Thread by @Tinkzorg

I tend to be pretty sanguine about these things because I'm a party man for a populist party, stuff like this is not going to make the job less necessary (its also a form of cope), but combine harvesters breaking down and not being replaced is a real [laughter stops] moment.

The threat from this supply crisis qas never a lack of "treats", but rather second- and third order effects of a cascading system collapse in a tightly coupled system. Or, in plain english: necessary economic functions breaking down due to breakdowns further up the chain.

Now stuff like this is not likely to lead to outright famine. Some individuals and families might end up close to starvation (though in some sense that goes on today as well), but this could cause permanent damage to the food growing capacity.

As in, farmers just get smashed and financially ruined by this stuff.

That will in itself have a bunch of second- and third order effects. I think bread riots in the US are looking very probable in the years ahead. They likely won't be called such (the arab spring was partly a bread riot, mixed up with a bunch of other issues), but...