Tractor Shortages

[Torvy]

The first amendment says that the government cannot restrict your speech.... Private ownership and the ability for private owners to establish rules are an essential and long standing part of our democracy.

I agree 100%, however it is a bit of a straw man argument. I believe @IndyJay was talking about cancel culture where individuals and groups take it upon themselves to squash dissent from their narrative. Sometimes (often?) the owners of various public fora are coerced into silencing some voices. Abusing the legal and commercial system to stop political dissent is hardly democratic. You may enjoy having opposing views squelched, I wouldn't know. But something about the concept of silencing opinions, especially political opinions, flies in the face of the purpose of the right to free speech. We used to say you can just choose not to listen (change the channel, as it were). Now we have a good number of people who are offended by the mere existence of other points of view.

BTW, those of us who live in the US don't live in a democracy, we live in a federal constitutional republic.

To bring this back around to the actual topic, the short answer is that the tractor and other shortages have a few root causes. Many of them are political in nature as are the potential solutions.

 

[jyoutz]

I agree 100%, however it is a bit of a straw man argument. I believe @IndyJay was talking about cancel culture where individuals and groups take it upon themselves to squash dissent from their narrative. Sometimes (often?) the owners of various public fora are coerced into silencing some voices. Abusing the legal and commercial system to stop political dissent is hardly democratic. You may enjoy having opposing views squelched, I wouldn't know. But something about the concept of silencing opinions, especially political opinions, flies in the face of the purpose of the right to free speech. We used to say you can just choose not to listen (change the channel, as it were). Now we have a good number of people who are offended by the mere existence of other points of view.

BTW, those of us who live in the US don't live in a democracy, we live in a federal constitutional republic.

To bring this back around to the actual topic, the short answer is that the tractor and other shortages have a few root causes. Many of them are political in nature as are the potential solutions.

The shortages are worldwide. US politics isn’t creating worldwide shortages.

 

[IndyJay]

I agree 100%, however it is a bit of a straw man argument. I believe IndyJay was talking about cancel culture where individuals and groups take it upon themselves to squash dissent from their narrative. Sometimes (often?) the owners of various public fora are coerced into silencing some voices.

Torvy, you stated it very well, but I was also alluding to the idea that many who claim our rights to free speech only apply only to government not infringing on them are okay with a bakery being prosecuted and closed for excercising their first amendment rights. It is not just the government that is restricted from violating our rights, otherwise we would still be seeing blacks banned from restaurants and other private businesses. That is what I meant by a "flawed argument". Either you support free speech (even speech that you disagree with) or you don't. You cannot have it both ways.

 

[finn1]

Torvy, you stated it very well, but I was also alluding to the idea that many who claim our rights to free speech only apply only to government not infringing on them are okay with a bakery being prosecuted and closed for excercising their first amendment rights. It is not just the government that is restricted from violating our rights, otherwise we would still be seeing blacks banned from restaurants and other private businesses. That is what I meant by a "flawed argument". Either you support free speech (even speech that you disagree with) or you don't. You cannot have it both ways.

No, they’re closed for discriminating against others . That’s clearly illegal.

 

[jyoutz]

Torvy, you stated it very well, but I was also alluding to the idea that many who claim our rights to free speech only apply only to government not infringing on them are okay with a bakery being prosecuted and closed for excercising their first amendment rights. It is not just the government that is restricted from violating our rights, otherwise we would still be seeing blacks banned from restaurants and other private businesses. That is what I meant by a "flawed argument". Either you support free speech (even speech that you disagree with) or you don't. You cannot have it both ways.

Ok. You win. What is the address of your property? I will go there and post the campaign signs of my preferred candidates on your lawn because the owner of the property cannot silence my free speech.

 

[ultrarunner]

Normal is variable.

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, it was normal for shops, stores and warehouses to have abundant supplies on hand. Manufacturing facilities might have had a 6 month supply of parts. No deliveries for weeks? No problem, just keep making stuff.

Then the bean counters got involved. Why pay for all this stuff so far ahead and all the space to store it? Go Just In Time and get only the stuff in that will be used and gone in a few days. Don't worry about deliveries, they'll come and if they don't, we'll just save money by sending the workers home and turning the lights off for a few days, or weeks.

Blame who you want, but it all falls back on the bean counters, the C Suite monsters that value stock price above all else.



The cargo ship is another issue.

Why are there so few ports to take them in and offload them? OK, some of it is geography. Not all of the US coastline is suitable for it. But that's not true everywhere. And then there are the Unions that hold far too much power in too many areas. Unions can be good, or they can become overbearing and an impediment to progress.

One reason on ports is older trucks no longer permitted to haul from terminals such as Oakland.

Ships that unloaded in Southern CA may forego the trip up the coast to load cargo in Oakland affecting AG exports…

It seems many problems are of our own making these days…

 

[rScotty]

When I hear our old two cylinder JD chug-puffing away I'm reminded of Click and Clack:

"Suppose you have two people who don't know what they are talking about. Do they not know twice as much as one person? Or only half as much?"

chug-puff, puff, puff.....

 

[IndyJay]

Ok. You win. What is the address of your property? I will go there and post the campaign signs of my preferred candidates on your lawn because the owner of the property cannot silence my free speech.

The point that I was making is that it is not only the government that is prohibited from violating a person's rights. This illustrates why we cannot have a rational conversation about things which we may disagree about.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I keep hearing that flawed argument from people who seem to support censorship of opposing viewpoints.

This is a private forum, not the street corner. You know that.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

The point that I was making is that it is not only the government that is prohibited from violating a person's rights. This illustrates why we cannot have a rational conversation about things which we may disagree about.

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