Christian Dorer, editor-in-chief of the Blick Group
Many factories were shut down during lockdown because people were no longer allowed to go to work; Transport capacities decreased because ports closed and fewer aircraft flew; Companies reduced their capacities because they expected a permanent crisis instead of a rapid boom.
As a result, there are now waiting times for cars and electric bikes, cell phones and computers, game consoles and coffee machines – for all products in which semiconductors are installed. Computer chips are in short supply. In addition, the USA is engaged in a trade war with China, there is a lack of raw materials, production downtimes are still the order of the day.
Due to the lack of plastic granulate, plastic is also becoming scarce – among other things, this means fewer and more expensive toys. Due to the boom in online trading, paper and cardboard are becoming scarce. Because the home has become more important and is being renovated like crazy, there is even a lack of wood.
In addition, a cargo ship blocked the Suez Canal for weeks; a cyclone paralyzed an important Chinese shipping port; a beetle affected timber production in Canada.
There was also a huge and unexpected boom! Many people saved money in the pandemic and now urgently want to make up for the missed consumption.
Bang asked the Zürcher Tages-Anzeiger: “Yawning emptiness under the Christmas tree?” And the look quipped: “You my goods!”
But if you look around in the shops these days, you are not confronted with shortages, but with full shelves. Even if we should notice that there are only five instead of ten types of some goods to choose from, that shows above all how spoiled we are. And even if something is completely missing: So what?
Blick reader Ursula Ramseier is sure to say: “Then finally less will be thrown away!”
Maybe we should just take a look around the consequences of the pandemic in other countries where the state could not or did not want to get people through the crisis with short-time work compensation and emergency aid.
According to the UN, hunger has spread dramatically in 2020: Today, between 720 and 810 million people worldwide are acutely undernourished – 70 to 160 million more than a year earlier. Six times more children died of starvation in the pandemic, while child labor increased massively.
Perhaps everyone should keep this in mind, too, who is now complaining that they cannot find the right game console for their own children to put in a colorful package under the Christmas tree.