Once again the current problems grinding the economy to a halt is the legacy of decades of cheapskate policies by various businesses to cut costs and maximize profits. The plague has killed 700,000 people primarily in the food service and retail sectors, businesses of all stripes for decades have been keeping labor costs low by running skeleton crews on all shifts, businesses of all stripes have been keeping circulation costs low by keeping scant inventory on hand that relies entirely upon being restocked on time by logistics, businesses of all stripes have been keeping labor costs low by paying workers dogshit wages (especially jobs with awful conditions like TRUCKERS). The logistics system of the world has since at least the 90s relied upon shipping goods and raw materials all over the world to be manufactured overseas but sold and consumed here, and is incredibly fragile to the point that minor disruptions to any one of these factors anywhere in the world can lead to major disruptions down the chain. Usually these disruptions are temporary and pass on, but again there is still a fucking PLAGUE rampaging through the world and it is affecting ALL of these factors EVERYWHERE. This in turn is causing severe disruptions to the entire world logistics chain and thus chronic shortages and delays.
and also it's significantly more than 700k. easily somewhere over a million now
One major factor is that Just In Time Manufacturing principles are now applied to every single industry, to companies large and small. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAUXHJBB5CM
legacy of decades of cheapskate policies by various businesses to cut costs and maximize profits.
You can just say innovation
The shortages aren’t a result of union activity and clean air requirements. That’s just something a conservative would say: “Any time something goes wrong, we need to slash wages and do more deregulation!”
It's partially true though (but it's 5 percent of the story spun up into a Fox News talking point of course):
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The ILWU is a strong union. They aren't going to allow themselves to be run over by management when there is a crisis like this. We can see in other industries that don't have as entrenched of unions that management is loosening application requirements and training in order to fill their staff shortages with unqualified people. The ILWU has fought hard to protect their jobs handling cargo, which naturally involves using a lot of heavy equipment and carries a high amount of liability for both the cargo and the safety of their coworkers. They should not need to compromise from management's poor planning. Many companies did a slap-dash job at the beginning of COVID and sent everyone home, reduced the amount of training and hiring they were doing, and expected this to blow over in 5 months cause they're dipshits. Now they are paying the consequence, and blaming the union is just going chud-mode.
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China has had some rolling blackouts due to the high price of coal in their country. They have regulated and taxed it to shit as part of their effort to reduce its prevalence and fight climate change. This is what an actual fight against climate change looks like and that's a good thing. There will need to be a reduction in product availability for awhile until things rebalance around renewables and other power sources. The PRC has recently rolled back some of the regulation on coal production because things went a bit far and their production took a bigger hit than they wanted due to the blackouts.
This isn't a "you gotta hand it to them" post or anything. We shouldn't "engage in a healthy debate" with the propaganda machine, but we do need to see what it's saying and why. Dismissing it out of hand as just Fox News bs (even though it is) is to disregard a facet of the issue, albeit a small one, and sentence oneself to an incomplete understanding. Looking into other aspects, the running theme that ties it all together is poor and/or a lack of planning ahead.
This includes the overall Covid response by the US and other countries vs. the PRC and those countries who coordinated their response and had things knocked out in a few months of lockdowns. Now it's been 18 months and you've had to bury 700k plus dead, you have tense conditions leading to civil unrest, a vocal minority is exacerbating a culture war based on the tiny modicum of a response you did have, and the alienation (both literal/physical and mental) of many of your laborers is increasing. The best way to get out of any crisis (including this economic one) is with a centrally directed response, but we know that the US (in particular) does not have the tools to do this. They're saying that this could drag on through 2023, but even that is kinda optimistic considering finance capital has been over inflated for a decade before Covid was even a thing.
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All three of the things you posted have been all over the mainstream "smart person" media, and they are somewhat legit, but misinterpreted. The first one is doesn't "ban" owner-operators, but rather it bans people who lease trucks from being classed as independent contractors instead of employees.
Basically you have to actually own the truck to be an "owner", you can't sign some predatory lease and be an "independent contractor" with a company that you then basically bid jobs from. Edit: To clarify, in some cases the truck owner sometimes also "leases" their truck to the company, which is basically like doing Uber.
The other 2 are simply environmental laws being enforced. Truck companies are whining about it because California has the geographical monopoly and can throw weight around. They've had a long time to prepare, they're just cheap, stupid, entitled and lazy like all businesses.
The first one is doesn’t “ban” owner-operators, but rather it bans people who lease trucks from being classed as independent contractors instead of employees.
Would this have been a legacy of prop 22? If so, I almost can't believe how cynical the rulers are. They get their Christmas wishlist satisfied with the passing of prop 22, then go around and blame prop 22 for the supply chain damage -- fucking unbelievable.
No, it's from AB5 which is a California house bill that's actually what inspired Prop 22 in the first place (Prop 22 exempts gig workers from AB5, trucking companies don't get an exception which is what's making people freak out).
Drayage is the oldest scam in the book. Literally renting work and paying to make someone money.
Anyone displaced from dreyage work should absolutely try to join the union and get real work with benefits.
I haven’t researched these specific things but there are supply chain shortages all over the world. To lay the blame at the feet of workers for wanting better condition / pay (which they achieve through licensing) doesn’t satisfy me.
Even if they cut trucker’s pay and allowed anyone to truck, I bet there would still be shortages and the capitalists would say something like “This is because nurses are getting paid too much!”
It is a good thing. No one is banning owner operators. California is banning an exploitive model that's very common in trucking where "owners" actually lease their trucks under frequently predatory terms, and then they bid jobs from the truck companies instead of being an employee paid for their routes.
The trucking companies are Big Mad because California has such a natural monopoly based on geography, and now their scam is being busted.
Red states play chicken with abortion rights, well guess what, those big blue states are gonna fuck up Derwin Pride's shitheel scam leasing 18-wheelers at buy-here-pay-here rates.
This is simply not how the vast majority of goods are moved on roads. You are doing reddit debatebro shit right now.
Not that an F-150 Lightning is a 3/4 ton truck anyway, your entire logic chain is busted here.
:blob-stop: :top-cop:
The thing about them not buying trucks at the moment might be real though but not for the reasons they give. A shortage of microchips means significantly longer delivery times than usual on automobiles.
The liberal is never more than one inconvenience away from abandoning any of their social causes / ideological commitments.
10 Degrees to the left of center, 10 Degrees to the right if it affects them personally
I'm honestly pretty confused by all the articles I haven't seen any shortages of stuff I buy. The factory I work for gets a lot of materials from India and they slowed down a bit when India got rocked by covid. I'd describe it more as a slow down than a shortage. You kinda just allow an extra week or two because everyone's dealing with covid shit
Edit: I'll add I had a co worker tell me they can't unload ships because California environmental regulations won't let them use trucks so... Definitely something going around facebooj
Right now it's a massive effort to crush any solidarity the American public might have with the workers striking for a living wage with a nice little anti-regulation bow tied on top.
The real cause of the shortages are poor management of industrial stockpiles by businesses running JIT and poor management and regulation on COVID response. They're gonna keep blaming unions and try to get congress to pass some bill that allows them to temporarily turn their workers into slaves and burn as much cheap bunker oil as they can to solve the crisis, which will do nothing but exacerbate the issue.
It’s caused by a huge die off among the working class + a capital strike as the bourgeoisie desperately holds out on raising wages.
Labour isn’t responsible, clean air isn’t responsible. That’s :LIB: cope.
We really need a Lucille Bluth emoji. "You want your treats? Too bad, I'm withholding it. Look at me getting off."
