SUPPLY CHAIN Our habits are driving shortage | News, Sports, Jobs

We fervently make a plea to all who will listen: “Make More on Shore” in America.

The dozens of cargo ships constantly waiting out at sea off the coast of California certainly make many things clear to us:

≤ The United States imports far, far too many goods that should be made/manufactured on our own soil.

≤U.S. consumers in general do not care if most of what they buy comes from overseas. They prefer convenience and low cost over loyalty and American-made.

≤ Too many U.S. companies put profits first: They have their products manufactured overseas because labor costs are lower, increasing their earnings and weakening America’s self-reliance.

We fear nothing will ever change.

The prices for most goods have gone up as those goods sit in cargo containers on ships floating out in the ocean.

With most every “Purchase Now” click of the mouse, U.S. consumers add to the glut, driving up prices and making more and more products scarce.

We fear nothing will ever change.

California’s Port of Los Angeles — considered the busiest in the U.S. — is struggling to keep up with the crush of cargo containers arriving at its terminals, creating one of the biggest choke points in the global supply-chain crisis.

Guess who has the four largest ports in the world? China, of course.

Here’s more from a Wall Street Journal newspaper investigation:

≤ Port of L.A. tarmacs are normally 60 to at times 80% of capacity. That’s now 90 percent

≤ It can take as many as 80,000 trucks to carry cargo away from a single ship.

≤ The Port of L.A. estimates a third of trucking appointments to pick up containers go unused across its terminals.

≤ Nearly 100 ships are waiting to unload on any given day at the Port of L.A.

Neighboring ports, which move more than a quarter of all American imports, are a choke point in the global supply chain.

At the Port of Oakland, Calif., for example, they are pleading with cargo ship owners to come to their terminals, which have little activity. For the most part, their calls go unheeded, exacerbating the situation.

There is NO question: The supply chain snarl is helping to drive inflation in our economy.

Before the pandemic, it was highly unusual for ships to wait for a berth at the ports.

Now, the average wait time for unloading at the Port of L.A. is 13 days

Ships were unloaded in three to four days pre-pandemic.

It now takes six to seven days to unload a ship,

Port of L.A. officials estimate 250,000 containers filled with goods are idling on the water.

The pandemic — and resulting shortage of goods — has taught us little.

Most Americans are apathetic about the situation, preferring to complain rather than lobby their representatives to entice change.

We fear nothing will ever change.