“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” – Albert Einstein
I remembered this quote as a result of the current supply chain problem we are experiencing. We have a problem: we cannot get containers unloaded from ships fast enough, so goods are piling up – in ships, on wharves, in assembly yards. No doubt the problem will get solved, eventually, by clever people. Yet there is the issue of why the problem arose in the first place. Enough container ships awaiting unloading to spell out “Let’s Go Brandon” did not appear off the California coast overnight. The overflow has been building for months. It simply became bad enough to become noticeable this month.
It was a totally avoidable problem if someone in charge had enough wisdom to foresee the impact of the buildup early on. Steps could have been taken to alleviate the problem – rerouting shipping, eliminating transportation bottlenecks (the impact of AB5 for example), developing new shipping nodes. (The Port of Houston has been battling the Corps of Engineers to deepen the Ship Channel to 60 feet up to its two container terminals for a long time. If the dredging had been approved in March it would be done by now. And yes, they have the rail and road connections to handle the extra traffic. Houston is one of the nation’s largest rail centers.) But that required wisdom and foresight, two qualities in short supply in the current administration. What we have running things instead are clever people – often clever only in the dimensions of advancing their careers and promoting their own agenda
As H. L. Mencken once wrote, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” This is what the majority voted for last fall. They are now getting it good and hard.
As they deserve.
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