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asf9b8hqw4n

16 karma · joined February 3, 2022

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asf9b8hqw4n··on MIT graduate students vote to unionize
This is definitely abusive, but it's not clear how a union would go about solving this? The CBA could prohibit it (but it's already against policy) or the union could file a grievance (students could already do this), but nothing really prevents this from happening with a union.

I don't even think the union has jurisdiction over "academic" matters like graduation. The Harvard CBA explicitly points out that academic matters cannot be arbitrated like other grievances: https://studentunionization.harvard.edu/files/hgsu/files/202...

asf9b8hqw4n··on Someone should probably start a bright home lighting company (2019)
Did you take any pictures of the inner workings of the broken ones by chance? I'm curious if there are any hints about how they work, or the Coelux ones.
asf9b8hqw4n··on How we broke the supply chain
I appreciate most of the arguments here, but take strong exception to the validity of blaming "just-in-time logistics". Consider grocery store A that uses Just-in-Time and grocery store B that does not:

Grocery store A (with JIT) has much less inventory, which has a variety of benefits. It needs fewer square feet, which reduces rent/heating/lighting/cleaning costs and therefore reduces prices; this also means more residential space for actual residents. It has less food waste, because most inventory is only on a shelf for a hours or days rather than weeks. Paradoxically, it is actually easier to keep goods in stock, because there are 10x fewer goods to count.

By contrast, Grocery store B (without JIT) has much more inventory, which has a variety of costs. It needs more square feet, which increases rent/heating/lighting/cleaning costs and therefore increases prices; this also means less residential space for actual residents. It has more food waste, because inventory is sitting there for weeks or months to prevent a shortage. Individual items go out of stock all the time, because the staff can't effectively count this much inventory.

Similar arguments hold for stocks of parts at factories, with the additional problems of obsolescence, things getting lost, risk of fire or shelving collapses etc. Carrying enough inventory to weather a shortage like recent COVID shortages would require months and months of inventory; imagine the obsolescence costs if the factory needs to make any change at all!

We need to stop blaming just-in-time logistics for shortages. Outsourcing, deregulation, anticompetitive behaviors are all valid, but just-in-time logistics makes businesses much more efficient which helps everyone. The thought of having stockpiles large enough to prevent issues like recent ones is completely absurdist.