While those working at the docks where products are delivered to America have decided to strike, there is a real break with our leaders in addressing the future of America.
Not too long ago, our friends on the left were pushing for technological advancement in our job sector, in particular around energy production.
As technology advances, the need for labor decreases, or so we’ve been told. If a machine is doing the work that a person used to do, that was supposed to free up our human resources for other worthwhile endeavors.
As the government continued to inject itself into the private sector, it decided to heavily invest your money into alternative energy sources. We all remember Solyndra, the up-and-coming solar company that received a ton of cash from the Obama Administration right before it went bankrupt.
Bankruptcy unfortunately happens, but a company taking down millions of taxpayer dollars with it was completely unnecessary.
What’s more, the government has tried to subsidize wind, solar and other energy sources while at the same time making life more difficult on traditional fossil fuel energy sources. They claim that fossil fuels are bad for the environment and increase the carbon footprint, and at the same time, they promise that those working in the oil fields and on gas pipelines can simply transition to other jobs in their utopian vision of renewables that somehow have zero effect on the environment.
A simple Google search for a lithium mine would convince them otherwise, but the far left refuses to do that because it completely destroys their false claim on doing know harm.
In addition, the amount of concrete needed for the bases of windmills along with the production of the component parts are nearly impossible to balance over time as carbon neutral.
What does any of this have to do with a labor strike on the coastline?
Everything.
The longshoremen who unload the ships and place the foreign products on containers to be shipped across the country use all types of machinery — cranes and forklifts, for example — to do their jobs.
Across the globe, many of these operators have been replaced by labor-saving devices, greatly reducing the need for human resources.
In other words, much of what we continue to do with human labor can be done with machinery.
This reduces the cost of shipping dramatically which reduces the cost to the consumer.
At one time we embraced innovation and technological advancement. We made it a priority.
Look at how technology has changed telecommunications. We can now have phones in the hip pocket of every member of the family for what it used to cost to have one line tethered to a cord and attached to the wall at home.
We used to get three channels on a black-and-white television in Southwest Kansas until technology advanced to the point now where we can literally receive thousands of channels and even create our own like we have done here at the paper. You can download our channel on ROKU devices at High Plains News. It’s avialable worldwide.
You can also watch at home, on the road or at the office.
Did you see any nationwide labor strikes from those who put up telephone poles or ran cable down alleys because technology might take their job away? Did they demand 77 percent pay increases at the same time making dock owners commit to rejecting technological advancements that might replace their jobs?
Why was the far left all in on the loss of jobs for oilfield and pipeline workers but supports union labor fighting technology on the docks from Maine to Texas?
Why isn’t the far left telling dock workers that they can simply find new jobs creating and maintaining the robotics that will one day do their job?
I’m all for the American worker, but that’s when it comes to an American job and a foreign job. Like Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance said at the recent debate, anyone who supports a clean environment should support American production, because we use the best practices on the planet, especially when compared to China.
That would also reduce the amount of products being shipped to America. Is it possible that the unions prefer foreign production of goods so the longshoremen can keep their jobs, which top $100,000 per year? Is that better for America?
Of course it isn’t.
We’ve become heavily dependent on foreign goods and are now being held hostage by the longshoremen on being able to receive those goods.
Neither problem would exist if we did the work ourselves and shipped within the country.
But the left wants to convince you that some workers can be replaced by innovation and others must be protected from it. That’s how you know they are a fraud.
Earl Watt is the owner and publisher of the Leader & Times in Liberal, Kansas. Watt started his career in journalism in 1991 at the Southwest Daily Times. During his career, the newspaper has won a total of 17 Sweepstakes awards from the Kansas Press Association for editorial content and 18 Sweepstakes awards for advertising. Watt has been recognized with more than 70 first place awards for writing in categories from sports and column to best front pages, best sports pages and best opinion pages. Watt is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and is the descendant of several patriots who fought for America's freedom and independence.
