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Comment by tmaly | Hacker News Reader

In US, if we do not have enough workers to clear the backlog of ships/containers what can we do?

Can the army be called up to help out for a short duration?

Every time I go to a store, they are sold out of something. The answer I always get is that it is stuck on a ship.

Hard to say if that would actually be effective. I can imagine there would be some improvement if you had assigned some drivers from the national guard's motor pool. But it could also be the case that throwing more people at the problem actually makes things worse, almost like in the Mythical Man Month. I imagine there is probably a ton of skill and "lay of the land" around trucking at a specific port and that kind of experience needs time to cultivate.

I don't actually know, just speculating.

Army? So, instead of paying more for labor to clear that market, the port operators get free labor?

Aren't they operating 24-7 now? I think the problem is there are too many backed up boats and not enough ports.

They recently reached a deal and will operate 24/7 thanks to a deal brokered by the administration across multiple stakeholders.

https://www.dailynews.com/2021/10/13/biden-to-announce-that-...

The National Guard Transportation Corps does have units qualified to load and unload container ships that can be called up in the event of a true emergency, but I doubt this qualifies. They still have regular full-time jobs. The active duty military can't be used for something like this unless we're actually at war.

Of course, me saying I "doubt" this qualifies is a personal opinion. As far as I know, it's pretty much up to the governor of each state to decide what counts as an emergency worthy of activating the Guard. I don't think it's ever been done as a response to somewhat higher than average inflation rates, though. It's usually natural disasters and long-running riots that the police can't control.

If people were starving on the streets due to a shortage of food then yes, states could activate the national guard for help.

However getting your new iPhone a couple of days late doesn't constitute such an emergency.

Who's going to pay for that? Have government subsidise the ports by providing them with free labour? Has capitalism failed so immediately that there's no other way to get workers?

The port is a government operation already, so that doesn't seem like much of an argument.

While I have no particular expertise as to where the bottlenecks lie, I don't think capitalism has any special solution to a limited pool of existing skilled labor, a large increase in demand, and a long lead time to train new skilled labor.

And at least some of the bottleneck occupations in question are regulated (and for good reason) about how long they can work, removing one of the most obvious ways to immediately get "new" labor - pay the existing labor whatever it takes to get them to agree to work more hours.

A defense budget of $700 billion dollars pays for the National Guard.

They can maybe use the National Guard? They've used them to administer vaccines and drive school busses in some states.

I'm with pcj50. The answer for economic issues is not "call out the National Guard".

Sure, call them out in an emergency. This isn't one.

What's the downside?

The downside of not calling them out? Stuff doesn't get off of ships in time for everybody to have their dream Christmas.

The upside is that the National Guard gets to remain available to be the National Guard, instead of a trucking company. You know, so they can be available if we need them?

> Stuff doesn't get off of ships in time for everybody to have their dream Christmas.

I don't celebrate Christmas and I get why you're being flippant here, but it can have a significant impact on the economy.

> You know, so they can be available if we need them?

I think they'd still be available if something higher priority came up, no? Like I said earlier, they're already driving school busses in some states.

Having a significant effect on the economy does not make it an emergency, though.

Look into the provision of free aid (usually goods, sometimes services) in areas.

For a short-term measure, this can make sense. In the long term, it's a market distortion by introducing a free alternative to local production. Much as price or wage controls are argued as preventing the market from working properly, utilising an idle or contingent commandable labour force (army or national guard) to solve what is in large part a market problem only amplifies the market problem.

If that is done, businesses aided by such services should be charged, and I'd make a strong case for above-market rates, perhaps with extended credit but also superior claims (such that other creditors are subordinate in the event of liquidation of the business). Such a strategy would address the immediate emergency but price in the previously ignored latent risk, and encourage entry to that specific labour market.

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