Everyone seems to agree on the fact that the globalization of production and the pooling of stocks has a long history: until when?
The world is paved with good intentions and the “COVID-19” virus will certainly leave indelible positive traces in our ways of acting but chasing the natural, it comes back at a gallop …
Let us ask the question brutally: will we be ready to pay 10, 20 or 30% more for certain goods and articles so that they are produced in our countries or our regions at the end of confinement?
Even if we remain optimistic by nature, we can doubt it very strongly. The good old reflexes will return and the hunt for reduced prices will begin at the end of this pandemic. It is true that for some businesses or many households, higher prices would not be bearable, and arrangements will have to be found.
Therefore, it will be necessary to ask the right questions: what will we want or can we produce locally in order to have the best guarantees of supply and / or higher quality? and what compromises will we be ready to make about it? People forget a little quickly that if governments and certain companies have pooled stocks and bought in distant countries that are very (too?) competitive, it is because they put pressure on these same organizations in order to benefit from low prices or not to have tax increases…
When we want to pay the minimum for our consumer products and we want to be able to go to the other side of the world for three francs six sous, are we not all guilty or do we not help to saw the branch on which we are we sitting?
Let’s not be defeatist or grumpy: on the contrary, if we behave like responsible adults and governments support good initiatives, we can all take advantage of this unprecedented health crisis and organize our societies with logic, pragmatism and sustainability.
And even if we can no longer eat strawberries in winter, buy an item in Asia and get it in 2 days or go “have fun” in Barcelona for a little weekend, we will be able to survive and thrive. It will not mean going back to the Stone Age, but perhaps to the Age of Reason.
Good luck and take good care of yourself.