Every American is poorer because of longshoremen's position The worst is not the $1½-5 Billion per day the strike would cost the US economy The worst is not their outsized salaries
It's not even the known ties they have with organized crime, or their extraction of rents for work they never did
The worst part is that they increase transportation costs, which destroys the wealth of every American, making us way poorer As this tweet explains, longshoremen get hefty fees every time they touch a container. As a result, shipping avoids "touches" https://t.co/hE3K03NPjh
The ILA refusing automation isn’t even the craziest demand.
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) October 1, 2024
The craziest ILA demand is *touch* fees
Let me explain…
You’ve heard about our crumbling highways and bridges? And the $1.2 TRILLION infrastructure bill Congress passed to fix them? Well, the primary culprit for that… https://t.co/P9n95vhlsS
But road transportation is waaay more expensive than water transportation—up to 10x more These increases in transportation costs seem like not a big deal, but the impact is massive
Because here's the key: doubling transportation costs can reduce wealth by 90%: • If you 2x transportation costs, you divide by 4x your potential markets • But network effects grow with the square of nodes. 4^2=16 Doubling transportation costs can reduce trade potential by 16x!
A 16x reduction is a 94% reduction in wealth Of course, the full 16x is not achieved in reality, and also now transportation costs are low enough that they aren't an obstacle to all types of trade
But the impact on trade is massive, and hidden: You don't know how much trade never happened because transportation costs were too high!
So you should be irate when you hear that the productivity of "Other transportation and support activities"—which includes marine cargo handling—has declined by 29% (source: https://t.co/1y56oXKoDO)
We need to destroy longshoremen jobs through automation.
— Eli Dourado (@elidourado) October 1, 2024
Yes, it is hard on people when their jobs are destroyed. Reallocating labor in the economy is not automatic.
But these problems are compounded when we do not put productivity first.
According to the BLS, over the 35… pic.twitter.com/EYCzBOK890
The most outrageous part is not the rent-seeking behavior of asking for a 77% increase in salaries—an ask they can only do because they have a monopoly https://t.co/exvCUYFws7
"I will cripple you, and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does."
— Brother Mikey (@BrotherMikeyX) September 30, 2024
Harold Dagget, Chief Negotiator for the International Longshoremen Association, threatens to cripple the US economy with IMMINENT port strike.
In a recent interview, Harold explains the impact of what will… pic.twitter.com/ImySIQrXoy
The worst part is that they're blocking automation. Every industry automates to make everything cheaper and get more business. But when you have a monopoly, you don't care. You abuse it.
The worst part is they should be looking forward to it, because, as they say, the work is back-breaking!
The worst part is that it would be better for longshoremen over the long term! More productivity➡️Cheaper service➡️More business!
It should be a national mandate to allow port automation
More like this here: https://t.co/n0PKg7iy0p