There are at least 250,000 shipping containers stacked up on U.S. ports. The time it takes to unload these containers has tripled, as rail yards and warehouses run out of space to facilitate the goods. It’s becoming harder to find able-bodied workers, and many of the people who want to work are being fired because of vaccine mandates. Right now, there is a backlog of seventy-seven ships outside of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. These ships contain an estimated $24 billion worth of goods that are just waiting to be offloaded.
Goldman Sach economist Ronnie Walker said the situation will not magically improve at the end of 2021. “Backlogs and elevated shipping costs are likely to persist at least through the middle of next year because no immediate solution for the underlying supply–demand imbalance at U.S. ports is available,” Walker said in a memo to his clients.
Over the past year and a half, the supply chain has been hit hard, with lock downs and restrictions hampering production. For instance, the silicon chip shortage has severely affected the auto industry, promising price increases for years to come. Factory workers are asininely instructed to “stay home, stay safe” for weeks at a time and quarantine after a so-called “exposure.” Productivity has been shuttered as governments pay people to stay home and consume.
“It’s really a perfect storm,” said Jonathan Daniels, Chairman of the Florida Ports Council. “The logistics system itself is not capable, and it was not built to handle the surge that currently we’re going through in the United States.”
“They’re talking about the backlog not being cleared until sometime, maybe at the end of the first quarter, the beginning of the second quarter of next year,” Daniels continued. “If that’s going to happen, we can’t get those goods onto the shelves into the distribution center. You’re going to see increased prices, and ultimately, one of the big cost drivers associated with pricing happens to be the transportation system.”
The seasonal peak in shipping demand over the holidays will only exacerbate the problems at the ports. The federal government is trying to push UPS, FedEx, Walmart and other major companies to increase the number of shifts they offer to employees, to alleviate warehousing and shipping issues. “This is an across-the-board commitment to going to 24/7,” Biden said after meeting with the CEOs of several companies, adding that “we need the rest of the private sector chain to step us as well.”
“Whether the ports are open 24 hours a day or 48 hours a day, you cannot get labor,” MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian told Fox News. “If you cannot get labor, you cannot get trucks, you cannot get the merchandise out.” Biden’s plan “is too little, too late,” he said. “And frankly, it’s a political gimmick to me.”
No matter how hard the federal government tries to fix the impending shortages and price hikes, the Biden regime cannot cover up for the real-life consequences wrought by their communist economic policies. For much of 2021, the federal government paid people not to work; now the federal government wants all the major companies to push these people into working extra shifts. The warehousing and shipping issues will only get worse, because the Biden administration implemented totalitarian, forced-vaccine policies that push healthy, hardworking people out of the workplace.
The effects of this tyranny have yet to be accounted for. How many people will quit working because of the mandates? Which companies will be bribed to comply -- treating employees as either expendable or enslaved? Who will be fired? Will the courts uphold the rule of law and prevent wide-scale subjugation of human rights? How many people will rise up in protest? How will these communist policies affect each industry? Will the National Guard be used to facilitate the flow of food and other goods? Will food be used as a weapon to force more people into compliance with medical tyranny?
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