>>transport becomes a bigger concern. Not just for cost: some observers claim that 6 container ships burning bunker oil can produce more greenhouse gas than all the motor vehicles on the planet. You can imagine the pressures not to buy goods tainted with that.
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>I was impressed, in a bad way, with the ease with which the two oil shocks from the 70s and 80s have left zero impact on this scheme.

>>Somehow it's cheaper to haul all those things across the oceans... where's the OPEC to make that impractical? Where's that peak oil? Is the local worker so much more expensive to offset all that?


Beginning in the 1970's one of the most radical transformations in business history took place quietly on docks around the world.
With containerization, the loading and unloading of freight were moved from the docks to the place of origin and place of destination.
Shippers now can now assure that a container is full before shipping it and consignees can unload containers as they need to.
That change drastically improved the efficiency and reduced the cost of ocean freight just as fuel costs were rising.

Similar changes took place with air freight.

At the ports of Newark and Baltimore, there are no people in sight now- just massive container ships, trucks and cranes.

To get a look at how it used to be, check out On The Waterfront.
Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy looks like a wooly mammoth now.