Trains, trucks, and supply chains(gadallon.substack.com)
gadallon.substack.com
Trains, trucks, and supply chains
https://gadallon.substack.com/p/trains-trucks-and-supply-chains
4 comments
[deleted]
So I'm a pretty classical libertarian and overall don't love unions and really hate government intervention in pretty much anything especially the economy.
But here's the thing is that a society that stops caring for the poor, that exploits it's people, or in the words of the Bible that has "afalse swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right," is going to be headed for rough times and is morally bankrupt.
It feels to me like we are seeing more and more of that lately with things like passing laws to prevent the workers from striking, the massive wealth transfer that occurred during COVID, the way corporations are becoming land lords optimizing for profit. It just all seems to me like we are headed down a dark road where our only god is money and the only sin is not extracting the maximum profit.
But here's the thing is that a society that stops caring for the poor, that exploits it's people, or in the words of the Bible that has "afalse swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right," is going to be headed for rough times and is morally bankrupt.
It feels to me like we are seeing more and more of that lately with things like passing laws to prevent the workers from striking, the massive wealth transfer that occurred during COVID, the way corporations are becoming land lords optimizing for profit. It just all seems to me like we are headed down a dark road where our only god is money and the only sin is not extracting the maximum profit.
One result of digging at these issues is I think the whole free market stuff is a canard to cover financialization of everything. That's explains a lot of about reflexive policy choices and the stripping away of the power of labor and consumers.
Anything that's entangled with responsibilities towards anyone other than nominal owners is harder to turn into a paper asset that can be traded as if it were money. Ergo all those things need to be stripped away.
Anything that's entangled with responsibilities towards anyone other than nominal owners is harder to turn into a paper asset that can be traded as if it were money. Ergo all those things need to be stripped away.
We’ve been on that road for a long, long time.
I heard a political science graduate speak at a very high quality Big Data conference in SF, and what he said in 20 minutes really struck a chord for me..
basically, the ugly, illegal and regressive forces in (politics) will always be present, but by growing participation, and some orderly enforcement of rules, you can "dilute" or out-number the bad actors, with systems that are more efficient, more fair and get better long-term outcomes. On the other hand, when things are tough, when those that cheat knowingly gain an upper-hand, when factional fighting outweighs the orderly participation, then ugly, illegal and regressive forces grow, and are proportionally larger in the results overall.
basically, the ugly, illegal and regressive forces in (politics) will always be present, but by growing participation, and some orderly enforcement of rules, you can "dilute" or out-number the bad actors, with systems that are more efficient, more fair and get better long-term outcomes. On the other hand, when things are tough, when those that cheat knowingly gain an upper-hand, when factional fighting outweighs the orderly participation, then ugly, illegal and regressive forces grow, and are proportionally larger in the results overall.
It sounds like you're a libertarian until you're negatively affected by your environment. I'm sorry that I'm attacking you right now with words, but I know a few "libertarians" in real life, and they all appear to be opportunists (read: selfish).
> Second, why does the Senate have the ability to force the Union to accept a resolution? This is clearly not the case in other industries.
It isn't? I think it is.
It isn't? I think it is.
Railroad workers are covered by the Railway Labor Act, while almost every other job is covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The RLA makes it harder to strike, but the tactics that strikers may use once a strike is declared are much broader than under the NLRA. [0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Labor_Act#Bargaining_a...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Labor_Act#Bargaining_a...
They will never be allowed to strike so it doesn’t matter
This is almost certainly true, and if the strike isn't allowed the only recourse they have that is not punishable is just quitting (iirc). Things like wildcat strikes and work slowdowns would probably lead to fines or worse.
I'm always reminded that the first aerial ordinance dropped on US soil was the US army bombing striking railroad workers [0].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
I'm always reminded that the first aerial ordinance dropped on US soil was the US army bombing striking railroad workers [0].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
My math skills are lacking but they seem to be saying that it would cost $3.43/mile for a fully loaded truck (approximately 22 tons freight capacity) at 15.6 cents per ton-mile. It’s actually almost 46k lbs if they load it absolutely perfectly (because the axle groups have weight limits) but nobody does that except the stupid carrot peeps who will make you go back because they can throw an extra couple hundred pounds on. Oh, and Budweiser usually loads to capacity too. Need to know these things so you don’t show up with empty fuel tanks and end up overweight after fueling because they don’t care.
They had me take a class at work (free lunch? Sign me up!) where we calculated what it costs to operate a truck (my truck specifically) and it came out to around $1.43/mile not counting my wages. This is from actual data of me running around hauling freight not some congressional staffers pulling numbers out of their assets.
On the railroad strike, I heard from the first threats that they stopped putting perishable products on the trains because they didn’t want them to get stuck at some random location if they all walked off the job. All that stuff got diverted to trucks, make your own decision on that I suppose.