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Supply Chains are sequences and steps during the production and delivery of
goods and services that are heavily infrastructure-dependent. This is especially true
for FEW commodity supply chains.
Modern infrastructure is a spectacular success story. It is essential to understand
why modern infrastructure is so successful, so that we can understand why it is so
essential to preserve and adapt that infrastructure. Think about the incredible feats
of productivity, reliability, and efficiency that are made possible by modern infrastructure—for example, in the USA. Consider the following:
• A freight train can move a ton of freight a thousand miles on a gallon of fuel.
• Massive ships carry the products of whole nations across oceans to customers on
the other side of the world with such efficiency that they are cost competitive
with goods produced in-country.
• The natural, grey (dams, pumps, canals), and soft (treaties) infrastructures of the
Colorado River bring high quality water from the snowcapped peaks of Wyoming
a thousand miles southwest (and then hundreds of miles back uphill!) to the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson, at a cost and reliability
equal to local water sources even after 20 years of crippling drought.
• Electrical power almost never goes out, and is shockingly affordable for such a
high-quality and diversely useful energy source.
• We can send messages, and even complicated media and digital datasets, around
the world without error at the speed of light.
• During the Great Plains Drought of 2012 and the Great California Drought of
2016 that drastically cut water availability for crops in the world’s two greatest
agricultural centers, nobody starved in the USA owing to global agricultural
trade and massive grain stockpiles.
• Most of us can afford to drive our cars and trucks wherever we want without a
thought to the cost of the fuel.
• Passenger automobile safety improves nearly every year.
• Food and water reliability and safety is so high that your risk of illness from what
you eat is negligible—whereas for most human generations, starvation and
waterborne illness were routine causes of death. Packages are delivered rapidly,
reliably, and for pennies (or dollars) per parcel.
• There is more than enough food, energy, water, shelter, and housing for everyone
(although access and equity are imperfect).
• Law enforcement can apprehend criminals across multiple countries and continents, and violent crime is rare (and national security threats vanishingly rare).
• Our cumulative taxes are generally far less than half our income, and provide
historically excellent (albeit inconsistent) educational, security, health, environmental, law enforcement, recreational, regulatory, and other comprehensive government services.
B. L. Ruddell et al.
Supply Chains are sequences and steps during the production and delivery of
goods and services that are heavily infrastructure-dependent. This is especially true
for FEW commodity supply chains.
Modern infrastructure is a spectacular success story. It is essential to understand
why modern infrastructure is so successful, so that we can understand why it is so
essential to preserve and adapt that infrastructure. Think about the incredible feats
of productivity, reliability, and efficiency that are made possible by modern infrastructure—for example, in the USA. Consider the following:
• A freight train can move a ton of freight a thousand miles on a gallon of fuel.
• Massive ships carry the products of whole nations across oceans to customers on
the other side of the world with such efficiency that they are cost competitive
with goods produced in-country.
• The natural, grey (dams, pumps, canals), and soft (treaties) infrastructures of the
Colorado River bring high quality water from the snowcapped peaks of Wyoming
a thousand miles southwest (and then hundreds of miles back uphill!) to the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson, at a cost and reliability
equal to local water sources even after 20 years of crippling drought.
• Electrical power almost never goes out, and is shockingly affordable for such a
high-quality and diversely useful energy source.
• We can send messages, and even complicated media and digital datasets, around
the world without error at the speed of light.
• During the Great Plains Drought of 2012 and the Great California Drought of
2016 that drastically cut water availability for crops in the world’s two greatest
agricultural centers, nobody starved in the USA owing to global agricultural
trade and massive grain stockpiles.
• Most of us can afford to drive our cars and trucks wherever we want without a
thought to the cost of the fuel.
• Passenger automobile safety improves nearly every year.
• Food and water reliability and safety is so high that your risk of illness from what
you eat is negligible—whereas for most human generations, starvation and
waterborne illness were routine causes of death. Packages are delivered rapidly,
reliably, and for pennies (or dollars) per parcel.
• There is more than enough food, energy, water, shelter, and housing for everyone
(although access and equity are imperfect).
• Law enforcement can apprehend criminals across multiple countries and continents, and violent crime is rare (and national security threats vanishingly rare).
• Our cumulative taxes are generally far less than half our income, and provide
historically excellent (albeit inconsistent) educational, security, health, environmental, law enforcement, recreational, regulatory, and other comprehensive government services.
B. L. Ruddell et al.