A roundup from Oren Cass about what you should be reading from across the web over the last week to better understand America
RECOMMENDED READING
I take one Friday off, and my goodness do the links pile up… so we have no lengthy discussion of one-thing-to-read this week, just a lot of things for your consideration, both at American Compass and from around the web.
But if I had to pick one thing from the pile to focus you on, well, start here:
Re: The World Turned Upside Down… at City Journal, Mark Mills describes The Great Inversion
The quick end to the longshoremen’s strike thankfully brought to an equally quick end the performative outrage at the longshoremen’s demands, from people earning far more to do far less hard work. But are we headed for an era when economic commentators at libertarian think tanks will just have to get used to earning less than dock workers? Quite possibly. Mills does a great job considering the relevant trends and, along the way makes an importantly pro-worker-power point: “It would benefit longshoremen and others in similar trades to shift from opposing automation to embracing it, with this caveat: they need a bigger say in its implementation. That’s something management should also embrace.”
Bonus link: Most commentary on the port strike started from the entirely uninformed assumption that of course ports need more automation and of course the longshoremen are lunatic luddites to obstruct it… but now one of Understanding America’s favorite writers, Brian Potter, comes along and takes the time to ask, Do U.S. Ports Need More Automation? It turns out:
The ports that have adopted automation aren’t necessarily particularly efficient. Rotterdam was one of the first ports to automate (its first automated terminal opened in 1993), and today it’s one of the most heavily automated ports in the world, but its port performance ranking is just #91, one point above the comparatively less automated New York, and far below the un-automated ports of Charleston and Philadelphia (#53 and #55 respectively). Likewise, the U.S.’s most automated port, Los Angeles, comes in very close to the bottom of the worldwide rankings, while the top two ports on the list (Yangshan in China and Salalah in Oman) have just one and zero automated terminals, respectively.
Other analyses likewise point to a complex relationship between automation and efficient port operations. A McKinsey survey from 2017 found that while port automation reduced labor costs, it actually reduced port productivity between 7 and 15%, and the labor savings weren’t necessarily enough to justify the investment. A 2021 OECD report similarly found that “automated ports are generally not more productive than their conventional counterparts,” and a 2024 GAO report also noted that both U.S. and international ports found “mixed effects” on performance when adopting automation.
Read the whole thing! Or stop trying to pretend you know more than a longshoreman about port automation. Either works for me.
EVERYTHING HAPPENING ON THE COMMONS
Republicans’ Recurring Family Policy Fight: American Compass’s Sam Silvestro explores pro-family values within the American conservative tradition.
The New Right and the Fed: University of Vienna’s Anthony J. Constantini explains why the New Right should turn its attention to the Federal Reserve.
Mapping Out the 2024 Stakes: EPPC’s Henry Olsen connects the importance of a Republican House to a second Trump presidency’s economic agenda.
Old-Right Failures Are New Lefty Talking Points: American Compass’s Duncan Braid writes on the Vance-Walz debate, underscoring the path the Right should take.
And as for the American Compass Podcast:
- Last week, I spoke with journalist and best-selling author Sarah Smarshabout the forces pushing rural working-class voters away from the Democratic Party.
- This week, I talk with family policy scholar Ivana Greco about her research on what stay-at-home parents want. And bonus link, that research has just been published here: Invisible Labor, Visible Needs: Making Family Policy Work for Stay-At-Home (And All) Parents.
Recommended Reading
The Movie’s Not Called “It’s A Wonderful Life Of Economic Freedom”
And more from this week…
Both Parties Have a Chance to Appeal to American Workers — But Will They Take It?
Political elites are pulling Republicans and Democrats away from the voters they need to win over
The Gulf Between “Make America Great Again” and “MAGA”
A roundup from Oren Cass about what you should be reading from around the web over the last week to better understand America.