Supply Chain Nightmare - Not Going Away Any Time Soon

We live in a global economy with goods flowing from all over the world that we take for granted until the supply chain breaks down.  Americans have access to more goods than exists in any other country in world.  The distribution system is quite remarkable; but it depends on Just In Time deliveries because to cut cost, stores do not maintain big inventories.  When the deliveries don’t show up because they are stuck on a ship off shore waiting to be unloaded, which is what is happening right now, the shelves in the store begin to go empty.  

But that is not all.  Because those ships have not been unloaded according to schedule, they are not where they need to be to pick up other goods to be shipped to some other country around the world.  There is also a problem related to the containers that hold goods not being where they need to be.  Once this dislocations begin, it will take months to get back to normal, which means some of our favorite products may not be available when we need them.

A big part of the problem is that the United States is short more than 60,000 truck drivers.  Without truck drivers, it is impossible to get goods to market.   Even though the pay is not bad with many truck driver earning $100,000 or more a year, young people do not want those jobs living on the road.  The average age of a truck driver today is 58 years old.  They are starting to retire with no replacements.  Many of the independent operators are being driven out of the business by high fuel prices and state and federal regulation.  Many will not even come into California where there are ships waiting to be unloaded because of crazy California regulations on top of federal regulations. 

Thank you California Governor Gruesome and Joe Biden that has destroyed our US energy independence in just the few months Biden has been in office.  The Green New Deal is going to make matters worse.  The trucking industry cannot exist without cheap fossil fuels.  Electric trucks cannot facilitate long haul deliveries.  The technology is just not there.

Government caused this Supply Chain nightmare.  Biden may have to use the military to help with unloading ships and actually delivering goods to get things back to normal.  Biden probably will not do that because dock workers are highly unionized.  There is no way Biden will cross the dock workers union to get the job done.  Where is President Trump when we need him.  I suspect many that voted for Joe Biden are having buyers remorse, which is why Biden’s poll ratings are in the toilet.  Biden has made a mess of everything in our country.  The Supply Chain nightmare is just one more thing.