“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” - Earnest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises What really happened is conditions for unskilled and semi-skilled labor have been steadily deteriorating since the '70s. Conditions for unskilled and semi-skilled labor deteriorated precipitously starting March 2020. Simple inertia will keep you in place after that. Do you stay home or go back to the job you hated doing worse work for the same amount of money under shitty conditions? Or, since you've already been cast adrift, do you look around for the first time since forever? I recently finished The Outlaw Ocean. It's fuckin' medieval. Granted - container ships are top of the heap as far as the maritime economy is concerned but you're talking about an environment where summary executions, slavery, kidnapping, human trafficking and piracy are the fundamental underpinnings so a bunch of Philippinos stuck offshore for six months with crappy food and no way home? I mean, that basically just puts your average cargo crew on a level with your average fishing crew and if you do that once, you basically need to reconstitute your cargo fleet. You're talking an environment where stow-aways are routinely put overboard in order to avoid the costs of asylum. And you're talking about an economy in which Chinese bridge crew drive Phillipino deck hands like slaves, and both countries are under some changes at the moment. Being at sea used to be a slightly better deal than being on land. It very much isn't anymore. And that is going to completely unravel the global shipping industry because our maritime academy evolved in the treaty and customs cracks plastered over by the pretense of the New World Order.conditions had to deteriorate so far that a streak of chaos was the spark that inspired a mass strike of sorts.