Oil crisis triggered by blockade of strait of Hormuz prompts emergency measures to protect supply and halt rising prices
Shrinking fuel stocks and soaring prices are leading countries around the world to burn coal, ration fuel, shorten work weeks and tell citizens to stay at home.
Fossil fuel supplies have reduced since the war against Iran led to the closure of the strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for oil and seaborne gas. The shortfall has prompted emergency measures as government’s attempt to halt rising costs that have thrown economies into chaos.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), whose members sought to calm markets by releasing 400m barrels of oil from their strategic reserves last month, has called for actions such as flying less and driving slower.
Ironically it is often local governments pressuring these companies to force the return.
When companies look for places to open offices, they functionally put out bids and make cities compete against each other for the best deal. They promise that they’ll bring tons of high paying office jobs to whichever city gives then the most tax breaks and other benefits. These cities bend over backwards to attract these companies. Once they “win”, the cities might even try to incentivize developers to build around the office, creating commercial and retail spaces for these office workers to eat and shop. Services like mechanics, lawyers, salons, gyms, daycare. While eceonmic ecosystems might be built around the idea that one of the big-4 accounting firms has an office there. Hotels spring up to accomodate business travelers visiting.
Then all of a sudden that company let’s everyone work from home. All of those businesses dry up, although a lot of the demand might get redistributed to the nearby residential areas where those workers are working from now. But then, without the restriction of physical space, the company hires more and more remote workers in other countries instead. The company may be registered locally and may have their servers there, but the city already gave them tons of tax breaks. All that’s left is an empty glass building that doesn’t generate tax revenue, and a ghost town of extinct small businesses around it.
So the local politicians apply all the pressure they can to executives to keep employees in the office.
I don’t mean to excuse any of this. The whole thing is a mountain of fragile and shortsighted decisions, and we are absolutely better off working remotely. Building communities and economies where we live, rather than where we work.