"How to tackle the crew crisis"
(23 February, page 32)
I was rather shocked by some of the imprudent suggestions made by industry people regarding alleviating the perceived shortage of ship's crews. The solution to the looming crew shortage is extremely simple: money!
Anybody with a smidgen of economic schooling knows that supply, demand and price levels are interrelated. In a free market, when prices go up, overtime supply of a commodity or a service will increase.
In other words, with better wages, ships can still be manned with competent seafarers. However, if wages are kept stagnant, sooner or later the more intelligent ones will look for lucrative jobs ashore.
I never understood why owners of a capital-intensive asset like a ship want to operate it with the cheapest - often substandard - crews. These owners must be fans of "The Simpsons", an US TV cartoon series in which the dim-witted Homer Simpson is at the controls of a nuclear power plant.
Do we want complex ships - often operating in a dangerous environment - to be manned by mental midgets?
I would be frightened to go to sea with them. In time of danger you want to have competent people around you. Furthermore, why is it that penny-pinching should only apply to ships' crews? How about cutting some executives from the payroll? In many instances, the salary of one of them would pay for a complete well-trained crew of 25 to 30 people.