The Real Reason LA port is backed up

[Supervstech]

Everybody…

This is not the forum to regurgitate political views… there are plenty of sites for that.

Political posts ALWAYS anger members… threads blow up, and members leave.

Keep the thread about the topic, or the thread gets closed.

 

[MurphyGuy]

I agree with what you said, I see it myself everyday.
The only problem is that there is still a fairly high percentage of people who really do not have anything at all.
Lots of people who were once hard working employees in the Auto industry or working steel mills and coal mines have now found themselves surviving on scraps.

Back a few years ago, I think around 2012, General Motors was talking about closing a plant or something in our local area.. I forget the details and they aren't important.. The local news media did what they always do, reported on the story, told of the potential suffering and economic loss, etc.

They interviewed one of the people who worked at the plant, some fat lady.. and her statements absolutely stunned me.. "I've been working here for 23 years and I'm going to loose my job and my house and I'll be homeless"

I couldn't believe it, until I thought about it..

23 years with an over paid luxurious union wage with all the benefits and she didn't save a dime. Why do people behave this way? Because our society has shifted from using honor, integrity, and accomplishment as our measuring stick of esteem, to possessions, appearance, and flashy crap.

 

[A.Justice]

I guess I'm not the only .win user on here! ?

 

[robby]

Back a few years ago, I think around 2012, General Motors was talking about closing a plant or something in our local area.. I forget the details and they aren't important.. The local news media did what they always do, reported on the story, told of the potential suffering and economic loss, etc.

They interviewed one of the people who worked at the plant, some fat lady.. and her statements absolutely stunned me.. "I've been working here for 23 years and I'm going to loose my job and my house and I'll be homeless"

I couldn't believe it, until I thought about it..

23 years with an over paid luxurious union wage with all the benefits and she didn't save a dime. Why do people behave this way? Because our society has shifted from using honor, integrity, and accomplishment as our measuring stick of esteem, to possessions, appearance, and flashy crap.

This has nothing to do with Politics, but our society has morphed into one where people live only for today and therefore possessions are more important than savings. It's not just with older people working in Jobs for a long time, it's something that companies indoctrinate into us while we are kids.
We even have a deluxe package for people who come here with Green Cards. You get a Job then you can get a credit card. Soon afterwards your credit rating becomes fairly high and suddenly you can get a Car and soon afterwards a house. Foreigners know it as The American Debt Trap.
You come in and get everything you need, but you spend the rest of your life paying it off.

 

[MurphyGuy]

This has nothing to do with Politics, but our society has morphed into one where people live only for today and therefore possessions are more important than savings. It's not just with older people working in Jobs for a long time, it's something that companies indoctrinate into us while we are kids.
We even have a deluxe package for people who come here with Green Cards. You get a Job then you can get a credit card. Soon afterwards your credit rating becomes fairly high and suddenly you can get a Car and soon afterwards a house. Foreigners know it as The American Debt Trap.
You come in and get everything you need, but you spend the rest of your life paying it off.

I charge almost every single expense I have every month to my credit card.. and then I pay if off in-full every month. It costs me nothing (zero) in interest rates because I pay it off each month, it provides me with some purchase protection, and at the end of every year around Christmas time, I cash in a boat load of "Purchase points" I get from buying stuff.. These purchase points add up big time and I trade them in for gift cards to big box stores like Home Depot.
I usually end up with about $1500 to $2000 worth of shopping spree.... That is free money! Whohoo! And because of it, I think I own every tool known to mankind...

Now if I could only get Home Depot to sell the large format lithium ion batteries.. and firearms.. I wish they sold firearms...

 

[Mia]

Its kind of funny how the Government tells you a different reason every week. The first one I heard was that there was a high demand for goods and the manufactures where struggling to keep up with demand. This made no sense as why would there be ships waiting to unload if this was true?
It would be the opposite, there would be no ships at the ports and the docks would be fairly empty!

The second reason was that there was a record surge for stores to restock after buying very little during the Pandemic. This sounded a bit more reasonable but after a two month or three you have to wonder why it would take this long.

Then I heard some theories about the Panama Canal blockage had cause a domino type backup with ships. That lost credibility as the weeks passed.

The third and most current reason is that the ports are short staffed and they need to stay open longer to deal with the piled up cargo.

Now I have worked abroad and happened to see this same thing happen to our company when the Government of the Country we had our facility at introduced a bunch of Tariffs on Certain Items. Items that had once came through the ports with almost zero paper work now needed to have paper work from a broker and all the cargo had to be inspected by a customs agent. Now I don't know how Customs in America works when it comes to containers but Trump did introduce a Tariff on goods from China. I would assume that someone has to do an entry for every container from China and then pay the Tariff and the container would need to be inspected. That would require a lot more trained man power than what they used before the Tariffs came into effect.

And your point being, what exactly, as all of those can be occurring as well as true…

 

[Ampster]

And your point being, what exactly, as all of those can be occurring as well as true…

My take on it is that there is no single reason but a confluence of a number of factors.

 

[time2roll]

There is no shortage of trucks if the drivers are waiting over an hour to be loaded.
Never read a report that the crane operators are waiting an hour for a truck to show

 

[Supervstech]

I charge almost every single expense I have every month to my credit card.. and then I pay if off in-full every month. It costs me nothing (zero) in interest rates because I pay it off each month, it provides me with some purchase protection, and at the end of every year around Christmas time, I cash in a boat load of "Purchase points" I get from buying stuff.. These purchase points add up big time and I trade them in for gift cards to big box stores like Home Depot.
I usually end up with about $1500 to $2000 worth of shopping spree.... That is free money! Whohoo! And because of it, I think I own every tool known to mankind...

Now if I could only get Home Depot to sell the large format lithium ion batteries.. and firearms.. I wish they sold firearms...

Windy nation solar panels are sold through home depot.
There may be a lithium source there as well...

 

[grizzzman]

And I’m tired of certain types with an agenda making implied or overt statements that the current administration is somehow at fault for a worldwide supply chain disruption and national transportation crisis.
Newsflash… there were months long delays for many products (as well as product shortages caused by hoarders) for most of 2020. And it’s still going.
Some retired, some died, and many workers changed occupations during the last 18mos or so of a worldwide pandemic.
The economy came roaring back and some parts of the supply chain are not up to the task.
It’s really not difficult to understand at all if one turns off fox news and other rw shadethrowers and just think…

I suggest you research "The Great Reset"

 

[MurphyGuy]

Windy nation solar panels are sold through home depot.
There may be a lithium source there as well...

Anything they don't physically stock in the store is generally way over priced..

I'm good on solar power.. wish I had more Chevy BOLT cells to work with..

 

[Hedges]

They interviewed one of the people who worked at the plant, some fat lady.. and her statements absolutely stunned me.. "I've been working here for 23 years and I'm going to loose my job and my house and I'll be homeless"

23 years after buying a house, the PITI is ridiculously low compared to rent. (So long as you haven't used it as your piggy bank.)
The cost now for my nearly one acre on the hill is what you would pay to rent a 1 bedroom apartment.

We even have a deluxe package for people who come here with Green Cards. You get a Job then you can get a credit card. Soon afterwards your credit rating becomes fairly high and suddenly you can get a Car and soon afterwards a house. Foreigners know it as The American Debt Trap.
You come in and get everything you need, but you spend the rest of your life paying it off.

A friend and co-worker, after he swam across the Rio Grande, bought a supercharged Mustang for $15k. Dealer hooked him up with financing at 15%.
So I gave him a tip - apply for a credit card and tell them you want to transfer the balance.
They gave him an $8k limit and zero interest promotion for about a year. He quickly paid off the car loan and then the credit card balance.
Credit established.

I applied for one of those 6-figure credit card offers. They didn't grant the full amount requested, but it was 2/3 of my salary.
I used a balance transfer to pay off the mortgage on our rental condo, allowing us to sell and carry the loan for a buyer.
We threw all our spare income at paying that off, ended up with zero debt.

It does help to be able to do math.

 

[MurphyGuy]

23 years after buying a house, the PITI is ridiculously low compared to rent. (So long as you haven't used it as your piggy bank.)
The cost now for my nearly one acre on the hill is what you would pay to rent a 1 bedroom apartment.



A friend and co-worker, after he swam across the Rio Grande, bought a supercharged Mustang for $15k. Dealer hooked him up with financing at 15%.
So I gave him a tip - apply for a credit card and tell them you want to transfer the balance.
They gave him an $8k limit and zero interest promotion for about a year. He quickly paid off the car loan and then the credit card balance.
Credit established.

I applied for one of those 6-figure credit card offers. They didn't grant the full amount requested, but it was 2/3 of my salary.
I used a balance transfer to pay off the mortgage on our rental condo, allowing us to sell and carry the loan for a buyer.
We threw all our spare income at paying that off, ended up with zero debt.

It does help to be able to do math.

Most American's aren't even capable of balancing their own checkbook..

A 40(?) something cashier at Home Depot got upset with me because I interrupted her counting the spray paint cans in a case of paint. 6 down, 4 across.. and she started from one corner.. 1.. 2... 3..4..5..6..7.. when I started paying attention, I said "24".. to which she responded "I have to count them".. I said 6 x 4.. and she just looked at me with frustration.. then went back to counting them..

The 80 year old guy who was next in line was looking down and shaking his head..

I bet in 10 more years, the cash registers won't even bother telling the cashier how much change to hand over.. It will just be a graphic "Take 2 coins from this one" "Take 1 coin from this one"

 

[robby]

Most American's aren't even capable of balancing their own checkbook..

A 40(?) something cashier at Home Depot got upset with me because I interrupted her counting the spray paint cans in a case of paint. 6 down, 4 across.. and she started from one corner.. 1.. 2... 3..4..5..6..7.. when I started paying attention, I said "24".. to which she responded "I have to count them".. I said 6 x 4.. and she just looked at me with frustration.. then went back to counting them..

The 80 year old guy who was next in line was looking down and shaking his head..

I bet in 10 more years, the cash registers won't even bother telling the cashier how much change to hand over.. It will just be a graphic "Take 2 coins from this one" "Take 1 coin from this one"

It's never really changed. I remember going to Ratshack regularly in the early 1980s and the guys behind the counter where typically clueless about what they sold. The only thing they could do is find something by catalog number and when the catalogs stopped being printed it was a disaster for the customers.

The idea of hiring competent enthusiastic employees for a low salary is a joke. Even when they do land someone they quickly move onto a better job.
I am sure everyone knows that "Guy" at Home Depot, the Guy who actually knew what size connector fits your other item at home and what other things your going to need to complete the job.
The guy that was gone three months later and it felt like your best friend had abandoned you

This might also explain why the Ports are backed up. I would imagine a whole bunch of skilled operators near retirement age retired during Covid.

 

[HRTKD]

The idea of hiring competent enthusiastic employees for a low salary is a joke. Even when they do land someone they quickly move onto a better job.
I am sure everyone knows that "Guy" at Home Depot, the Guy who actually knew what size connector fits your other item at home and what other things your going to need to complete the job.
The guy that was gone three months later and it felt like your best friend had abandoned you

The cashiers at Ace Hardware may be kids, but they're usually friendly and haven't messed up my transactions. The guys on the floor are all old. Half of them are named "Bill" and the other half are "Doug". Seriously, those are their names. I could probably never work there because my name is Jim. I know to look for the old guys when I have something odd. Those guys have been there 10+ years. The owner (named Doug) recognizes me and says hello when he sees me.

 

[time2roll]

I bet in 10 more years, the cash registers won't even bother telling the cashier how much change to hand over.. It will just be a graphic "Take 2 coins from this one" "Take 1 coin from this one"

Already in place a few years now with self checkout.

 

[MurphyGuy]

The cashiers at Ace Hardware may be kids, but they're usually friendly and haven't messed up my transactions. The guys on the floor are all old. Half of them are named "Bill" and the other half are "Doug". Seriously, those are their names. I could probably never work there because my name is Jim. I know to look for the old guys when I have something odd. Those guys have been there 10+ years. The owner (named Doug) recognizes me and says hello when he sees me.

The guy at my ACE is named Bill.. That's hilarious.

 

[houseofancients]

That article is fundamentally flawed ..... There are no lorries in that port .....LOL

I'm also really tired of hearing about the problems this administration "inherited." ..... but were somehow working fine before they took over.

it is a fact though..

 

[houseofancients]

We actually agree more than we disagree.

The one thing I disagree with in this statement is that I think it is the crime that matters .... not the reason for the crime. The reason for the crime might determine which end of the sentencing window a perp is given. For instance, the lesser sentence for someone who killed the guy who raped his daughter.
In my mind, it is much more serious to intend to burn down a court house and kill the people who are in there. I don't care how misguided your motives are ... it is the intent of the crime that matters most to me.

and this is it bob..

i left the us in 1996, and people were still able to communicate then, get things done together, eventhough the werent on the same (political) side, folks realized they had much more in common than things that set them apart.

since the early 2000's slowly but gradualy a rift had been made, and people fed narratives ( both sides mind you !) to further that rife and make it all consuming.

from where i sat here , jan 6 was the apotheosys of years of lobby groups, false "news networks" and i was truely scared it would ignite things that would turn into a run away event.

i find that slowly but surely most folks are returning to a more normal.state of mind, regardless of their political stance, which gives me hope logical thinking, rationality and human compassion is returning

 

[Smile]

They should send those ships over to Florida. They're open for business. Lots of big ports.