Unions ...... Good Or Bad??

Sam C. You still didn't answer Brett's question about stagnant pay for truck drivers but exponential growth for management pay. Corporate greed is real and sometimes it is not only the bottom workers that suffer, but also shareholders. Witness Coca-Cola's recent compensation plan to issue over 340 MILLION Coke shares to management over 4 years! This is called dilution. After Warren Buffett and other shareholders raised concern over this being too excessive, Coke reduced it to 200 Million shares over 10 years. This is still a 1% dilution per year.

And I must say that I am very surprised that you think driving a truck is not a skill. Most people can't even drive a flippin' car properly for crying out loud, but piloting an 80,000 lb vehicle is no biggie in your book of skills. Also, scholarly achievement has nothing to do with monetary gain later in life. I can send you link upon link, study upon study that show this, if you like.

I also don't think you ever worked for any length of time in a major corporation, otherwise you would know first hand that those in charge are often times not there as a result of their hard work. In your cold and clinical analysis of the world, you forgot the factor Lady Luck plays.

Society as a whole benefits when the bottom 10% earn a decent living. We can't all be CEO's.

You are right, there doesn't need to be slums. But in order for that to happen then everyone has to hold themselves accountable for their own lives. When they realize the only reason they are where they are is their own fault then they will fight to make it better... Loved newsroom BTW.

WalMart vs Publix

Interesting reading.

Pretty easy concept:

When customers have more to spend, companies do better.

Bill R. - liked the FDR comment, the only thing I see wrong with that is he could have gone further himself and not placed all responsibility on the shoulders of business. Why can't the government lay off its hands on any income under $30K? Income tax to me is one of the most insidious forms of taxation. Think about it, you are taxing someone for working, for being productive, for trying to make something of themselves. The government can change things for the better all on its own instead of waiting on businesses to do it. I would like to see who would actually vote against such a proposal. The ultra-low interest rates over the last 8 years have really only benefited the ultra-rich. How has the middle and lower classes fared over that time?

Sam C., your entire argument is proven bogus and invalid by people everyday. I'm one of those people. Similar to Bill R., I was that kid that everyone picked on in school. I was in JROTC for 4 years, the S-4 for 3 years, I took all AP and PreAP classes, and I was that 9th grader in the 11th grader classes. I was a MAGNET student, a DECA business student, I placed 2nd in the United States Army Pearl Harbor History contest, 2nd in the NAACP's ACTSO competition in the oratory category, 1st in AP Physics in the entire Gulf Coast Region's Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering competition, and 2nd in AP Precalculus in the entire Gulf Coast Region's Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering competition. I graduated high school with a 4.1 GPA, 5th out of my class of 200. I went on to get accepted to Harvard University (didn't go because I didn't like the program set up) as well as 15 other colleges. Yet, I still ended up homeless, living in shelters and on the streets while still working to try to get out of this situation. I have no family so I got a place with two roommates who turned out to be dangerous and crazy and I ended up having to get restraining orders and leave. This put me back to being homeless. Eventually, I was blessed to get into a security job making about $13 an hour. But the net pay every two weeks was not enough to live on factoring in rent, transportation to and from work, food, and other NECESSITIES (not luxuries!) no matter where I looked.

I worked hard. I went to school. I got good grades. And yet I still am not rich. I still am struggling to survive. And when on the streets and in the shelters, I spoke with many others like me. Some had doctorate degrees, some were veterans, some had been professors and lawyers and doctors. What we all had in common was the fact that life is not the perfect equation where X=Y, X being hardwork and Y being riches. We all worked hard, we all were highly intelligent people, but LIFE happened. Rich, greedy corporations taking advantage of its workers happened. Even the hard workers can be touched by unfortunate events and end up on the bottom of the totem pole. We are living proof.

But don't get me wrong. I wish your statement was correct, because then I would be swimming in billions. But everybody can't be on top no matter how hard everyone works. It's called reality. I get that you don't want lazy people who do nothing but whine to think that they deserve the world, but we're not talking about lazy people here. You made a blanket statement that says everyone who is rich now deserves it and everyone who works hard will get rich. That is a lie.

And like Rob S. said, you pretty much just ignored all that reason, wisdom, and intelligence in Brett's post. Not only did you not answer Brett's question about stagnant pay for truck drivers and exponential growth for management pay, but you didn't even address the part where he listed all of the statements you would have to be in agreement with in order to make a statement like yours and asked you if that is accurate:

"So the reason drivers today are making half of what we were back then from your perspective must be pretty simple and obvious:

• Drivers today must be working half as hard as we did back then
• Drivers today are producing half as much value for their companies as we were back then.
• Upper management at trucking companies must be three times as productive and they're producing three times the profits today as compared with 20 years ago

Would you say that's accurate?"

If your answer is yes it is accurate, then you are insulting almost everybody on this site by saying they are not hard workers and they are half as productive as their trucking ancestors. That is a slap in the face to people like Old School, Errol, Daniel B. and many others who are currently out there as we speak day in and day out, rain, snow, or shine, sacrificing time away from their families, risking their safety and lives, and putting in good, honest work. So think long and hard before you respond to that question, and before you post anything else here on out.

I went on to get accepted to Harvard University (didn't go because I didn't like the program set up) as well as 15 other colleges.

Explain again how this comment proves my point bogus and invalid. Let me get this straight, YOU didn't want to go to Harvard so now it's someone else's fault you ended up homeless and unsuccessful? Once again I stand by my point from the start. People need to be accountable for the decisions they make in life that got them to the point they are. I'm sure it's hard for those Harvard graduates to find successful jobs.

Kudos LittleTrucker!

As for Bretts post about whether drivers do less not work as hard as they did 25 years ago. The answer is yes, they don't work as hard nor do they do as much. My grandfather was a otr driver for over 30 years, back when it was all on the driver to figure out and plan his trip. Now a days technology does everything for you. Want to know the weather, click your doppler app. Need a place to park, click truckers path. Where am I headed, type in the address on the GPS. Nothing is planned anymore. The trucks are 100x safer and with more and more companies going to the automatics, you won't even have to shift. Yes! The job has gotten easier. Yes! Truckers today don't work as hard as they did then. The same goes for every business. Even burger flippers don't actually flip burgers anymore.

As for Bretts post about whether drivers do less not work as hard as they did 25 years ago. The answer is yes, they don't work as hard nor do they do as much. My grandfather was a otr driver for over 30 years, back when it was all on the driver to figure out and plan his trip. Now a days technology does everything for you. Want to know the weather, click your doppler app. Need a place to park, click truckers path. Where am I headed, type in the address on the GPS. Nothing is planned anymore. The trucks are 100x safer and with more and more companies going to the automatics, you won't even have to shift. Yes! The job has gotten easier. Yes! Truckers today don't work as hard as they did then. The same goes for every business. Even burger flippers don't actually flip burgers anymore.

There's validity to everything you're saying. But that's not the whole story.

• There is far more traffic on the roadways with more congestion today than ever before
• The constant monitoring - roadside checks, drug tests, GPS tracking, fuel mileage monitoring, and even driver-facing cameras leaves very little room for error anymore. Behaviors are monitored continuously and every move you make is scrutinized.
• With more technologies to help you perform your job better the expectations are now higher and excuses are harder to justify. Why did you drive into a snowstorm instead of monitoring the weather radar? Why did you get a ticket for being down a restricted route when you have a Rand McNally GPS system? Why were you ticketed for being overweight when your truck has a system built in to monitor your weight?
• Last but not least......snow and ice and downtown traffic and leaving your family behind for weeks at a time is no easier now than it ever was.

Yes there's more traffic but haven't they expanded roadways and added new highways? Yep.

They monitor drivers to make it safer for people around them. Yep that seems like a bad idea.

It's harder to make excuses why you screwed up? Really? Lol

And for family, yes that still sucks but I bet you talk to them all day, even see them on Skype. Not the same as being there true but way better than the 5 min phone call at a truck stop.

It's hard being the smartest guy here