[truth_seeker]

As an Orange County, CA conservative of many years standing, I must comment. For several days, I have watched the huge super ships gather, off the shore along Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Here a conservative might say: keep government out of it, entirely. Let the parties work matters out, after they both feel the pain of their current positions. Free markets, minimal regulation, etc. That is my first instinct.

Another side of me remembers Reagan, basically firing the air traffic controllers. I would like to "fire" the union workers, who want to featherbed.

A friend of mine is a liberal, Northern California style. As he grows older, he gets wiser, but he has been brainwashed.

We both look out at the ships, and came to agree that Bush should try to help matters along. And within hours, Bush did just that.

The lesson I learned is that liberals and conservatives often CAN discuss, and sometimes even agree on important matters.

[MHT]

Rush Limbaugh has discussed this situation at length and the argument that this strike, as part of a Democrat get-out-the-union-vote measure, holds much merit.

If nothing else, such a strike, which has a severe and direct impact on the economy during a time in which the rest of the nation is preparing for war, is unconscionable.

[Paleo Conservative]

Here a conservative might say: keep government out of it, entirely. Let the parties work matters out, after they both feel the pain of their current positions. Free markets, minimal regulation, etc. That is my first instinct.

The problem is there is no free market here. None of the states on the Pacific Ocean are "right to work" states. If you are shipping anything through a west coast port, you have no choice but to use a company whose workforce is controlled by the stevedores' union. Basically the unions are exempt from all the antitrust laws that apply to all other sectors of the economy. This means the stevedores have west coast shipping firms and their customers by the b****, and they are saying cough up more money.

[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.

[Cicero]

I'm glad to hear your story. I think Bush waited long enough to get most people of good will on his side.