Are You Getting Nervous? Supply Chain Is the Next Shoe

 

COVID was a life-changing event for the world and it has yet to be solved or rectified. Its origin was somewhere in China, maybe Wuhan (we know that is the origin). We’ve been on high alert for so long, and I’m tired of it. The infection curve went up, came down, went up again, and now it’s leveling off. So can we calm down yet? No, because it seems the next crisis is unfolding and this is in our supply chain. Several have posted what they are seeing, shortages, longer wait times, costs going up. I am getting nervous again when I read sentences like this, from an article called “Inside America’s Broken Supply Chain”:

This month, the median cost of shipping a standard rectangular metal container from China to the West Coast of the United States hit a record $20,586, almost twice what it cost in July, which was twice what it cost in January, according to the Freightos index. Essential freight-handling equipment too often is not where it’s needed, and when it is, there aren’t enough truckers or warehouse workers to operate it.

“It’s going to get worse again before it gets better,” said Brian Bourke, chief growth officer at SEKO Logistics. “Global supply chains are not built for this. Everything is breaking down.” (bold and underline is my addition)

Ports in California are clogged. New Jersey and New York, as well as in Texas and Georgia, are also seeing record pileups.

I am nervous because we have a president who assures us in a speech yesterday that the economy and jobs are growing and on track. What universe is he operating from? We have a vice president who is visiting a children’s school and skips a major border meeting with Mexico. So we have multiple, major crises and those in charge who could be working on these problems, aren’t.

I’m nervous because our current president stands before a fake White House room setting with the slogan Build Back Better on a board in the background (virtue-signaling to Klaus that America is on track). Several world leaders are using this same slogan including Trudeau, Boris Johnson, even Prince Charles, etc.).

Isn’t that a coincidence? Everything that we once counted on, like supply chains are screeching to a halt. Hmmm … interesting. Perfect timing to usher in the  ‘Build Back Better,’ a.k.a., Green New Deal on steroids, and goodbye free-market capitalism. Kick the oil and gas industry in the rear just when we need transportation and fuel costs down. Also, the cargo return costs are being greatly jacked up in (guess where?) China. We’re sending sometimes empty cargo ships to China, which means we’re not exporting, just importing, and paying their jacked-up freight costs. China is once again at the forefront because we’re too dependent on them for too many things (and they know it).

Remember “you will own nothing and be happy,” Klaus says. You will no longer buy cars, you will rent, you will, you will, you will… Is this another lever being pulled to usher in The Great Reset? It seems we’re not going back to normal after the pandemic. From Klaus’s dream last night: “Just let the systems fail. Then we have to implement X, Y, and Z – this is too easy!” Good thing there are only two shoes that can drop, unless these people have more shocks in store.

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  1. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    I am more on the budget angle in an inflationary situation. There are levels to this.

    I did the math and it’s insane how much money you are going to save. I don’t know about the yeast thing, but I have done this with Boston brown bread in a pressure cooker which is way easier and you save a ton of money. Cornbread too.

    There’s still price inflation of the supplies you need to make bread, unless you plan to make your own flour, eggs, yeast, electricity…

    I am well aware of this. ***This is not a binary problem.*** You don’t know what the future inflation issues are going to be.

    I have five more hours for this. LETS MAKE THIS LONG!

     

    • #61
  2. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container).  No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager.  :)

    • #62
  3. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    The yeast thing sounds intimidating if you don’t use a bread maker. If you use a bread maker it sounds like it’s easier. It’s sort of shocking how much money you save. There must be some downside I’m not aware of.

    • #63
  4. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    There must be some downside I’m not aware of.

    Extra weight from all those delicious carbs.

    • #64
  5. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    the excessive central bank intervention globally is bad for supply chains.

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    It’s just stupid to force everybody to get the vaccine

    My view is that the Venezuelan manufacturing crisis was brought about by unstable inflated currency that was the result of one form of corruption. This is what looks like may be happening now.

    And after a certain point repeated incompetence must be reevaluated to be malice. As it stands now, the vaccine mandate looks not to be incompetence, or overkill, but deliberate manipulation.

    To push new technology vaccines out to satisfy fauci’s (and others) nerdy scientific egotism and to enrich the pharmaceutical companies that are accommodating the narcissists. I don’t know which is manipulating which; rather it looks like the vaccines and the vaccine mandate were developed in tandem by both the NIH and the pharmaceutical companies to suit both purposes simultaneously.

    These are interesting points that you raise. What caused the demise of Venezuela’s economy and other countries where similar circumstances developed, didn’t have the double whammy of a pandemic, then vaccine mandates lest you lose employment.

    It should be pointed out that companies are also  losing employees who went and got the vaccines. Some of these employees  felt forced to comply with what is probably an illegal mandate, but they realized since  they were the bread winners and needed their jobs, that they had to roll up their sleeves.

    It is not simply the internet and the “disinformation” the net is making available. It is that of first hand observation. Inside  the airline industry and even on the tennis circuit, people are seeing for themselves the injuries and deaths that are occurring among their friends who got innoculated with an experimental medicine.

    Among 18 of my spouse’s business colleagues, who were meeting on ZOOM meetups, 8 ended up getting jabbed.

    Five ended up with some type of adverse reaction. Two ended up losing their jobs due to serious  injuries that, wouldn’t you know it! – doctors are claiming are “coincidental” to the jabs they received.

     

    • #65
  6. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    I am more on the budget angle in an inflationary situation. There are levels to this.

    I did the math and it’s insane how much money you are going to save. I don’t know about the yeast thing, but I have done this with Boston brown bread in a pressure cooker which is way easier and you save a ton of money. Cornbread too.

    There’s still price inflation of the supplies you need to make bread, unless you plan to make your own flour, eggs, yeast, electricity…

    I am well aware of this. ***This is not a binary problem.*** You don’t know what the future inflation issues are going to be.

    I have five more hours for this. LETS MAKE THIS LONG!

     

    Unless you can somehow know that the supplies of ingredients for bread will be more available/less expensive than just getting the bread already made – and maybe you haven’t heard about the problems home-bakers had getting flour and yeast etc, over the past 12-18 months – what is the advantage supposed to be?  It’s fine if you want to say that you like the taste of your own bread better, or something like that, but if you’re making it about economics – inflation, supply-chain, whatever – I don’t think you “have a leg to stand on.”

    • #66
  7. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    There have been Ricochet posts over the past 12-18 months about how people who like to bake at home were having trouble getting flour, yeast, and other supplies.  Not just that they were more expensive, but that they were UNAVAILABLE.

    • #67
  8. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    I am more on the budget angle in an inflationary situation. There are levels to this.

    I did the math and it’s insane how much money you are going to save. I don’t know about the yeast thing, but I have done this with Boston brown bread in a pressure cooker which is way easier and you save a ton of money. Cornbread too.

    There’s still price inflation of the supplies you need to make bread, unless you plan to make your own flour, eggs, yeast, electricity…

    I am well aware of this. ***This is not a binary problem.*** You don’t know what the future inflation issues are going to be.

    I have five more hours for this. LETS MAKE THIS LONG!

     

    Unless you can somehow know that the supplies of ingredients for bread will be more available/less expensive than just getting the bread already made – and maybe you haven’t heard about the problems home-bakers had getting flour and yeast etc, over the past 12-18 months – what is the advantage supposed to be? It’s fine if you want to say that you like the taste of your own bread better, or something like that, but if you’re making it about economics – inflation, supply-chain, whatever – I don’t think you “have a leg to stand on.”

    Are you going to tell me it won’t be substantially lower than what you buy in the bread aisle? Because if that’s the issue I’m all ears.

    • #68
  9. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    There have been Ricochet posts over the past 12-18 months about how people who like to bake at home were having trouble getting flour, yeast, and other supplies. Not just that they were more expensive, but that they were UNAVAILABLE.

    Jesus this is going to get bad. 

    #Guns #Ammo #SilverRounds

    • #69
  10. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    The yeast thing sounds intimidating if you don’t use a bread maker. If you use a bread maker it sounds like it’s easier. It’s sort of shocking how much money you save. There must be some downside I’m not aware of.

    I only got good at bread when I went to a no-knead recipe.  It rises for 8 – 18? hours [overnight], and only needs folding a few times put it in a hot bread pan and let it rise for another 1/2 hr? then put put it in the oven and bake ’til golden.  I haven’t made it in a while but if you want the recipe, I can get it.

    • #70
  11. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    There have been Ricochet posts over the past 12-18 months about how people who like to bake at home were having trouble getting flour, yeast, and other supplies. Not just that they were more expensive, but that they were UNAVAILABLE.

    Wow.  I have yeast from like 10 years ago, and it’s still fine.  I buy it in vacuum packed bulk at a box store.  When I was making a lot of bread I would buy 20 pounds [of flour] at a time.

    • #71
  12. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Flicker (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    The yeast thing sounds intimidating if you don’t use a bread maker. If you use a bread maker it sounds like it’s easier. It’s sort of shocking how much money you save. There must be some downside I’m not aware of.

    I only got good at bread when I went to a no-knead recipe. It rises for 8 – 18? hours, and only needs folding a few times put it in a hot bread pan and let it rise for another 1/2 hr? then put put it in the oven and bake ’til golden. I haven’t made it in a while but if you want the recipe, I can get it.

     The thing on Amazon seemed like a Jetsons deal. Dump it in and push the button. I may not have that quite right. 

    When you make these things in a pressure cooker, the energy savings is incredible. I don’t know if that’s true with a bread maker.

    • #72
  13. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    As far as I can tell, the ingredients are a fraction of the cost of wonder bread.  The biggest cost I guess is running the oven for 45 minutes.

    • #73
  14. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Flicker (View Comment):

    As far as I can tell, the ingredients are a fraction of the cost of wonder bread. The biggest cost I guess is running the oven for 45 minutes.

    That’s actually what I think. I overstated what I really saw, but it seems so low I just don’t know what to make of it. It’s like a well-kept secret.

    If you can get this down to a drill somehow and clean most of it in the dishwasher, that seems like a pretty good pay off. 

    • #74
  15. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    As far as I can tell, the ingredients are a fraction of the cost of wonder bread. The biggest cost I guess is running the oven for 45 minutes.

    That’s actually what I think. I overstated what I really saw, but it seems so low I just don’t know what to make of it. It’s like a well-kept secret.

    If you can get this down to a drill somehow and clean most of it in the dishwasher, that seems like a pretty good pay off.

    I sometimes think of getting a bread machine just to make pizza dough, but that’s pretty easy by hand.  For me, the biggest problem by far is the 4 hour wait to rise then the 2 hour wait to rise, and watching the amount of rise.  No-knead baking is perfect for me.

    • #75
  16. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Boston brown bread is absolutely brain dead to make in a pressure cooker, but it seems like it’s a pretty seasonal thing to eat unlike ordinary bread. There is no yeast or anything. You have to have a cake mixer with a dough hook, I would think.

    • #76
  17. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Among 18 of my spouse’s business colleagues, who were meeting on ZOOM meetups, 8 ended up getting jabbed.

    Five ended up with some type of adverse reaction. Two ended up losing their jobs due to serious  injuries that, wouldn’t you know it! – doctors are claiming are “coincidental” to the jabs they received.

    25% [2 out of 8] suffered “injuries” sufficient to cost them their jobs?  Either you have the unluckiest most statistically anomalous group of friends on the planet earth, or you’re just making [REDACTED] up.

     

    I don’t even buy the “five of eight had adverse reactions”, unless you’re defining adverse reaction as “my arm was sore for a couple hours”, and even then five seems high.

     

     

    • #77
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    I am more on the budget angle in an inflationary situation. There are levels to this.

    I did the math and it’s insane how much money you are going to save. I don’t know about the yeast thing, but I have done this with Boston brown bread in a pressure cooker which is way easier and you save a ton of money. Cornbread too.

    There’s still price inflation of the supplies you need to make bread, unless you plan to make your own flour, eggs, yeast, electricity…

    I am well aware of this. ***This is not a binary problem.*** You don’t know what the future inflation issues are going to be.

    I have five more hours for this. LETS MAKE THIS LONG!

     

    Unless you can somehow know that the supplies of ingredients for bread will be more available/less expensive than just getting the bread already made – and maybe you haven’t heard about the problems home-bakers had getting flour and yeast etc, over the past 12-18 months – what is the advantage supposed to be? It’s fine if you want to say that you like the taste of your own bread better, or something like that, but if you’re making it about economics – inflation, supply-chain, whatever – I don’t think you “have a leg to stand on.”

    Are you going to tell me it won’t be substantially lower than what you buy in the bread aisle? Because if that’s the issue I’m all ears.

    That depends on what kind of bread you like.  But that’s also more like what I said about taste, not just economics.  If there really are Troubles ahead, you may be happy to get/have any bread at all, even if it’s not some artisanal four-grain ultra-whatever with specially aged raisins from a certain type of grape…  But if that’s what you want to make yourself, that might be better described as “gourmet food” or something rather than “bread.”

    • #78
  19. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Boston brown bread is absolutely brain dead to make in a pressure cooker, but it seems like it’s a pretty seasonal thing to eat unlike ordinary bread. There is no yeast or anything. You have to have a cake mixer with a dough hook, I would think.

    I’ve heard of making white bread in a pressure cooker, but it was in a sailing book that I don’t think I can find.  There’s got to be a recipe for it on-line.  It would probably be the most cost effective way to heat it.

    • #79
  20. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    I am more on the budget angle in an inflationary situation. There are levels to this.

    I did the math and it’s insane how much money you are going to save. I don’t know about the yeast thing, but I have done this with Boston brown bread in a pressure cooker which is way easier and you save a ton of money. Cornbread too.

    There’s still price inflation of the supplies you need to make bread, unless you plan to make your own flour, eggs, yeast, electricity…

    I am well aware of this. ***This is not a binary problem.*** You don’t know what the future inflation issues are going to be.

    I have five more hours for this. LETS MAKE THIS LONG!

     

    Unless you can somehow know that the supplies of ingredients for bread will be more available/less expensive than just getting the bread already made – and maybe you haven’t heard about the problems home-bakers had getting flour and yeast etc, over the past 12-18 months – what is the advantage supposed to be? It’s fine if you want to say that you like the taste of your own bread better, or something like that, but if you’re making it about economics – inflation, supply-chain, whatever – I don’t think you “have a leg to stand on.”

    Are you going to tell me it won’t be substantially lower than what you buy in the bread aisle? Because if that’s the issue I’m all ears.

    That depends on what kind of bread you like. But that’s also more like what I said about taste, not just economics. If there really are Troubles ahead, you may be happy to get/have any bread at all, even if it’s not some artisanal four-grain ultra-whatever with specially aged raisins from a certain type of grape… But if that’s what you want to make yourself, that might be better described as “gourmet food” or something rather than “bread.”

    Heck, they can get expensive at the upper end but you can tabletop manual flour mills with fly wheels at the handles.  I believe you have to run it through twice for flour consistency.  Perhaps the group called I think What you will need, will have an answer.

    • #80
  21. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    the excessive central bank intervention globally is bad for supply chains.

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    It’s just stupid to force everybody to get the vaccine

    My view is that the Venezuelan manufacturing crisis was brought about by unstable inflated currency that was the result of one form of corruption. This is what looks like may be happening now.

    And after a certain point repeated incompetence must be reevaluated to be malice. As it stands now, the vaccine mandate looks not to be incompetence, or overkill, but deliberate manipulation.

    To push new technology vaccines out to satisfy fauci’s (and others) nerdy scientific egotism and to enrich the pharmaceutical companies that are accommodating the narcissists. I don’t know which is manipulating which; rather it looks like the vaccines and the vaccine mandate were developed in tandem by both the NIH and the pharmaceutical companies to suit both purposes simultaneously.

    These are interesting points that you raise. What caused the demise of Venezuela’s economy and other countries where similar circumstances developed, didn’t have the double whammy of a pandemic, then vaccine mandates lest you lose employment.

    It should be pointed out that companies are also losing employees who went and got the vaccines. Some of these employees felt forced to comply with what is probably an illegal mandate, but they realized since they were the bread winners and needed their jobs, that they had to roll up their sleeves.

    It is not simply the internet and the “disinformation” the net is making available. It is that of first hand observation. Inside the airline industry and even on the tennis circuit, people are seeing for themselves the injuries and deaths that are occurring among their friends who got innoculated with an experimental medicine.

    Among 18 of my spouse’s business colleagues, who were meeting on ZOOM meetups, 8 ended up getting jabbed.

    Five ended up with some type of adverse reaction. Two ended up losing their jobs due to serious injuries that, wouldn’t you know it! – doctors are claiming are “coincidental” to the jabs they received.

    What kind of injuries did they sustain after the shots? This airline thing is huge. Also, I used to work many years ago at Babson College in Wellesley MA. I looked up the site and the shots are mandatory for students, highly encouraged for staff but not yet mandatory. ALL, whether vaccinated or not, HAVE to wear masks indoors! That includes during school sessions and work, you can take off to eat! The unvaccinated have to be tested weekly and report.  This is one school ! What about all the rest?  And this is even if you get some of your classes on line!

    • #81
  22. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    I have a frugality question. It looks to me like you can buy a bread maker on Amazon that is totally automatic including mixing / kneading. $100. I figure each loaf of bread is 2/3 cheaper than buying it at the store. You can throw the thing in the dishwasher. Does that sound like a horrible idea?

    Having a bread-maker requires that you stock flour, eggs, etc. You can end up with bigger supply-chain problems than you have now. Also, eggs and other possible ingredients have to be kept refrigerated. The bread-maker itself requires electricity which could be unpredictable in the future.

    Bread actually only requires flour, water and yeast (which essentially lasts indefinitely in a cool dry air-tight container). No salt, no eggs, no butter or oil, not even lager. :)

    There have been Ricochet posts over the past 12-18 months about how people who like to bake at home were having trouble getting flour, yeast, and other supplies. Not just that they were more expensive, but that they were UNAVAILABLE.

    Sounds like WWII rationing! I’ll have to find my aunt’s flourless spice cake recipe from that era and share it!

    • #82
  23. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    The missing cost is your time. If you make bread as a hobby, for your satisfaction, then the value of your time spent is not important.

    If the idea is saving money and you don’t add in your hourly rate, whatever it is, you are not considering your total cost.

    • #83
  24. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    The missing cost is your time. If you make bread as a hobby, for your satisfaction, then the value of your time spent is not important.

    If the idea is saving money and you don’t add in your hourly rate, whatever it is, you are not considering your total cost.

    I started this inquiry. I worded my question very carefully. For $100 you can get a bread maker on Amazon that kneads the bread and you can throw it in the dishwasher. 

    I can tell you from personal experience, it’s no big deal to make Boston brown bread in a pressure cooker. 

    Regular bread is a little bit more complicated so I was just throwing it out there for more information. But it looks like you save a staggering amount of money. 80%.

    • #84
  25. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    The missing cost is your time. If you make bread as a hobby, for your satisfaction, then the value of your time spent is not important.

    If the idea is saving money and you don’t add in your hourly rate, whatever it is, you are not considering your total cost.

    That’s another aspect.  It’s like the “old” aphorism, “Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.”

    • #85
  26. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    The missing cost is your time. If you make bread as a hobby, for your satisfaction, then the value of your time spent is not important.

    If the idea is saving money and you don’t add in your hourly rate, whatever it is, you are not considering your total cost.

    That’s another aspect. It’s like the “old” aphorism, “Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.”

    I once worked for a guy who had a simple rule.

    ”I can earn more money. I will never earn more time.”

    • #86
  27. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    The missing cost is your time. If you make bread as a hobby, for your satisfaction, then the value of your time spent is not important.

    If the idea is saving money and you don’t add in your hourly rate, whatever it is, you are not considering your total cost.

    That’s another aspect. It’s like the “old” aphorism, “Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.”

    I once worked for a guy who had a simple rule.

    ”I can earn more money. I will never earn more time.”

    I think that’s the mantra of the new (lacking) US work force.  We have a school bus driver shortage – so you will see hundreds of (gas guzzling – ruin the planet) cars lined up clogging the roads to drop off and pick up their kids – not to mention police to direct traffic……….

    • #87
  28. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Steve C. (View Comment):

    The missing cost is your time. If you make bread as a hobby, for your satisfaction, then the value of your time spent is not important.

    If the idea is saving money and you don’t add in your hourly rate, whatever it is, you are not considering your total cost.

    That’s another aspect. It’s like the “old” aphorism, “Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing.”

    I once worked for a guy who had a simple rule.

    ”I can earn more money. I will never earn more time.”

    I think that’s the mantra of the new (lacking) US work force. We have a school bus driver shortage – so you will see hundreds of (gas guzzling – ruin the planet) cars lined up clogging the roads to drop off and pick up their kids – not to mention police to direct traffic……….

    The way bus drivers are treated now, in many ways like cops, would you want to be one?

    • #88
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