Comments By PanamaExpat

I don't want to get completely on my soap box here, but you left out one big word that explains why wages across all industries are stagnating while corporate profits, corporate liquid assets (cash), and corporate executive salaries are all at record highs: greed.

The moderator will probably edit me out for this but I must point out that the problem could be easily solved with tax increases (or mandated wage hikes) to suck that corporate cash out of their coffers and back into the economy. Just sayin'.

Increasing the corporate taxes won't solve the problems. That will just exacerbate the problem of driving companies out of our country. We already have the highest corporate tax in the modern world. Now if we lowered taxes and made it easier for money that has been sent offshore to be repatriated that would help. Also by setting up a system that rewards employers for actually creating jobs that pay a living wage you would do wonders for our country as a whole.

I have read Ayn's work. She has good points. Ayn (fascist) is also a extremist, just like Marxs (communist) and Smith (capitalist).

Alan Greenspan was a huge follower of Ayn's work, he used to go to her house for lessons. Alan also deregulated the banking industry and made it to where a homeless man could pull out a $100,000 home loan. We saw where that led. He even admits today how his ideology screwed things up.

Alan Greenspan unequivocally did not employ Ayn Rand's ideas during his two decades as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He employed the opposite.

Thanks Jared for that... When I read Attila's post I almost had steam rolling out of my ears. He also doesn't seem to remember Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957... not so fascist for those times.

It is hard for consumers to have money when all the jobs we once had are now being performed by some guy living in a cardboard and tin shack in Bombay. When companies can get by paying lower wages, no benefits, and have no OSHA or EPA regulations why shouldn't they. The only thing they forgot about when they set up all these trade agreements was what happens when the consumer base you were counting on no longer has any money because you took their jobs away.

Until you start rewarding the producers and innovators and they in turn can start taking care of the workers that support them we will never get back on the rails. The lower wage issue is being felt much deeper and wider than in the trucking industry. All of Main Street America is feeling the squeeze. The only guys that are throwing a party are the Wall Street bankers and speculators and their associated government cronies.

And as I said before... Nothing will change if we don't stand up as a nation and change it.

Nothing wrong with that 30 minute break.. and in my opinion... If you have the time do two.

Another note: Ayn Rand is a typical Russian novelist. So like Tolstoy she tends to descriptively ramble on a bit. But the descriptions do loop back to mean something later on. You may actually sometimes find the story tedious but it will all make sense later.

Looks like everyone here needs to read some Ayn Rand

I just downloaded "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand for Kindle. This author is new to me so I'm anxious to see what I find...

I am sure you will like it. It is amazing how if you apply the meaning of the book to what is happening in the world today you will see very close similarities. Whatever you do... don't watch the very bad movie trilogy.

And ... I know .. Who is John Galt.

Just as an example of how big the gap is in worker to CEO the CEO of Mcdonalds makes 450 times what the average mcdonalds employee makes.

I'm not saying a burger flipper should make 20 bucks an hour, but its got to the point that someone who works a 40+ hour work week cannot feed themselves much less a family.

In the 70s and 80s a min wage income could feed a family of 4. Now you are better off on welfare then working, that is one of the biggest problems.

And that is why unless we all get together and speak with our votes to get a new crop of elected representatives that have the every day citizen's well being in hand things will only get worse. We now live in a what are you going to give me for my vote instead of a what are you going to do to make our lives better society. It is becoming high time for the entire system to get a reboot.

Do you want to live in a nation of we the people... or the people versus the politicians?

And as for the guy at the top of the ladder... If he built it. He deserves it. But he also needs to remember that it can't happen without the people he hired that do the work that keeps those profits rolling in. A good day's work for a good day's pay.

Looks like everyone here needs to read some Ayn Rand.

We are headed for an economic disaster no matter what way you slice it. Our system has been in decay since the 1970s. The government has played a huge role in how things have become the way they are now. Corporate America now basically is in control of the government. The people at the top have absolutely zero idea of how the people in the middle are living. Just listen to the drivel that emanates from the mouths of people like Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, the Clintons, the Bush family, or any of the other so out of touch with reality politicians that have somehow managed to get voted into office. It is our own government that creates this downfall with it's massive social programs, to big to fail policies, and it's capitalize on the gains and socialize the losses attitude.

A huge portion of our problems started with LBJ in the mid 1960s and his creation of the welfare system that has become a way of life for the lower classes. All this system does is enable those that don't want to perform to live off the backs of those that do. On my grandparents farm there was a general rule when it came to living and working there. You don't work you don't eat. We need to scrap these social programs that enable the lazy to live freely off your dime.

I watched two great American cities become ghost towns namely Dayton and Springfield Ohio. Technology had a huge role to play in the demise of these two cities. But so did corporate greed and government collusion. I had a friend named Bill whose father worked as a machinist at NCR (National Cash Register) in Dayton from the early 1960s right up until 1980. They went home for Christmas shut down one year and when he came back two weeks later they had retooled the factory and no longer were going to manufacture a mechanical register in favor of the new cheaper and more reliable digital electronic models. Of course for my friend's father this fell short by two years of him being able to draw his pension. The union did nothing to help. General Motors AC Delco division and Harrison division... They also had huge labor forces employing thousands with good paying union scale jobs. Well thanks to our politicians coming up with Mexican trade agreements in the late 1970s they just suddenly up and moved their factories and warehouses south of the border to take advantage of cheap labor, not having to pay massive pensions and other benefits as imposed by labor unions. What did this accomplish? Massive cost savings for GM. Huge bonuses to execs and kickbacks to politicians. All the while placing literally thousands if high school level educated older workers on the welfare roles. Created massive urban blight and the shuttering of one of our greatest resources manly the factories that produced the products we bought and sold on the domestic and international markets. I wasn't there back then but in the 1950s (as an old timer in a diner where I used to eat lunch told me) that in Springfield if you were an able bodied person walking down the street there were recruiters standing on the sidewalks asking if you needed a job. These were for companies like Colliers Publishing, Springfield Metallic Casket, International Harvester, and the James Leffel Company. All of these companies were running three shifts and employing thousands of American workers. A huge portion of these companies failed in the mid to late 70s due to what? If you guessed greedy labor unions forcing high wages and unsustainable benefits onto the backs of the very companies that employed all of these folks you would be 100% correct. Follow that up with the creation of OSHA and the EPA along with other forms of government regulation and looting and there you have what has brought our nation to it's knees.

I also learned something when I moved out of the USA. I was sitting in a roadside cafe in 1993 in Negril watching a work crew digging up an old culvert for replacement. I remember asking my friend who was also a native why have ten men working for three days to manually change the culvert when they could do it in a couple hours with a backhoe? (They had one at the maintenance facility) His reply was " Well then what would all these men do for work? If you do the job with a machine then these guys will be out of a job."

Growing up watching the once greatest nation on Earth fail has not been fun. Every time a new trade agreement, regulation, or technological advancement happens it is the American middle class that takes the hit. Our entire socioeconomic system is like an piece of antiquated software. Instead of editing the core code we add a patch because it is easier. With each patch it becomes more difficult to edit the core. With each patch it becomes more bloated, convoluted, and inefficient. But in spite of our selves we just keep adding to our demise. So who are we to blame? Industry and enterprise, government, labor, or the root of it all, ourselves. At this point in time we are headed for a brick wall at 1000 MPH. Will we hit it? If past experience has anything to dictate that would be an unqualified yes.

So Brett... To answer your questions:

1. No, it definitely is not fair.

2. Not a damn thing. Until enough of us have had enough and decide WE as a whole need to make the changes to reset the system we will continue on our path straight into H*ll.

Where would you install the camera when you're constantly swapping trailers?

That is why you would use magnet or clamp mounts and a battery pack. The systems set up for tractor/trailer come this way for exactly that reason.

I have been wondering why no one on here mentions the use of backup and or blind spot cameras. It sure would be nice to see that clown tailgating you or make positively certain nothing is sneaking up on your right before you change lanes. Also knowing exactly what is off the right rear corner of your trailer so you don't scrape down a wall, hit another parked truck or that light pole you didn't see. Probably would also make sure that you didn't catch an open door on anything as I read of so many new drivers doing. I have looked on the net and see that there are many single and multi-camera wireless systems available and they are priced from about $250 up to about$1000. Looks like if you had the monitor installed in your cab it would only take a couple minutes to magnet mount or clamp on the cameras and battery packs. Some of the monitors even allow for split screening up to for cameras. To me it seems that for the price they could save you a possible preventable accident and maybe even your job.

Anyone have any experience or thoughts about using this tech?