit
You dont need fertilizer if you have Brawndo
Honest_Persimmon_859@reddit
Brawndo has electrolytes!
Littleshuswap@reddit
Canada here...
meehowski@reddit
Looks forward to be a stay at home dad actually
Impossible_Range6953@reddit
wait until your local farmers cant produce at the same rate anymore...then we will find out really fast what we really need and this gov didnt plan for.
No_Possible_7108@reddit
There are already stories of farmers up in Minnesota (90ish% sure this is the right state) that aren't even going to try planting crops and are just trying to sell off all of the fertilizer and stuff they got last fall
03263@reddit
More money to be made doing AI-powered brand management. Everyone should just do that, fuck manual labor, we'll all starve to death but we'll be rich doing it.
Lumpy_Conference6640@reddit
Helium for Microchips, and kids birthday parties... f*ck em... little entiled a$$holes /s
HalfEatenBanana@reddit
You’re allowed to cuss here, it’s okay
No_Possible_7108@reddit
They were doing it for the kids
One-Employment3759@reddit
Yeah, like medicine.
athomevoyager@reddit
I heard the same thing about tariffs, never happened. And even with this, they've been saying "supply chain shock in 1-2 weeks" for the last four weeks. There's not going to be a shock to prepare for. Just a slow boring decay of American society while others pivot to different energy sources, alliances, etc.
nownownower@reddit
Part of the reason we did this was to shore up American alliances. I’m pretty sure. It’s a direct hit to a ton of China’s trade routes. It’s a benefit to IMEC. And we’re eyeing the arctic anyway.
anotherchrisbaker@reddit
It didn't happen with the tariffs because he backed out of most of them. He's desperately trying to back out of this, but the Iranians aren't letting him. You may be right, but I disagree with your reasoning....
AdWorldly8355@reddit
He left just enough tariffs to make stuff way more expensive for us, just Taco'd out of the insane ones which would've caused the economy to grind to a halt.
Standby_fire@reddit
Plus the corporations have decided to not lower prices while the tariffs recoiled. Why lower if the market doesn’t make you. Fuel will react when it can, but prices of goods will hurt for a while, intentionally. Bravo P2025!
squidwardTalks@reddit
A gas station near me ran out of gas. It could be a fluke, but who knows these days.
jednaz@reddit
My daughter normally fills up her tank every other Monday night after her symphony rehearsal. Twice in the last couple month she has done this only to be confronted with a closed station that was out of gas. This was a Sam's Club, so very surprising.
ConsequenceValuable6@reddit
Even if the price of condoms go up, it's still cheaper than actually having a baby. So please for the love of all that's good, please still buy condoms and use them.
awsompossum@reddit
Get IUDs if you can, additionally. Still use condoms for STI prevention, but don't let that be the only barrier between you and child rearing
hera-fawcett@reddit
vasectomies are great too. deffo recommend.
awsompossum@reddit
Also very true
Zealousideal-Print41@reddit
I'm a little confused on the rubber and aluminum shortages. Neither of those come from the Arabic countries. Lower Asia, Africa, South America, Australia yes. So how's it going to lead to shortages on these items? I'm worried about the cost of tires. Those things are going to get stupid high
thatmclarenfan@reddit
As far as I understand a lot of it is because oil is used during the manufacturing process of all of those
Zealousideal-Print41@reddit
Didn't think of that and all the polymers. Most of which are made in the Persian gulf countries. Shit, this is going to get expensive quick
ExtensionMoose1863@reddit
Oil is in EVERYTHING you buy. 99% of pharmaceuticals, 60% of clothes, 90% of manufactured goods... All that oil not moving goes to Asia to either power the plants that make stuff or are inputs to the stuff itself
We may be insulated from straight oil and gas shortages (not price) in North America but the knock on effects for everything manufactured in Asia is terrifying
GridDown55@reddit
They say for every calorie we eat, we use ten calories of oil...
daviddjg0033@reddit
And its is almost like war is inflationary the SPR was drained during Biden's term when Russia rolled tanks through Belarus into Ukraine. Now we face higher oil prices as Iran destroyed how many barrels per day and allowing their barrels to go to China while US barrels are bid on a global market higher? I am not advocating for freezing these wars on Putin or the injured Ayatollahs terms. I am advocating for conservation and canceling luxuries and wants over needs and necessities.
The US could be faced with a political entity that advocates for the US to become even more isolationist and cut off our allies from US oil further increasing this strain.
Impossible_Range6953@reddit
And they get shipped on vessels that run on fuel. Farmers are feeling it too and it will cause shortage of fruits and veggies. Their machinery also uses fuel.
TrekRider911@reddit
Oil is used to make a lot of things. Even Tylenol.
Zealousideal-Print41@reddit
Yeah, the cost of pharmaceuticals is definitely going to rise. Ironically affecting the Maga voters the most
TrekRider911@reddit
And it's not just oil, but sweet, thin, Middle East oil. I'm pretty sure you can't make a lot of plastics, medication, etc, from American/Canadian thick oil.
Zealousideal-Print41@reddit
Nope, well you can but the refining is hella expensive. But heck they will just eat those costs, just like the tariffs. And there's a reason they don't refine heavy crude to make a lot of things that take sweet light crude....
Southern_Air3501@reddit
Passing them on to the consumer, yep
03263@reddit
It's actually pretty crazy how many uses we found for it
Imagine if that energy was put into finding uses for plants, fungi, bacteria, etc. I'm sure there's a ton out there we don't even know we could be using.
tellox@reddit
Yep. 99% of pharmaceutical feedstock is derived from petrochemicals.
ImperiumStultorum@reddit
Aluminum is made large-volume in UAE and Bahrain (~20% world production) thanks to very cheap natural gas that is a side product of oil extraction. LNG plants and NG pipelines can handle only so much. Extra NG gets burned in power plants, that goes into aluminum production.
Synthetic rubber requires natural gas and oil as feedstocks, so no matter where the chemical plants are located, they will be affected by the +30% price shock.
GaK_Icculus@reddit
Energy intensive industries