[glorgau]

No, actually there are many things these days that are no longer made in the USA. It will be a massive, massive effort to turn that around.

[Lou L]

An economy simply cannot survive if it can't predict when its shelves will be restocked. It's time to bring back manufacturing, bring back sourcing, and become an independent economy again...

...at least for the ten to fifteen years it will take for our transportation network to catch up.

How long would it take us (assuming that governments didn't get in the way, and that there's actually a will to do it) to build up US manufacturing and source more things here?

I suspect that it would take equally as long as it will be to get through the existing ports. We don't have the skilled labor to work in manufacturing, nor do we have the desire to pay for inflated prices--do you think those former McDonald's workers are going to build things for any less than $15/hour? More likely, they'd want to double that wage.

[cp124]

A container with machine tools from Taiwan was $4000 and is now $20,000. No one wants to pay the difference.

[GaltMeister]

I didn’t realize it is that big a mess and no end in sight!

[moovova]

Dollar stores hit the hardest.

[Fido969]

If we did more porduction in America, we wouldn’t have as much stuff stuck in the China pipeline.

[linedrive]

Working in transportation for the last 35 years - the missing piece from the article is it still takes professional drivers to move across the country or from the seaports. We forget the ridiculous regulations (environmental/labor) put in place that hinder the needed expansion of our transportation professionals. The push for unmanned tractor/trailer is coming - I assume the gov’t will herd everyone into urban centers due to whatever virus is running rampant to protect us and keep the roads clear for driverless vehicles. Too many professional drivers retiring and fear of COVID or the vaccine driving them away (sorry for pun). The decline in numbers is significant; and pay is increasing - many drivers could start their own company with one truck and work whenever they want or need. The decline in available work force has been evident in transportation for years - other service industries just now seeing it.

[blam]

Top UPS Exec Warns Supply Chain Disarray Will Leave Permanent Scar

[Fester Chugabrew]

Subsurface maglev intermodal corridors. Get rid of the ships. Arteries to all cities of 3 million or more. Sub-arteries to all cities 500K to 3M. etc.

[GOPJ]

Many of our metros should have been building new and larger intermodal yards on the outskirts of town, where available land would enable quicker growth. But no, our system is overloaded with volume, and no quick improvement is available. Perhaps worst of all, the steamship lines have been calling for expansion and modernization at our seaports for decades, and the longshoremen's unions - the ILWU and ILA - have fought it at every turn. An economy simply cannot survive if it can't predict when its shelves will be restocked. It's time to bring back manufacturing, bring back sourcing, and become an independent economy again...

My washer broke last week...(still under full warranty) ... the tech explained if the problem needed a part that was available the wait time would be about two weeks. If the part was not easily available the wait time to fix the washer could run into 'months'... I'll know soon. I'm guessing my 'part' is sitting in some container outside of Chicago - waiting to be railed to some warehouse somewhere...jit and all...