Why is there a sudden shortage of seemingly abundant items like coins and aluminum cans for beer/soda/food? Are we importing or resourcing less metals?
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Different causes. Coins got locked up because the supply chain for coins (the mints) got disrupted at the same time as people’s spending habits radically changed (more online shopping and less overall spending). Combined, it caused the flow of coins and the supply of new ones to slow way down. All the coins still exist, they’re just mostly sitting in people’s houses and not circulating.
Aluminum got screwed up because the US get a lot of aluminum from Canada and there’s been an on-again/off-again tariff war over aluminum. Every time the US hikes the tarriff the price of aluminum jumps up and things that need aluminum, like cans, slow down production. Aluminum and soft-wood lumber (for construction) are the two favorite trade-war targets between the US and Canada.
The coin shortage is because of the shutdown and people sticking to online purchases and card transactions. There’s not alot of change being passed around by busy consumers because of this.
This article kind of covers it. We shipped all the jobs and manufacturing overseas. Now we are dependent are the rest of the world to allow us to buy their s***. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/
Theres also a big shortage of cement hitting the west coast, going to be bad for construction
Looking at this sort of post as a European is kinda concerning, are you guys ok ?
The Coin Shortage is a combination of things. 1) People not spending coins. 2) The mint operating at reduced capacity due to COVID. 3) Distribution issues due to COVID. 4) Some Banks not accepting coins from clients.
The aluminum can shortage is a combination of imports being cut down or stopped and higher demand than normal for cans of beer and soda due to people being at home more.
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