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I just want to point out for those who don't know- longshoremen are not skilled labor. They are extremely well paid in hereditary sinecures that may or may not be bolstered by fraudulent timecards and maintain their dominance with an old-fashioned organized-crime-linked union.
I mean, good for them. We should all be so fortunate. When software engineers are begging for scraps on the streets, the longshoremen will truly be kings among men. When the social contract (referring to pro-social business norms) cannot keep your family fed, people will resort to other means.
Automating the ports is pro social. It's just not pro-longshoremen, who account for 0.01% of society. What kind of costs should the rest of us pay so that they can keep doing this generation after generation? I'd be happy with some kind of lump some payment plus forced retirement so this danegeld situation stops. Otherwise it's just another of the absurd frictions that are eating away at American prosperity.
And thus we import cheap Chinese goods instead of supporting American manufacturing, and outsource millions of cubicle jobs to India and the Philippines.
I have no strong feelings on longshoremen or automation in general, but optimizing for the lowest cost of goods and services for the greatest number of people is only maximally beneficial in an actual global economy where everyone from India to the US is fungible. In the world we are in now, it's not just a choice between "Should longshoreman be overpaid or should Americans pay more for a toaster?" Eliminating American jobs eats away at American prosperity also.
American unemployment is at something like 4% which is pretty good historically speaking (yes there are other measures of unemployment, no they don't show a crisis of unemployment). This despite jobs constantly getting offshored, automated, and otherwise eliminated over the past two hundred years. Where are the farmers who used to make up 80% of the population in the 18th century? Where are the spinsters and weavers who used to make up almost the entire female population? Are their kids going hungry in the streets? Obviously not, and neither will the kids of the longshoremen. Are we better off with abundant food and textiles? Obviously yes (I don't consider obesity to be a compelling counterargument to material prosperity).
Looking at it the other way - why should we prioritize buying American? Wouldn't it be better if Californians bought Californian instead? Of course my interests are more aligned with Americans than indians. But they are even more aligned with Californians on account of being surrounded by them. And in fact, why shouldn't I restrict all my economic activity to my blood relations? Those are the people closest to me of all.
I won't generalize as to whether the ports should be automated (I think they should!), but yes, you should strive to do more commerce with people closer to you, and less with those further away.
Trust is a superweapon in business. Industries where trust is paramount (for example, the diamond industry) are dominated by tight-knit ethnic groups.
Any businessman will tell you that a contract is just a piece of paper. Ultimately if someone wants to screw you, they will, damn the contract. Trust is based on a theory of mind of the opposite party. Think about a prisoner's dilemma situation. If the other party is your brother, would you co-operate? What about your friend? A guy who looks like you and thinks like you? A random American? A Haitian immigrant?
The answer, of course, is cooperate, cooperate, cooperate, maybe, defect. And don't worry the Haitian immigrant will defect too for the same reason. I trust people who are like me. The more like me they are the more I trust them.
See the Arab world for how this pans out when you take it to the logical conclusion. As an American you have the luxury of professing this belief because the entire world around you is made possible by trusting strangers and you, too, benefit from this enormously. You're not actually going to go live innawoods with your cousins and live off the fatta the land.
That trust is a superweapon is exactly why those who can effectively cooperate with more people are more prosperous than those who are stuck with kinship networks. De Beers revenue is $6B. Walmart revenue is $650B.
Just by the by, can you explain why you typed this in this way?
I've seen it on the Internet before, and it looks like it must be a reference to something, but I can't think of what.
It’s just a bad accent.
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