My risk assessment as follows:
It's because the Chinese producers are swapping for shittier components from a subcontractor who subbing parts from an even shittier subcontractor, or not bothering to read the specs sheet properly.
If the West had competent rulers, this whole debacle would be create a more robust supply chain network, using a combination of onshore manufacturing and number of sources for redundancy (because, remember, diversity is our strength).
Currently its moving to northern Vietnam.... and wait for it... ran by Chinese people who get the Vietnamese who speak Chinese to manage for them.
I noticed that too. I initially wrote it off because I figured I'd 'made the mistake' of clicking on one of those articles once and now the shitty Google feed algorithm thinks I'm fascinated by recall news and it's all I want to hear about ever again, but even if that were true the sheer number of recalls seems alarming.
its probably a parts supply issue, but low-voltage techs and repair men for stuff like elevators/escalators,etc have been in extremely high demand since covid. if i had to guess a fuck load of boomers that went into those trades out of high school are now retiring. beyond that no one is applying, i remember only 4 people applied for a fire alarm tech last year, and the employer straight up said name your price for hourly.(they hired everyone that said anything less than $20/hr) i suspect a lot of these tradesmen sectors are already in the "firm handshake" type of desperation for employees. of course maybe if they raised the wage to something over 33% minimum wage they'd get more applicants. seriously though, 4 people applied meanwhile 500 people applied to work the counter at a smoke shop in the same area for the same amount of money.
this is the first time in about a decade i've seen job listings for fire techs so that may be it too.
This is my favorite part about the chinese. unlike MAD back in the Cold War, the chinks don't have any way to fuck up the US. but they have the 3GD, and its been like a giant self-destruct button the past 15 years, literally dozens of countries have the tech to blow the fucker up, and yet they still do this shit. Its like being pushed around by a bratty little girl, at any point they could be fucking destroyed, they are so fucking weak its amazing. Yet it doesn't matter because they take full advantage of the current climate to make sure they get away with being as annoyingly evil as possible.
IMO this sounds way more plausible than globohomo arsoning food processing plants to make you eat ze bugs and ze soy. Like if you want to fuck with food prices, you keep doing what's happening in the real world, not fire bolts of Jewish lightning to unlucky plant owners.
China can still hit the West Coast and most of the East Coast (Florida is safe lol) with their current missiles plus they have enough smaller missiles to wipe out any carrier battlegroup that gets close including the unsinkable aircraft carrier called Taiwan. There's still a very large semblance of MAD when they can kill 10-20% of the US population even if the US can do far worse to them.
Can I ask about the housing foundations thing? The one I lived in had the foundation split in three, but it was built on a high slope and on land artificially filled in 1978. I've seen some wiring nightmares before but never understood how they can fuck up a foundation aside from not levrling ground properly.
These water control projects are a staple of any Chinese era lol. Though I will say the 3GD was designed by US engineers. It's kinda like the US, politicans and leader who are empty suits and taking the ideas from the last person with an actual brain and running it to the extreme logical conclusion.
It depends. The ideal stock is around 3 months supply, which serves two purposes: it smooths over unexpected bumps in general, but also keeps you alive long enough to outlast almost every "event" that might come along. The general rule is, if you survive the first couple of weeks, you're going to survive long term, simply because most events are only short shocks. If the event is so long that you work through your entire three month supply, then no amount of prepping would be enough.
Miner power leveling. I've moonlighted as a quality control inspector before for produce packing plants during the pandemic. We where told to relax are standards last year because we couldn't sort and pack fast enough due to a labor shortage. the other reason given was quality inventory was reaching low levels and stores where worried about empty shelves. So we was sending B-line produce mixed in with with Some A-line to pad it out
Water is understated. I live in a community with a communal well, not attached in any way to a government apparatus. Good when it is good, however, when the power goes out, we have no back up generator to the pumphouse (something we really need to fucking fix). I have been without water for 4-5 days, which is almost worse than no electricity. These storms happen in the coldest part of the year, which is also fun. I have propane heaters and butane stoves. You have no idea how much water you need until you don't have it. I had to heat water in my 5 gallon fermentation tank on my butane stove just so my kid and I could bathe. Washing dishes and clothes was also an ordeal, plus the water needed for cooking, pets, and livestock. And the toilet. We're on septic, so as long as you have water to flush, you can, but god help you otherwise. I am honestly thinking of having a composting toilet as a backup prep.
