Trucker Pay Has Fallen When Adjusted For Inflation

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...

Atlas shrugged great book " WHO IS JOHN GALT"

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 watched the Movie series (3 parts) at the show, was hard to find, maybe on HuLu now

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

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.

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.

I remember Ayn Rand from my philosophy courses. Brett, you'd probably also enjoy reading Noam Chomsky's work. He was (still is?) a linguistics professor at MIT, but is also known for his thinking in regard to capitalism, socialism, and class wars. He also has been very vocal on United States foreign policy, doing several public lectures at universities around the country.

I just want to point out one HUGE thing that nobody else has mentioned yet. Some 70% of our economy is based on consumer spending. If the overwhelming majority of consumers don't have money to spend, what sort of effect do you suppose that is going to have? That's the inherent flaw in this supply-side top-down economic model we've been playing with for the last 40 years. It doesn't benefit the working class, it doesn't benefit the economy, and it doesn't benefit our society. The only ones it does benefit are the ultra-wealthy, and they're the ones least in need of help right now.

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.

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.