[lelio]

Free markets, minimal regulation, etc.
I agree with your post, and with the other fellow that said that unforunately we're not really in a free market situation as the longshoreman's union has the entire west coast bottled up.
However the free market does come to aid here by benefitting those that are prepared for such events by having excess inventory, or that don't deal with product shipped in from overseas (like the recent announcement by Amazon.com).
On the flip side of that the people that can't really prepare for this, like the perishable good people, are really in a bind as they can't really start over as their goods are destroyed. But I suppose that's what insurance and the futures market is for.

[WOSG]

Its not a free market so much as a monopoly market. the union has a monopoly power over who gets hired on the docks.

this is quite unfair to anyone except the one in the union.

I'd love to start a non-union shipping/loading company. could probably undercut these goons signficantly, not just with lower pay but better technology.


I guess the PMA goes along too since it is a comfortable racket for both side. Less competition means higher profits.