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1. cjd (cjd@pkteerium.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 07:19:16 JST cjd
   Something that is really interesting to me is dynamic supply-and-demand and supply chain choke points.
   
   This graphic everyone studies in ECON 101, it's bullshit. In order to believe in this, you have to believe silly things like "if bread were a penny per loaf, I would eat 10 loafs of it per day".
   
   In reality there's a saturation point, be it for people eating bread, or for construction companies buying concrete.
   
   On the other side there's also a huge problem. Economists also think that when bread goes to $1000/loaf, everyone just eat one crumb, or almost everyone goes without...
   
   In reality, when bread goes to $1000, you have a revolution and our dear economists get decapitated.
   
   1/Little 🧵
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   • cjd (cjd@pkteerium.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 07:20:01 JST cjd

     in reply to
     On MOST goods, there is a red line, and if the price of the good goes over that line, it causes irreversible damage to the economy, e.g. communist dictator takes over this whole "market" thing is thrown out the window.
     
     But there's a red line on the supply side too!
     
     When the price of a commodity good goes too LOW, it causes manufacturers of that good to become unprofitable, forcing them to close down.
     
     If there was someone powerful enough to sell large amounts of food under cost, it's theoretically possible to run food companies out of business. After that, they could abruptly stop, causing food to cross the red line -> Revolution.
     
     Governments intuitively get this, which is why they subsidize farmers. But even if they didn't, dumping food on the market is costly and draws a lot of attention. But there are places in the economy which can be attacked much more quietly and cheaply, and still have catastrophic consequences.
     
     Introducing the supply chain chokepoint.
     
     2/
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   • cjd (cjd@pkteerium.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jul-2023 07:20:36 JST cjd

     in reply to
     What I call a supply chain chokepoint, is a SMALL profession which produces something that is indispensable to the nation. If these people can be made to stop what they are doing, the result will be a national emergency.
     
     Two notable examples of supply chain chokepoints are network engineers, and machinists. If the top 10,000 network engineers were to vanish overnight, the result would be absolute chaos. Every corporation would grind to a halt, the financial system would fold, etc.
     
     But the network engineer chokepoint is protected for two reasons:
     1. They're paid pretty well
     2. There isn't much they can do *except* keeping the networks operational
     With machinists it's an entirely different story.
     
     If the top 10,000 machinists were to disappear overnight, the nation would lose the tools that make the tools that make the weapons they use to fight wars with.
     
     Buy your weapons from another country?
     
     3/
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