re: Trump comes out strongly against port automation

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If its a federal project,

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What is the federal project?

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Trump is saying that the efficiency savings is not going to have a more positive affect to offset the negative to all the local economies around the ports. Machines do not eat, do not stop by the local convenience store, by groceries, etc, etc,etc. Blue collar workers spend money in their local economies. As an example, look at what happened when the shipyards closed.

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Let's create even more jobs and bring these ladies back.

1- you have to start somewhere.

2- the docks are part of International Trade, a little bit different than Walmart workers being replaced by self-checkout or whatever else your comparing it to.

3- l have seen the ports that are on automation, the one in China is 100% automated and run with 5G and AI, and i think it’s overboard and flirting with eventual self destruction.

some things are meant to have a personal touch and human beings interacting.

let’s say they are trafficking kids and women in 40 foot containers and it’s all automated, less people walking around and not much 3rd party checks and balances, irs all automated. Who’s gonna police the robots? who’s gonna handle the checks and balances? the people running the machines have too much authority and control.

the ONLY THING needed to be done with American Ports is slap the frick out of the Unions and treat them like normal
companies and allow for easier competition. and free markets.

Union Lanor versus Non-Union is night and day.

Give me NON-UNION all day every day and we will get twice as much done in the long run and for almost half the price.

I grew up on the River and have dealt with Stevedores my entire life, when there is no Non-Union Private Stevedores and forced to use UNION, that’s the part that sucks.

so i am in between this automation deal and Unions.

We need to light a fire under their asses and being the prices down and break their Monopolies and have some accountability with Unions. they are treated like Gov’t workers, can’t be fired etc…. charge double to pay for the bosses to retire early.

I’d use this automation scare to negotiate with Unions across the country, squeeze them a little.

in summary, frick the automation in ports, we need people doing this job & they lied to the Unions years back saying automation would not be a threat here.

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The lack of automation in our ports is just not sustainable in this global economy.

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Maybe you have not heard, but Trump believes we are importing too much already and we need to produce more domestically. More port efficient will embolden more imports so it's not a big issue in comparison to what Trump wants to do with Trade.

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but Trump believes we are importing too much already

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Yeah and he's dead wrong.

Trump isnt a capitalist, he's a mercantilist. Youre not going to get sound economics from an archaic system which mostly died out centuries ago.

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Mercantilism is a nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy.

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The modern world dont work this way.

Finally someone with outlook and vision as opposed to the emotional rant of the day.

Gonna be hard for Trump to be both pro tech and pro labor. Port automation would likely reduce corruption and increase processing speeds. But it would put some Trumpers out of work so here we are.

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You’ll have big business on one side maximizing value for shareholders by moving to automation with politicians and labor on the other side trying to save jobs

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I think the miss here is suggesting that there will be a large net job loss with automation. Sure some operators will lose their jobs, but there will be many jobs created with the automation (developing it, building it, maintaining it) as well as jobs created through the increased efficiency.

More goods coming through more consistently and efficiently would create a ton of new jobs (as one example, more truck drivers would be needed). Artificially restricting progress to protect the interests of a few is a bad idea.

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I think the miss here is suggesting that there will be a large net job loss with automation. Sure some operators will lose their jobs, but there will be many jobs created with the automation (developing it, building it, maintaining it) as well as jobs created through the increased efficiency.

More goods coming through more consistently and efficiently would create a ton of new jobs (as one example, more truck drivers would be needed). Artificially restricting progress to protect the interests of a few is a bad idea.

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That’s been the sell of NAFTA and offshoring factory jobs since the 80s. Problem is the the onset of the negative is immediate (the job loss and attendant effects) and the purported upside (innovation and tech creating new jobs) is slow to develop.

You’ve got real people and real lives negatively affected by the lag time. So far, it’s fair to say the upside for the American blue collar worker has not kept pace with the downside of those jobs leaving.

I’d argue that’s lead directly to Trump and his populism we see now.

If nothing else, the fact that he’s the first politician to see it and acknowledge it on a national scale is important. It’s probably one of the key things from his time I hope sticks around and gets injected into whatever this new GOP will look like after him.

It’s going to need to be managed as the technology and the automation are coming and will lead to greater good for the greater society in general, but it’s important that rug is not pulled out wholesale from those folks who will lose jobs. There’s gotta be a give and a take to it.