Rand Paul: Supply chain issues largely down to California and their "Byzantine" rules

A: “I think it’s not surprising that this is largely in California. Now, it’s across the world but it’s largely in California is where the big bottleneck is. The government created this problem, government lock the economy down so government back things up. So really, this is not a natural phenomenon. This is an unnatural phenomenon created by government shutting the economy down. There’s a big shortage of truckers in the country. Some of it’s because when we shut the economy down, instead of going to retail stores, everybody started ordering online. Now they already were, but let’s say a third of the people were -- now everybody’s ordering online. And so everything’s coming from trucks, and everything’s coming, you know, across the Pacific. And what you have is a bottleneck because of that. But you have also some man-made problems as well. In California, they decided they didn’t want to let Uber and Lyft drivers be independent. That also applies to truck drivers. So independent truck drivers are persona non grata in California right now, because of their Byzantine rules about employment versus contractors. That’s caused a shortage. You also can’t go to California if your truck engines over older than 2010. You also can’t go there if you’re an independent trucker, and you tend to drive longer hours than maybe the federal government wants you to be driving-- you don’t go to California either. So there’s a lot of people avoiding California. We also do need more truck drivers. We’re gonna need more truck drivers over the next generation. And I’m suggesting that we look at the age. The age is 21 now. I think there are 18-year-olds that are high-performing that could be could be truck drivers with the right training. But I think we need to start in high school both with training and with this opportunity. It’s a pretty good job. I mean, there are truck drivers that can make $75,000 to over $100,000 a year. It’s long drives, but they need responsible people and people that will drive carefully and don’t have a bad driving record, things like that. We are really at a loss right now. So we’re gonna have to do something about supply chain inflation. There’s also another aspect of it in the sense that prices are being bid up. I saw today that Chinese shipping transports are up 350%. So inflation is affecting the world because the world did the same thing we did -- they all printed up money and passed it out to everyone, which is a recipe basically for what we’re getting inflation.”

True, the California ports, under cover of Covid, are slowing down the importation of goods and causing supply chain problems.

Truckers are waiting for weeks on parts like water pumps, parts that do not have computer chips, parts that are replaceable and are regularly replaced.

If you wanted to solve the supply chain crisis, one thing you would do for certain is to make sure that links in the chain are not being exacerbated by the issues. It creates a snowball effect. You’d address those items, for instance, you wouldn’t let water pumps sit on containers in the ocean waiting to get in to Long Beach, you’d load cargo planes up with water pumps, brake pads and drums, things like that that you need to keep the supply chain up and running.

But, they have not done it, the parts problem has been ongoing for over a year, and it’s only getting worse.

Why has no one done anything about it? Because they are training us to get used to having less.

Seems to me these guys hate a couple of things above all else: Cars and cows.

The politicians will always have their steaks and chauffeured luxury vehicles. They don’t even have to pay for them, they get it all free.

You and I, however, will have to pay $100.00 a lb for cheap steak, and if you want a ride somewhere, it’s going to be in a small, electric autonomous vehicle at a prohibitive price.

Might want to look at getting a bicycle soon, before the prices go up.

Make lots of less new cars, repair less used cars and send them to the salvage yard.

General Motors announced in September they were shutting down production at most of their facilities in the US. Have you heard them complaining about it, demanding the government do something, decrying the loss of jobs, the expense of restarting production in shuttered plants, etc?

General Motors is pretty powerful, well resourced, and have plenty of smart people working for them. Hear anything about how they are fixing the problem with lack of chips and parts so they can begin production again?

Why is that, do you think? I assume the regime gave them no choice.

The crisis in the supply chain is that there is too much moving through the supply chain, the supply chain works too well, and there are too many of the things in the supply chain that only the very wealthy and powerful should be allowed, things like cars and cows.

If they want to restrict our use of cars and cows, what other kinds of technology, specifically medical, will be available to them, and restricted from us?

You think people might get upset when they notice that Zuckerberg and Bezos seem to look pretty good when they are in their 90’s? 100’s??

I’m sure they’ve already thought of that.

Can’t hide your light under a bushel, and can’t say powerful life extending medical tech is available for only a handful of people, either. Neither seems tenable. What to do?

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