Bearing in mind:
• that more than 1,000 container ships have been idled by the worldwide economic collapse;
• that the worldwide economic collapse was caused by unemployed Americans;
• that unemployed Americans no longer have buying power;
• and that Americans without buying power have ceased demanding products from overseas suppliers … which is why all those container ships are rotting away in maritime mortuaries like Singapore, Subic Bay and Rotterdam …

…why, pray tell, are politicians and promoters still trying to sell taxpayers on the idea that the Delaware River must be dredged in order to accommodate those monstrous and useless container ships, when the truth of the matter is that the next ports o’ call for those leviathans will be scrap yards and not container yards?

Are we supposed to believe that without demanding buyers, carriers like Maersk, for example, would nevertheless bring more cargo on larger ships to terminals 100 miles up the Delaware?

Are we supposed to believe that the USS New Jersey, the USS John F. Kennedy and the SS United States can make it up the Delaware but banana boats from South America cannot?

Are we supposed to believe that, for vessels arriving from Europe, terminals 100 miles up the Delaware are closer and more accessible than terminals in the Port of NY/NJ?

Are we suppose to believe that the proposed expansion of the Panama Canal will actually take place now that investors are beginning to realize that by 2014 non-existent large ships will not be carrying undemanded (and unpaid for) products from non-producing factories in Asia?

Are we supposed to believe that cash-strapped taxpayers and the regions unemployed will happily fund the dredging, especially when the only possible beneficiaries could be entities such as Maersk Line, Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, Tioga Terminal, Hamburg Sud, Dole Fresh Fruit Co., Chiquita Brands International, Inc., Mediterranean Shipping Co. Inc., Hyundai Merchant Marine Shipping Agency, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., Camden Iron & Metal Inc., Growmark Inc., Sunoco, Valero Energy Corp., and the Pilots Association for the Bay and Delaware River?

Without a deeper Delaware, one spokesman foresees “commerce on the Delaware slowly dying. As the ships get larger, they will stop calling here,” he opined. “Not only will we not gain new business, but we will lose existing business. The business that comes up now will be coming in bigger ships, and deeper ships, because they won’t build small ships anymore.” Dumb.

Maybe officials in those companies should be told to “put your money where your mouth is”. If dredging is so crucial to their future successes, and if they consider dredging to be a worthwhile investment, why shouldn’t they be the ones to ante-up? They’re dumb, alright. Dumb like foxes.