Re: How and Why Grifters Milk The System.

On Nov 22, 2025 at 6:40:06 PM MST, "chrisv" wrote
<[email protected]>:

> slothe wrote:
> 
>> If Japan can use remote workers controlling robots to restock 7-11
>> orders, why can't the US follow suit?
> 
> There are actually companies that build industrial robots, in Japan.
> Fanuc being the biggest. In the US?  Ha!  We make hardly anything,
> here.  Someone else can make it cheaper, and we let them.
> 
> Or not.  While everyone else updates their shipping ports, unions in
> the US prevent us from doing the same.
> https://www.city-journal.org/article/international-longshoremens-association-dockworkers-ports-trade-technology-unions
> 
> Is there any wonder why we continue to fall behind our enemy China, in
> everything except "design"?

The take that "the U.S. makes hardly anything and unions block automation
while China passes us by" is way oversimplified.

Yes, the longshore union has pushed back hard against full automation at U.S.
ports. The ILA's latest contracts restrict autonomous cranes and similar tech,
which definitely slows modernization on the docks. That part is real.

But framing that as the reason the U.S. is behind China ignores the bigger
picture. China leads in automation because of massive state investment, huge
manufacturing scale, and a supply chain ecosystem built to crank out hardware
fast. Meanwhile Japan has dominated industrial robotics for decades with
companies like Fanuc, Yaskawa, and Kawasaki.

The U.S. isn't "making nothing" - we still design a ton of high-end tech, and
we do manufacture, just not at China's scale. The robot gap isn't mainly about
unions; it's mostly about industrial policy, capital investment, supply chain
strategy, and global competition.

So yes, union resistance plays a role in ports. But no, it's not the reason
China has leapt ahead in robotics and manufacturing. It's one factor in a much
bigger system.


-- 
It's impossible for someone who is at war with themselves to be at peace with you.