[Superman]

Ah! As I hit "post" I may have figured out your question. "Where exactly is the breakdown?" You may be thinking something went wrong. If so, then that's the breakdown. I don't think something went wrong. The big shipping companies have to pay very high costs for longshore labor. This means the small guy got somethin' out of the deal. By using their clout. When Seattle wins a football game, or when they lose one, I don't think the system failed or that something was unfair. Same with the tension between shipping companies and longshoremen. That has been a LONGSTANDING battle. Heck....the shipping companies have made some major victories lately. I think the west coast longshoremen's labor agreement collapsed. Those agreements became more localized. Divid and conquer. A victory for shipping companies.

Longshoremen wages have almost no affect on shipping prices. Containers are handled very quickly in Seattle. Many per hour. Lets pretend the cost of unloading a container is $50, which is probably way higher than actual. Another $50 to load it in China, which is pure fantasy. That is four tenths of a percent of the cost to ship that container, assuming what I hear is the current rate of $25K. 0.4%. This is what could be saved if longshoremen worked for free.

I'm okay with that money falling out of the pocket of Hanjin and into the pocket of some American.