US is so inept — that it cannot even unload cargo ships in a timely way

© 2021 Peter Free

 

11 October 2021

 

 

American crumbling is everywhere

 

But US leadership chooses to ignore it:

 

 

While some politicians are quick to blame the global system of trade for the ongoing supply chain issues America is experiencing, it's clear that many of the bottlenecks are domestic issues.

 

For example, major ports in Europe and Asia operate around the clock, but American ports run at about 60 percent capacity because they close at night and on Sundays.

 

Even when dozens of ships are waiting to be unloaded, inflexible union rules that govern dockworkers' and truckers' hours make it difficult to meet swelling demand.

 

© 2021 Eric Boehm, With Ports Clogged, Some Retailers Are Looking for Alternative Supply Chains, Reason (11 October 2021)

 

 

One can safely assume that. . .

 

A nation that cannot even unload the cargo ships that are clogging its ports (and their adjacent waters) just might have trouble competing effectively with nations that can.

 

One might even assume that the nation's gargantuan Security State apparatus would be concerned about this bottleneck's implications for weakening our economic preparedness.

 

Yet not a peep about this from American leadership or the Deep State's reliably propagandizing punditry.

 

 

Notice (for emphasis) that

 

Reason's above-cited article casually credits the capitalistic profit motive with ability to sort these delays out. Reason's story complacently closes by marveling at how well global trade works.

 

Overlooked, is the key idea that economic stability and resilience would both be better-anchored, if just-in-time sourcing were significantly relaxed — so as to favor stouter stockpiling and preparedness. The current computer chip shortage is a good example of why that would make sense.

 

Yet still, even in the face of this obviousness, we hear not a word from Reason, or the Biden administration.

 

Evidently, detecting obviousness is not something the United States is good at, either.

 

 

The moral? — In-denial dopes eventually get themselves eaten by hardworking wolves

 

Darwinian species-shaping at work.