The International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike as of midnight in the first major port strike in the United States in decades. Twenty years ago, dock workers on the West Coast struck for eleven days. The ILA has not gone on a strike since 1977, so this is a historic event for that reason alone. If the strike lasts more than a few weeks, then it will be much more than a historical event. About half of the cargo that goes in and out of the country flows through the affected ports.
The bankers estimate that the strike will cost the economy five billion per day, but that is a number plucked from the air. What we learned from the Covid fiasco is that American supply chains are extremely fragile, so any interruption will have unpredictable long-term consequences to the economy. This is also when consumer goods for the Christmas season begin flowing into the country, so delays will result in shortages which will disrupt the biggest retail period of the year.
One of the first things that will happen is conservatives will be told by conservative media to blame the dock workers. The reason for this is conservatives are idiots who do what they are told by the people they claim to oppose. The regime would like to turn this into a problem for Trump if possible, so they are busy filling the teleprompters of Fox News with squirrely rants about the greedy union guys. The vegetables that consume that slop will then regurgitate it on social media.
The fact of the matter is there are no good guys or bad guys when it comes to the strike itself, but the port system is an indictment of the economy. There is no reason for one company to control ports up and down the coast. Ports should be controlled by the states and encouraged to compete with one another for cargo. This makes for better port operations and eliminates the prospect of a crippling port strike. It also encourages modernization and efficiency at the ports.
The reason this is not the case is our ports are primarily skimming operations, rather than a part of a manufacturing and export base. What America primarily exports does not require seagoing vessels. Transgenderism, homosexual pride parades and cultural subversion are shipped around the world on the back of the dollar. What comes back are container ships full of consumer goods. A collection of people then skim a little from each container that reaches an American port.
This gets to why the dock workers are striking. They want protection from automation that will eliminate jobs. This will strike most people as nuts as they have been conditioned to think automation is a good thing, because that is what the television has told them, but in reality, most automation is about socializing the costs of business and privatizing the profits. Automating the ports will not result in lower consumer prices, but it will make the port operators richer.
If the point of the American economy were to make things and then sell them around the world, the ports could never be allowed to function as they do today because it would interfere with selling things around the world. That is not the point of the American economy, so the main function of ports is to skim from imports. This is why one main operator controls the East Coast ports. Consolidation makes it easier to institutionalize the skim.
None of this is to suggest that the dock workers are victims. Senior members of the ILA make four and five times what the typical American earns. Most of the guys on strike make six figures plus very generous benefit programs. The reason it is impossible to get a job at the ports is they control the labor force, which means they only allow friends and family to get jobs when they come open. The docks are pretty much a government created medieval guild system.
That is the other thing about the ports. The labor situation is a creation of the federal government over the last half century. In the middle of the last century, the mafia got control of the union pensions and immediately looted them. This brought in the feds who eventually restructured the union, so it was free of gangsters in track suits, but was filled with gangsters from the government. Both sides of the current contract dispute are the result of decades of government management.
Of course, there is a political angle to this. The Biden admin has done nothing to prevent the strike, which is interesting as they moved heaven and earth to head off the rail strike last year. That was when Biden thought he was going to be allowed to run for a second term. Now that he is drifting off into retirement, no one in the admin can be bothered to work on anything other than Ukraine and Israel. Kamala will be left to deal with the politics of a port strike.
This is where things get interesting. Pennsylvania and Michigan are union states, so the white remnant will be watching this strike. These are people who have always voted Democrat for economic reasons but detest the other stuff from the party. They like Trump, but wisely distrust Republicans. There is an opening for Trump the deal maker to take the union side without pandering. Harris, on the other hand, does not have any good options on this one.
In a way, the ports are a good model for our ruling class. Everyone involved in the ports is doing well, better than they should expect, but everyone involved in the ports is sure the system is screwing him. That is because the ports exist in isolation from the rest of the economy. It is a world unto itself that only interfaces with the rest of society, rather than operate within the economy. It is how high-earning people on both sides of this strike can think they are the little guy.
Another reason for this is the bottleneck mentality. Ports are a bottleneck and everything that passes through is taxed. In this way, the ports are just like our banking system or the information system. That means the real competition is over how much you get to tax what passes through the bottleneck. To the people inside a bottleneck system, it always feels like it is a zero-sum game, and their slice of the overall pie is never the biggest slice of that pie.
In the end, the union will get what they want as there is no real reason to not give them what they want. Their cost just gets tacked onto the cost of goods that flow through the port to your local Walmart of Amazon distribution center. Just like those Walmart’s and Amazons, the cost of the ports are socialized. With no fear of competition, there is no concern for the profit margin. You get to pay more for stuff, so the dock worker and his manager get to go boat shopping this spring.
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The singular feature of our time is that every single institution in society is a grift, without exception. The military, education, the government, policing, medicine, corporations — all of it — is a gigantic skimming operation where the lowest priority is actually delivering a quality product efficiently. I was involved in a motor vehicle accident last year. My most significant injury was a pneumothorax. It took them about ten minutes to insert a tube in my chest held in place by one stitch. The tube was in for 24 hours. Total hospital stay – 48 hours. The bill? Almost fifty… Read more »
The same thing happened in the tech industry. The tech industry was largely founded by White guys who were building computers in their garages and used that to take over the world. The point is that they were actually making something. Now? The tech industry is largely just a middleman that sucks up data and charges companies for access to it. Any actual making is outsourced to China, with the remannts of the industry in the USA largely being used to recreate the Indian caste system here.
Yeah, they actually threw Jobs out of his own company and then had to bring him back after they looted it and bankrupted it, FFS…
“The tech industry was largely founded by White guys who were building computers in their garages.”
Maybe. . .the myth of Bill Gates as just a lowly nerd in his garage is suspect. He and his family were and are CIA.
The tech industry was definitely beginning to get co-opted by the intelligence agencies by the late 1970s or so, which is when MS got going. Before that though, yea I think that characterization is broadly accurate.
Bill Gates, just by reading his biography, seems to have been a genuinely intelligent and precocious young man who was plucked by the blob to do its bidding and he was willing to play ball for the materialist riches that came with it. Many such cases, as they say.
Didn’t he fly on the Lolita express? 100 years from now our grandchildren will finally figure out who was using Epsteins services.
How will they do that? All the records, written, audio, and video, have been destroyed or hidden away where they will never be found.
“I only paid about $2000 out of pocket because I was insured.” Not to detract from your fine comment, I’ve experienced the same. However, one cannot assume that the fantastic costs you speak of are in any way paid—especially by an insurance company, any insurance company. I first got an inkling of this when I was required to sign up for Medicare. Prior to this, I—like you—simply had such billed/sent immediately to my insurance plan. Indeed, I rarely paid anything, or even saw a billing. After Medicare, I began to get a summary of charges submitted and charge reimbursements made.… Read more »
Yes, quite true. I believe my insurance company settled the amounts for less than billed.
Seems to me then, that the providers are either a) trying to find insurers or patients stupid enough to pay what they ask and rip them off, or b) running some kind of accounting scam where they cam claim “losses” at tax time…
When I was helping my dad decide whether to become a Medicare provider, the catch was a phrase something like “reasonable and customary”. Because we lived close to a reservation, over half of his work was charity or at best a couple dozen eggs, or a pair of tooled boots or, for major things, maybe a saddle. That’s a whole lot of zero amounts to try to average in to a “reasonable and customary” figure Medicare was going to base reimbursement on…
Similarly, in a lot of fields there is now a paradigm of “the less hands-on experience you have, the more you know.” This started with the ‘animal rights’ scam (because clearly some activist knows more about how to wrangle cows than any farmer possibly could) but has since spread far and wide.
Cue up the girl boss “national security expert” who has never commanded anything but a desk
Excellent points but I question your wrap-up about Harris getting into the White House. I actually think the Dems may be suffering from hubris and that recent events may actually derail their fortification efforts. There are two things in particular that people won’t forget on election day. First of all, the administration is totally ignoring the devastation in the South caused by the hurricane. They’ve literally sent no one to check on it. This sends a loud message to heritage Whites and southerners – the administration does not care about you. There’s every indication that Kamala plans to ignore most… Read more »
My financial advisor, based in San Francisco and working for Wells Fargo, called me on election night in 2016, ‘to see how I was handling the news’.
We’d never talked any kind of politics. She assumed I would need bolstering.
I played dumb and went into rhapsodies about the results, as if I assumed she was on my side. Went on at length about how the markets would respond, didn’t let her get a word in for a while.
Then I found some new advisers.
I call it an off the books welfare plan. Gouging the people who pay in cash to subsidize those who don’t.
“Harris, on the other hand, does not have any good options on this one.”
I blew my coffee out of my nose reading that sentence.
The implication being that she sees a problem, understands it, and thinks about what options are available to her.
Honest to God, does any sentient being think that creature is able to do that?
im re reading Augustine’s confessions and I wonder about these personal crisis that many people have. Just because she is very late middle age, I think she is 60 or something, does not mean she can’t have a moment of “what is all this for?” I wonder if any serious public personality has ever had this kind of personal crisis, a crisis of “am I believing in true and good things?” She seems so shallow and frivolous but how long can people keep that up? It’s possible the pressure for her to not think and do as she’s told is… Read more »
There is a clip out there of Kamala talking about a restaurant she wants to open. Unlike when she talks about, say, inflation (or anything else), she seems to actually have a plan and vision for the restaurant and it seems to be something she actually enjoys. A real person shows through in that clip in the way it doesn’t when she did, say, the speech at the DNC. So, the obvious question is, why does she need to do all this stuff, why not just retire and go open the damn restaurant and enjoy the rest of your life?
Running a restaurant takes a lot of work.
People can find motivation and pleasure in work when they do something they actually enjoy. Maybe if she was doing something she wants to do, she would find that motivation. The point is, it seems like there is clearly something she would rather be doing than girlbossing the US government, so she should do that.
Ahh but once you sell your soul to the devil it’s really really hard to get it back…
Yeah, I go more with Marlowe than Goethe here – in terms of likelihood of redemption.
She’s never going to open a restaurant, unless in name only with professional managers and chefs running it.
Who cares dude, you’re missing the point.
No, I’m not. The point is, she wouldn’t rather be running a restaurant just because she shows a little enthusiasm for the topic. People do that all the time: talk about a future they find interesting but which they’ll never actually pursue. She’s where she is because she’s been groomed to be a political puppet all her life and that’s what she knows.
Because once you take the ticket, they OWN you and you’ll have to do what they say.
at 60, everyone gets the face they deserve..
Sixty isn’t late middle age. Sixty is early elderly, any way you do the numbers, even if you assume an average lifespan of 90, which is laughably too high. This fear of recognizing and embracing that you are old is part of leftist culture. Don’t buy into it.
My standard answer when asked: How are You?
“Not bad for an old guy but I have low standards – if I wake up in the morning, it’s all good.”
I think you’re giving her too much credit.
Something I have been saying to people who are peering over to our side is that, the reason people have such a hard time believing a human can be so vapid and shallow, is because that is not how THEY think.
How can a person be so evil?
How can one be so unempathetic?
Stop thinking everyone shares the same paradigm as you. They don’t. Many would sell their soul for a taste of fame and fortune. “Waking up” and having an “Ah Ha” moment would sully the waters.
Yes. Smart, honest, sensitive people have a tendency to assume that everyone has a similar inner life. I don’t think that this is true.
Instead, many people’s inner lives are closer to sharks or snakes than to what many of us experience inside.
In a broader sense, this mistake leads us to assume that there is a singular human nature shared by all humans. This is mostly untrue, especially when you include Africans. Besides disliking pain, maybe the only feature shared by all humans is a predisposition to love your Mom.
“…there is a singular human nature shared by all humans.”
There is: stupidity. Sloth. Greed.
And most evidently, envy.
Whores fret not about such things.
The ol’ hobby-horse.
Harris won’t even visit North Carolina for an Air Force 2 tarmac meeting with the Governor and National Guard, demanding $$$ and aid for wiped out Americans.
For the current strike, it’s insane she’s not on TV saying the “Biden Administration” is contemplating ordering a 90 day “cooling off” period, which would get her past the election.
I’ve never seen a politician with worse political instincts.
If you followed the going-ons from the Imperial Court the past few years, one thing that consistently came out was that Harris’ office was in bad shape. There was lots of turnover, lots of gossip, lots of leaks, and far, FAR from the best people in there. I know that a VP office is never going to attract the best people (simply because the VP is, more often than not, not a real job), but Harris’ was notable for its shoddy condition. And it’s not like the Biden people, who, at least from a political point of view, are pretty… Read more »
94% turnover in VP office. This chick has guacamole for brains.
The personality is probably even worse than the brains.
I am still stunned that the media has successfully presented this truly terrible human being, who is unusually stupid and treats others so poorly, as competent and “joyful.”
I still don’t think most dissidents appreciate the power of the media to create reality and morality for at least half the people in our country.
“You think that you hate the media enough, but you don’t.”
True. If the media, over a long period of time, insisted the moon was actually a very large wheel of Camembert, the masses would clamour for a large-scale space mining operation and to be supplied with unlimited free Triscuits. And I’m not joking.
With just cheese and no pepperoni slice? Don’t you have any respect for human rights?
I still don’t think most dissidents appreciate the power of the media to create reality and morality for at least half the people in our country.
I think that’s because a lot of them are still under it’s influence in some ways whether that be how much they ingested growing up and how much now…
They see themselves as sorcerers who practice magic; they can conjure reality by saying the right things. It is entirely consistent with the mystic elements of the religion many in the media hold. It is part of the whole “manufacturing consent” operation that has been in place for over 100 years (“Remember the Maine!”). It is entirely consistent with MK Ultra and the mass psychological warfare the US government wages on its citizens starting in the 1950s. It’s a total control operation, and we are all victims to it.
I know personally of someone who works (or did work) for the Drunk’s people, by way of a friend to our family. To call him, and his behavior to his own family, degenerate would be generous.
“…FAR from the best people in there.”
Please, Trump hired the dregs. But he knew to get his ass to places like the Helene site…
“I’ve never seen a politician with worse political instincts.”
Oh, I didn’t know she was a politician. I thought she was a cocksuckiung tool.
You say toMAEtoe …..
You say kaMALtoe, I say KAMaltoe, let’s call the whole thing off.
It’s pronounced KLAMydia
That’s because all her instincts originate below the waist.
And above the large Adam’s Apple, but below the flared nostrils.
No doubt Harris is a blithering idiot and the dumbest person imaginable, but this obviously applies to her handlers as well when you tack on her botched response to the hurricane. The world has changed dramatically in the eight years since the Obama bot’s puppeteers were in charge, and it shows. It also indicates a dramatic diminution in the quality of the Ruling Class that hires the Help and Ho’s who hold public office and pretend to represent others. It is an open question whether Harris can read and comprehend. It is a problem when the pimps who pay her… Read more »
You and ProZNov are correct. Visiting the hurricane sites is a layup that any politician with an IQ above room temperature would figure out.
I forgot about the notion of a 90 day cooling off period. A no brainer that would get her past the election, and show the ability to handle big issues.
But nope. With respect to the disaster areas,Trump is there, looking all “Presidential” and stuff.
Its frankly breathtaking how inept her and her team are.
Their strategy seems to be
1) Copy Trump,
2) when we can’t copy Trump, do the opposite.
But I think it’s more campaign by committee, in the Heinlein sense (“a committee is a creature with six or more legs, and no brain.”)
And it won’t make a dam’ bit of difference.
I’m amazed at the fact that a person as dumb as Harris, has a 50/50 shot at being US president
She understands nothing, a total dunce, it’s fascinating
what’s to be amazed by? look at the electorate of the country, look at who the powerful are. besides, not like being prez is a real job.
Remember what George Carlin said about stupid people?
Such is the sad state of the world we live in.
No, she’s got a 100% shot at being president. They are absolutely not going to let Trump win again.
Have you forgotten that they tried to shoot him twice in one month??
FFS…
“Honest to God, does any sentient being think that creature is able to do that?”
Yes. See it. Open mouth…
Next question.
It’s hard to get fired up over this. In another age it would be a big deal, but when it comes to thieves within the regime the dock workers are pikers, after all they do kinda sorta show up for a job unlike most of the rest of the looters.
US non-labor workers are left with “asking nicely” on an individual basis in the face of global competition, offshoring of everything manufacturing, and infinity immigration of both skilled and unskilled labor. How’s that been working out? Reagan, more than anyone in my lifetime, shifted public opinion against unions with his mass firing of air traffic controllers in 1981. This was unquestionably the correct action at the time. (I have some personal family history with this) HOWEVER, he was dealing with a critical infrastructure org that was being choke held by a PUBLIC SECTOR union where it was literally illegal to… Read more »
Reagan did have a couple of “advantages” with the air traffic controllers strike. They signed non-strike provisions (IIR) and Reagan had a reserve of military controllers to fill in the shortfall from the firing. My memory may be faulty.
What I do remember, I had a good friend whose wife was an air traffic controller, was that they ostensibly complained of all sorts of work environment problems, like stress and hours, etc, but basically what kept them out was the *money*. $$$ solves all such problems it seems.
It’s the crabs in the bucket mentality Brother and you can see it here in the comment section already… Instead of being for the worker and wanting what’s best for him and yourself they want to tear him down to their level…That’s why management/government gets away with destroying us because we are so busy fighting amongst each other for scraps…I just don’t get it about our side and why we can’t see the big picture…
I don’t think that’s it. The problem is, always has been, and probably will always be scarcity.
If the dockworkers get paid more, it does not appreciably increase their production. The goods at Walmart got more expensive, so the Americans working other jobs can’t afford their lifestyle. Some drop out, allowing their brothers to raise their wages. Which is passed on in higher prices of the things they do. At best, everything stabilizes at a new, higher level, but with more Americans on the dole.
And who wins? Gov and the financiers, who get their skim on every transaction.
Who causes the scarcity, the same ones who are skimming which doesn’t negate my point of people being the way they are…
True. A 5% vig on $2000 is better than a 5% vig on $1000. That’s why they target to create inflation, and why we are trained from an early age to fear deflation. Lower prices? Heaven forfend!
Our betters are working at cross-purposes.
The thing with private sector unions is they are only good for society if they are widespread. The vast majority of labor is not unionized today. So it kind of creates this special class of workers who are well compensated while the vast majority of their peers are not. With “free trade,” they are always threatened by the company’s ability to offshore all the production.
The thing with public sector unions is there is nobody defending the interests of the people paying the bills. Most of them aren’t even blue collar workers. They always show up at clownworld protests.
So is the solution to have more unions where everyone is lifted up or no unions so we can all be equally miserable while the corporation makes even more money… Talking the private sector here ..
Why the push to do (((their))) work for (((them)))?
Deflation. Try it, you’ll like it.
The problem seems—as you’ve astutely pointed out—we are squabbling among ourselves too often. That coupled with some outrageous union leadership as we’ve seen is no help to the cause of unity.
There was an item I saw a while back about the bus drivers in Japan who went out on strike. They never missed a day of work. They simply drove and picked up riders, but collected no fares from the passengers!
As I said, you want a fight, then just keep letting that longshoreman union head keep talking for your membership.
What if the bus driver didn’t collect the fare would of they still showed up for work…I’m betting not which is the position of the longshoreman since the consumer doesn’t pay him directly…Just a little knowledge for you longshoreman control the head about as well as we control the Presidency…
No, but it’s the mentality of the action and the demonstrated unity with the public that depends upon their service. I’m betting there’s never been a strike in Japan where their chief spokesman threatened the public with ruin if they don’t get their increase. Lineman, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have a low life threatening thug run your union negotiations and have a supportive populace. You want to talk tough, you do so behind closed doors around the negotiating table. You then go out to the news media and plead your case to the public. I once… Read more »
Well, the first part of any solution is to have a real economy. We also need to stop importing millions of people who drive down the wages of our workers. We should probably stop subsidizing low wage workers. (people with full time jobs on food stamps or section 8 or other social welfare). I don’t oppose unions. I generally support them. But at this point, the lack of unions really isn’t the problem. Most of all, we need protective tariffs and other barriers to trade so we have more high value added production. A lineman really cannot have their job… Read more »
“Most of all, we need protective tariffs…”
The problem with protectionism of any flavor is that the industrialists pocket the money at the expense of the people who buy those products.
In theory, I guess you could probably come up with an optimal tariff, but, you are counting on the government to do it? Really?
Anyone who has worked for a corporation know why private sector unions are necessary. Without a union, you are a disposable cog in the corporations wheels.
IMO, big unions are part of the kabuki theater. They get their dues then do a periodic make-believe dance with the management over the contract to show the rubes they’re working for them. It’s all made-up crap to give the plebes a $1 raise while inflation increases another 50%. . .
Unless you hold their feet to the fire…We came out quite well on our last contract…
And that works until everyone else does it. Once you push up the amount of money, you have the “too much money chasing too few goods” problem. Like we saw with Covid Cash.
What you really want is for corporations to invest in more capital equipment, so they create more goods, and, at the margin, push down goods prices.
You are definitely a funny guy thinking corporations would ever lower prices unless it was to drive someone else out of business…Also liking Covid Cash with someone’s labor is laughable as well…Just stop already…
No, only if they had to lower prices because someone offered a lower price on a good they produced. That’s why consolidation must be avoided and/or TR-era trust-busting is an essential element.
Like it or not, Covid Cash (and regulation of evictions) did bid up the price of housing. And, as a result, everything else. What they did not spend on rent went into bidding up the price of other goods.
Just stop already. Or better yet, learn ECON 101.
Being autistic, and also a boomer, is a dangerous combo.
Maybe. Upon what are you basing this? Or is it some half-assed insult?
Every single organization in the US that has been sanctified by the Government is a racket, with its government sponsors and protectors being the biggest racketeers…Just try to start a business that interferes with any of these rackets, and you’ll find out…
Container ports are almost mythical amongst a certain set of people…they are the very symbol of globalization and the curse of liberalism…they say that with every container that’s unloaded, a boomer says “This will make the Chinese Democratic.”
Furthermore, their existence has also ruined skylines and harbor views. If I lived in Miami or New York, I’d be pissed that I pay $8000/mo for a high rise that with “a harbor view” that looks over shipping containers filled with pants from XINGHUA LINGUAN TROUSERS COMPANY LTD.
I love ports. I love giant stevedores in silhouette against the sunset, smokestacks sparkling at nighttime like an elvish city. Behemoth Asian ships sailing off to the other side of the world.
What is modernity for us will one day be a genre for others, like steampunk or goth. People will tour preserved or reconstructed ports of our time centuries hence and go woooaaaah.
Back in the day the private-sector unions were pro-life and traditional in other moral areas. Then they hooked up with the teachers’ unions and other degenerate unions and became just as pro-abort, pro-trans, etc. May they go on strike forever.
They were dominated by the Catholic working class. That class is no longer what it was and neither are the unions.
“Senior members of the ILA make four and five times what the typical American earns.”
It’s more an indication of the poor wages and working conditions of “typical Americans” in the de-industrialised wastelands of the USA. The real loot is commandeered by the vulture capitalists.
AA-
Don’t forget the ridiculous price growth of things that people need, like food and fuel.
In fairness, the typical American is in some fast food type employment since we’ve moved manufacturing overseas.
Or works at Walmart or Target, or takes care of elderly people at some home. Something like that, “Low-value added.”
Well, when you’re run by a transactional people, your economy will eventually become a transactional economy.
Our current rulers have never been a productive people. It’s just not how they think. They look to the financing and merchant side of the economy to make money. Annoying, but not the end of the world as long as the productive people are in change. But those days are long gone.
Individualists on one side, communists on the other- transactional society breeds sociopaths.
China has fully automated its large port at Tianjin, near Beijing. But beyond automation, it is running AI on 5G bases to optimize the automation. The result is that the port can unload or load a large containership in a few hours, a process that takes days at our antiquated ports. Of course, the result is that there are hardly any workers at Tianjin Port. I am old enough to remember the (actual in many case) bloody fight to prevent containerization. That fight was lost, and union membership fell substantially. In general, China’s factories are highly automated, and the automation… Read more »
Still, I’d give my left arm to live in Des Moines rather than Tianjin.
Yes. Because normal people don’t want to live among alien people.
In China, you would not just be an alien but a “foreign devil.”
學會源碼!
“Chinese universities now dominate all engineering disciplines and physical science disciplines both in terms of quantity of high quality publications and patents and in terms of the quality of the education offered.” Yep. I said this a few years ago to the objection of many of the commenters here. Long past, there was any number of our faculty publishing jointly with Chinese associates. I even specifically inquired of one as to how he liked the collaboration and the difficulties in such—distance, language, etc. At that time, he was enthusiastic. Chinese faculty were almost all proficient in written English and many… Read more »
“Chinese faculty were almost all proficient in written English”
But our faculty are proficient in celebrating Pride Month.
Take that, China!
Bob Sykes – appears we are / were in similar business. I am / was a big exporter & now consult with 3 PL’s. You are spot on re: automation. US port productivity is worse than some ports in Africa. Not remotely in the same league as the PRC, or ports like Rotterdam. Daggett (ILA prez) has been itching for this fight for some time. He’s aware of the huge cash inflow’s post Covid supply chain snafus that went to MSC / Maersk / CMA – et al and wants his share (fair or not). Watch some of his videos… Read more »
“What is going on with shipping” YT channel had an interesting take on this today.
If it’s like every other industry, all the strike will truly achieve is to hasten automation.
I would say top off your pantry and preps just in case, because no matter what happens prices won’t come down…
This will make everything more expensive, that’s the only given outcome
Well at least they will have something else to blame it on besides the real cause called inflation…
Always good advice.
At least for those of us who recently realized we weren’t rotating out rice we had sealed in 2004…
I find it ironic / amusing that the same people who complain loudly about the pay of longshoremen never complain about the ever rising profits of the port authorities and shippers.
In my observation, the dock workers are the least of the troubles at the ports. They are not choir boys, for sure, but the other players are as gangster as you get.
what would Eric Hoffer do or think?
Ha ha. Very nice.
Yea funny how that works and I think most do that because of the fighting for scraps mindset that most have instead of fighting those who are dealing out the scraps while they live in style…
The internet letting the masses speak for themselves has confirmed all my prejudices except one. I thought it was bullshit, but it turns out that the average conservative/libertarian really does want to see normal people get ripped off at the store, scammed by the landlord, mistreated by management, impoverished by finance, cheated out of pay, bound by contracts without consideration, chiseled on every transaction, etc. All your “crushed under the boot of capital” type stuff, from the largest in scope to the smallest, is pornography for them, just like the commies said. The left made it up and were right—or… Read more »
“What we learned from the Covid fiasco is that American supply chains are extremely fragile…” That is putting it lightly. The supply chain for products is like a Rube Goldberg machine. Chinese company manufactures, a Filipino guy does graphic design, an Indian woman does customer service, banking in Hong Kong, Becky from the USA has to run to China for quality control and self-actualization, and on and on, ad absurdum. I may be stupid, but it seems like good common sense to, you know, just make things here so as not to be dependent on this easily breakable system. But… Read more »
One of the first things that will happen is conservatives will be told by conservative media to blame the dock workers. I’m wondering if we’re going to see a lot of the GOP establishment types running to the mikes in coming days to bad mouth the union workers. They must know that Trump is getting a lot of “blue collar” support, and trashing the Archie Bunker-types working on the loading docks is a sure way of turning them off the GOP and possibly a way to help throw the election to Kamalatoe. It’s on a par with their regular promises… Read more »
“In a way, the ports are a good model for our ruling class. Everyone involved in the ports is doing well, better than they should expect, but everyone involved in the ports is sure the system is screwing him. That is because the ports exist in isolation from the rest of the economy. It is a world unto itself that only interfaces with the rest of society, rather than operate within the economy. It is how high-earning people on both sides of this strike can think they are the little guy.” Exactly, Union and government/government contractor “workers” who think they’re… Read more »
The military is a tremendously entitled class with salaries and benefits beyond in the officer, career NCO class especially. The worse part of it is their total isolation from the real world. I kind of exempt the boots on the ground grunts, but not wholly. The service academies were captured long ago and even the junior officers are just as pozzed as the worst corporate drones at Google. The ones that aren’t are just holding on for their pensions.
“The service academies were captured long ago and even the junior officers are just as pozzed as the worst corporate drones”
Yep. I’m related to a couple academy ring-knockers. One of them recently went to a drag show with his mother and got up onstage to dance with the fags.
They’ll be voting Harris…
Trying to envision taking my mother to a drag show. It doesn’t compute.
His mother took him…
Interesting article on a slice of Americana I knew absolutely nothing about.
the sadistic glee of conservatives screwing over working class in favor of corporations mirrors the sadistic glee of the managerials screwing over working class in favor of corporations
I’m guessing that someone within the union is extorting concessions- both political and financial, from the Democratic Party and the Regime, as more chaos in the economy obviously hurts Vac-U-Suck and her Party. So what is the angle here? Do the Longshoremen want Trump elected? Or are they simply flexing their power on a desperate Democratic Party to ensure that soon to be President Harris knows not to touch them? Or are they playing both sides at once, which is what I think is likely?
Option #3: The union wants more money to get more union dues in its coffers and doesn’t give a damn who is in office.
Yep. Both major political parties are corporate subsidiaries now, so unions see little advantage to whichever puppet is put into place. Z probably is onto something about “Biden” nicely knifing Harris a little here. There have been 11 presidential elections since the last Longshoremen strike, if I’m counting right, and the NLRB and Commerce and every department averted one happening. When Biden rather than “Biden” is semi-competent, he is a very nasty and petty bastard, and this may be a dementia patient flinging poo by telling everyone who could avert a strike to stand down and let the clean and… Read more »
Admittedly, my knowledge of ports is limited to my 20 year old recollection of Season 2 of “The Wire”, but it does seem like the union is leveraging the administration, or at least Harris. There will probably be real pain by Election Day if this doesn’t get solved.
For all his faults (or perhaps because of them) Trump is beloved of the gods.
The biggest impact of the port strike (particularly if it lasts for several weeks) will be felt in China. Their economy is still tethered to US consumerism and that cash flow will grind to a halt and force slowdowns in their manufacturing sector. That does not bode well for debt service payments and looming bankruptcies that may ensure. Ditto for German industries that also rely on US markets and are barely holding on by a shoestring. Could the port strike by the first domino to fall? Inquiring minds want to know.
My impression wrt Germany is that they have been, themselves, offshoring their jobs and production. Less out of greed like us, but more out of desperation due to government policy. Of course nothing helps if there’s no one with money to buy.
Yes, but we also offshored because of government policies.
Unless you are in a low margin business like grocery stores or commodities, labor costs are trivial. The high cost is in compliance and whenever you have to fire someone with or without cause. That’s what bankrupts you.
I want to know if this is a cannon shot in Michael Yon’s PanFaWar- pandemic famine warfare- in line with all the combustible food processors, fertilizer plants, fuel refineries, biolabs (Conyers GA), East Palestine, etc.
That is, a manufactured supply crisis, a rationale for rationing programs.
Mom remembered ration cards, maybe we’ll see them too.
West Coast ports are still open.
Yes, but they are a fraction of the East Coast and Gulf, and cannot offset the difference. China will still lose more than half of its market due to the strike. Their economy is more tenuous than most realize. This is still a huge shock for them. For example, more that 2/3rds of all Walmarts are served via the Eastern and Southern port system.
Indeed. The geology of the West coast is just terrible for ports in general. Lots of hills and mountains rising right out of the sea and deep water just offshore. The East coast has nice flat coastal plains, shallow bays, and easily dredged harbors.
I’m on vacation in a month and look forward yearround to fall in my neck of the woods, so I’m hoping that people don’t get stupid and begin mobbing grocery stores and gas stations, but given how quickly we caved on Covid, I’m not holding my breath.
True. Ameritards are a hysterical people. And a herd that’s been spooked is a dangerous thing.
Reminds me of the 2nd season of the wire.
I may someday go back and watch the first few seasons. I think I watched it first before I was a dissident and it contained one of those phrases that threw my political beliefs off:
we use to build things here
of course just having read a bio of TJ, I was thrown off again as he wanted all manufacturing to be done in Europe. So I guess Jefferson would approve of the current American economic set up, hehe
Just re-watched the entire series after watching season 1 on a long plane ride. I was surprised that it holds up well and is still entertaining and suspenseful. Obviously, the pagers and pay phones serve to make it a period piece, but the essentials of Charm City (Balmer) haven’t changed much.
TJ dreamt of a world where Americans were all yeoman farmers and their tools were all MADE IN PRUSSIA
Man was smart, but no man knows everything. All the more reason why you should never worship anyone. Otherwise you end up like the current day left, all they do is worship unworthy people.
Over 60 million employees in the US cannot even access the court system. They are forced to sign arbitration agreements!
All this arbitration crap needs to be outlawed by Congress. The House passed something called The Fair Act which outlawed both consumer and employment arbitration clauses back in 2019, but I guess it died in the Senate.
WHY are we forced to fund the courts if we aren’t allowed to use them?
Because the people with money don’t want you to use the courts to sue them….
(But we knew that already.)
“They are forced to sign arbitration agreements!”
In exactly the same sense that they were “forced” to take the clot shot.
To any downvotes, where is the flaw in the logic.
I didn’t downvote you, but the flaw in the logic is libertarian lalal land. Someone who has been job searching for 6 months with a couple of kids and the desire to feed, house and clothe them are indeed forced through economic circumstance to do it. With so many employers doing it now, choices are limited. Let me point out another evil in this system… Some 9 year old agreed to uber-eats TOS. The parents years after the fact got severely injured in an uber in NJ. The NJ supreme court just held up that this couple cannot sue for… Read more »
Honestly, I expected downvotes.
I get that choices are sometimes difficult. I’m not going to claim I went 6 months, because I’d too driven to wait that long for anyone. That’s why I’m on record here multiple times suggesting people get a side hustle or full on business going. So that you are not compelled to do what some hysterical moron says.
Courts, maybe. I avoid them as much as possible. Cost/benefit in the best of cases is crap.
Boo. Hiss. Down with side hustles!
When i was a young guy i was a causual for a couple years, becoming a B-man was probably at least five years then, i didn’t have the patients. I watched several connected guys pass. friends & family It’ll never change even as it shrinks. I guy i knew became the west coast union president just in time for that strike. Lot of the gravy dried up for the new guys when that contract was done. I was rooting for the unions, But now that white men are last even there… ya can’t hold back progress, ports will be automated… Read more »
I think this is the real agenda behind the AI craze. The business heads are convinced that it will allow them to hire a skeleton workforce of multi-hued goofballs and wammen to “meet our DEI goals” while firing the White guys and replacing almost all the important roles with AI.
True. If a person is replaceable by an algorithm at a fraction of the price, why not? Would you spend more for a loaf of bread because someone pushed a button at the right time rather than an AI doing it?
Turns out most people won’t.
A lot of the people who will fall victim to AI are not exactly replaceable though. This is just the latest episode of a very unfunny sitcom the ruling class has been making for us for decades. Each episode begins and ends the same. They start with something (good or service) that was high quality and made in the US. Around the time of that first commercial break they find some idiot foreigners in Shitlandistan who can kinda sorta do the thing in a half or 3/8 assed way. The results suck but they’re cheaper to the consumer and most… Read more »
Fair.
If so, it creates an opportunity for you (or any greedy capitalist) to hire these people back into these irreplaceable roles. Just as you can hire those people who were allegedly displaced by Haitians.
Honestly, I don’t know whether people were displaced by Haitians. But if they were, wouldn’t a company who hired those displaced workers be at a competitive advantage?
There are strange things happening down at the Circle K. Someone from the Harris campaign should have pushed in a “fix” to push this down the road. That they did not either says they have the election in the bag via fraud, or are so down in the polls why bother? Biden certainly let this happen, or rather his people, and they are not looking for new jobs either which is weird, one way or another they would be replaced by either Trump or Harris. There are a ton of articles from the NY media, the Times, New Yorker, New… Read more »
WW3 to ensure continued Uniparty rule.
Can’t change horses in the middle of the stream, you know!
Fun fact: the first union was organized by Karl Marx in Germany for the Munich longshoremen.
Reading these comments just has me shaking my head I haven’t seen one talking about the 400billion in record profits that the shipping companies have made from 2020 to 2023…No all we can do is bash the working guy while the people that hate us laugh at our squabbling…Sad it really is and you guys don’t have to wonder any longer why they treat us the way they do because it’s right here in front of you…
This is crazy, I agree! If there is that kind of profit, how could capitalists not be seeking to get a cut of that?
Of course, the answer is after the government’s take their vig, there’s not enough left over to make it worth the risk.
Again, this sucks! When there is not enough profit after the gov’t steals their cut to give even the Mafia cause to muscle in on the game, the gov’t has gone too far.
Is there a reason why replacing the federal income tax with a federal sales tax wouldn’t be a fantastic idea? Serious question. As always, I’m dumb about this stuff, but wouldn’t it encourage people to be industrious and frugal instead of lazy and consumerist? Wouldn’t everybody pay their fair share, even have a say in what their share is? Wouldn’t it be more moral than telling people to work and punishing them for working? Wouldn’t it be more in line with the federal government’s commission to regulate trade? Wrt to the topic, wouldn’t it ultimately tilt incentives in the direction… Read more »
I agree Brother Tariffs and a Sales Tax only on manufactured goods would be my way of funding states and the federal government which would be more than enough and probably even have a surplus because I would cut at least 75% of existing government if not more and do away with the federal reserve… Thing of it is we don’t have the power to do so and because of our individualistic nature/all that entails probably never will…Sad That…
We’ve seen this movie. Every new tax is supposed to replace one or more existing taxes, but they never do, and we end up paying yet another tax.
I get it, but I’m saying replace it. Just throwing it out there. It amazes me what people will put up with, the lack of political will, like being strangled is inevitable.
It would be awesome if it were possible. Better yet would be no tax, but subscriber fees.
Maybe I’m just too cynical, but I doubt TPTB would give up this source of “revenue” without heavy use of woodchippers.
Once they repeal the 16th, let me know. Until that, I want no new taxes.
At some point, probably after some disaster, people will have the political will to rethink things.
No, this would be evil. A consumption tax sounds good in theory, but the average person is spending most of their money and so are paying the highest tax as a percentage of their income. We don’t all benefit equally from the government either. The wealthy are the ones tying up the courts, they are the ones getting government money (think Musk). Farm aid is government cheese for John Deere. Ideologies like free trade have decimated the US economy. You can lie about statistics, but you cannot lie about tax receipts. I do support tariffs, so long as they are… Read more »
The major problem, IMO, is that .GOV always rides in to destroy anything America does. America could and would have started producing the Willys Jeep, using plans from WWII, and probably tens of millions would have been sold in the very first year, but regulators would not permit it on the roads.
Just look at the hassle that they put kids through for opening a friggin’ lemonade stand! They are bound and determined to destroy everything, everything, that made America great.
Tariffs and Sales Tax only Manufactured Goods instead of an income tax would be the fairest across the board for everyone… Income tax is way more evil than that by far…
Depends on how you look at it. Income tax discourages capital accumulation.
Sales and use taxes have the effect of encouraging savings, i.e., capital accumulation. So while “regressive”, if you care at all for the future generations, the sales and use taxes are better than an income tax.
I should add, the upsides of sales and use taxes are only realized to the extent you disavow death taxes. If one wants to tax inheritance, particularly at the exorbitant rates in the modern US, the incentive is to destroy any savings one has, c.f., the caricature of Boomers spending everything before they die.
Exactly. More savings, lower COL. Save more, prices go down. Spend more, up. Take out a loan, through the roof!
This is basically it. Consumption taxes end up placing the greatest tax burden on the poorest people. It actually ends up being the reverse of the income tax, which at least takes more from those who have more and are thus less hurt by it. Also, you could never fund a bloated government like ours this way without having something ridiculous like a 250% sales tax. Sure, the government is too big, etc… The time to fix our tax system and pare down the federal government was 50 years ago though. Just preventing nuclear war and civil war is going… Read more »
“ It actually ends up being the reverse of the income tax, which at least takes more from those who have more and are thus less hurt by it.”
Nonsense! The income tax takes from those who want to become those who have more.
The feds take more of my paycheck than I’m liable to pay in sales tax, and I don’t get most of it back. And I’m not rich.
Oh, I believe you. The idea I was criticizing was that we can fund our current bloated government with consumption taxes and get rid of income tax. The only way to do this would be to raise consumption taxes through the roof.
That’s true. It would represent a reorganization of society, but we’re in sore need of one.
It wasn’t always this way, won’t always be this way. I’d just like to be alive to see it.
I think taxing labor is worse. SCOTUS once ruled taxing labor is tantamount to slavery iirc. Can you imagine?
Just heard the International Sisterhood of Switchboard Operators are striking tomorrow over wages and the threat of automation.
Damn! Is America great or what!!
Toughest batards I have ever met were longshoremen
I am rooting for them
Batards, eh? Must’ve been longshoremen in Marseilles.
Me too Brother we get along well with them and honor their picket lines as they do ours…
Increased costs at the ports are a de facto tariff, so I suppose I hope the strikers win out. I support maximum possible autarchy for all nations. Cross-border arbitrage seems to be just a tool to set all the world’s working people in competition for the basic necessities of life. This is not as evil as bringing in outsiders, of course, but in my view it’s a sign of ingratitude. In the West, the nuveauriche imagine that all their success is due to their own virtue or cleverness and are blind to the cozy environment created by their people and… Read more »
This story keeps getting more interesting: https://x.com/mualphaxi/status/1841148551646286258?s=61&t=ohRJ2n2YBjmzXRfy77rnPQ
The one incontrovertible fact I’ve learned about labor unions over the years: It’s better to run one than to be a member of one
If anyone has not heard sound bites from this guy, stop and listen. He brings back memories (bad) from the 70’s. He not only threatened the USA with shutdown, he challenge the Fed’s to call a 90 day return to work cool-down period! He said as near as I can remember, “…so call a 90 day return. You think our members are going to go back to the job and work like they used to?” In short, he threatened an illegal “slow down”! I now remember why I had no use for Unions when younger. I respect Lineman, but can’t… Read more »
I hear ya Brother but can you accept thuggery from management because they do it just as bad just not out in the open like that…I would run a company where I didn’t need a union because I would treat them so well they would think they were all management but that isn’t the case for most companies especially corporations…
“I would run a company where I didn’t need a union because I would treat them so well they would think they were all management…”
That is an option. Why don’t you do that?
OK, never mind putting your money where your mouth is. So long as you talk a good talk, you don’t need to worry about the outcome.
As He said, “Pay no attention to their fruits; by their professions shalt thee know them.”
Paying the Bridge Troll Automation and the Port Strike https://semperdoctrina.substack.com/p/paying-the-bridge-troll “In the old Norwegian tale, “Three Billy Goats Gruff” (De tre bukkene Bruse), three male goats need to outsmart a ravenous troll to cross the bridge to their feeding ground.” “Those salad spinners have to come over a bridge – – THE PORT SYSTEM. There are three bridge trolls – – THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THE MONOPOLIST LABOR, AND THE MONOPSONIST PORT OWNERS. The three trolls are merely fighting over who gets what share of the toll!” “I meditated on this a bit, as well: If the three trolls have a… Read more »
Here is a link that is relevant not only to yesterday’s Civil War musings, but to today’s working class issue and managerial class antipathy. We learn to repeat the lessons from our forebears.
https://identitydixie.com/2024/07/12/southern-support-the-british-working-class/
Two portions caught my eye;
“any support in Europe for the Confederate Cause.”
“…in particular, the Lancashire cotton workers…”
“Leftists that took part in the socialist and communist revolts in Europe in 1848-49 flocked to this country from 1849 through the 1850s as they were run out of their own countries as well as other European countries that did not want left-wing revolutionaries on their soil.
Many of these joined the Union army, thousands of them, in fact.”
~ from the book, Lincoln’s Marxists
sorry, just have to add- this 84 year-old’s substack looks amazing for both Civil War and roots of Yankee communism/civil rights fans
(link: click author Al Benson’s name at Identity Dixie)
I’d do what Coolidge did with the Boston Police. I’d fire them, bring in the National Guard (to do something at home – not abroad), and then train new workers with a new contract that guarantees their employment against automation. If former union members want to sign back up – fine, but I’d make rules that limit their ability to reorganize. I would not allow them to shut down the economy for an outlandish a 75% raise over five years. Who gets a raise like that that? It’s nothing other than pure extortion on the backs of the taxpayers. Under… Read more »
You could of condensed that and just said I hate the working man…
Alternatively, one could interpret it as “I hate the parasites feeding off the backs of the working man.”
Really firing the working guy and bringing in subsidized labor is getting rid of the parasites I’m just not seeing that but you do you Steve…
What? Where did that come up?
The closest I know was when I said how hard it was to hire a white boy who would pass a drug test, which is the case whether or not you like it.
Tell me, @lineman, are there any non-whites in your brotherhood?
If so, what does “brotherhood” mean? What was the point?
It’s like watching Sean Hannity in this comment section.
Honestly, that’s an insult to Sean Hannity. Steve’s performance in this thread has been a tour de force of boomercon-libertarian retardation.
“Tariffs bad!”
“White workers are drug addicts!”
“Get a few side hustles in case you lose your job!”
“Corporations only outsource because government regulations force them to!”
I’m half convinced it’s an ingenious parody. David French is scarcely this shameless.
Not taking sides here, but what is 75% over 5 years? First, the general agreement from economists I’ve followed is that since Biden got in office, we’ve had a 20% increase in inflation. So immediately, I’m thinking they are asking for an increase (over depreciated base) of 55% over 5 years. Second, inflation is not yet solved and there is reason to think we’ll get hit with another bout after elections. Certainly, the government has not even approached addressing our deficit spending. If we hit 9% levels for 5 years, that’s about break even salary-wise. Also to note, one always… Read more »