Originally Posted by
Twelveseal
I suspect you'd have a similar problem in a Socialist or Communist country under lockdown and lacking sufficient storage space. Unless they were prioritizing building infrastructure over controlling viral spread.
That said, it's an utterly disgusting waste that comes from the way we handle resources and commerce globally. When the supply chain breaks down, there's just not enough places to store goods, especially perishables and things you can't really stop producing, like foodstuffs.
In hindsight it could be mitigated to a degree by building redundancies into storage capacity, which is where the Capitalism angle starts to really be felt, since doing so isn't cost-efficient for the private sector or the public, even when it's feasible. In a command economy, you could just force it in preparation for possible disasters. I mean, just look at China's growth-inflating public works projects; a lot of whst they produced has little practical utility under normal circumstances, but could be invaluable in the right kind of crisis.