A Nation of Truckers

Zero Hedge ^ | 2-20-15 | Jim Quinn

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Oh how the country has changed in the last 36 years. We were a nation of farmers, secretaries, and machine operators in 1978. The family farmer was still the backbone in the Northern Plains and Midwest. The internet didn’t exist, so letters needed to be typed, copies made, mail distributed, dictation taken, and coffee brewed. So every business was loaded with secretaries. The country still manufactured goods here in 1978. We sold them domestically and internationally. Globalization and NAFTA hadn’t become the buzz words of Ivy League educated MBA’s yet.

[please see following graphics]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

A Nation Of Truckers

 

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

Oh how the country has changed in the last 36 years. We were a nation of farmers, secretaries, and machine operators in 1978. The family farmer was still the backbone in the Northern Plains and Midwest. The internet didn’t exist, so letters needed to be typed, copies made, mail distributed, dictation taken, and coffee brewed. So every business was loaded with secretaries. The country still manufactured goods here in 1978. We sold  them domestically and internationally. Globalization and NAFTA hadn’t become the buzz words of Ivy League educated MBA’s yet.

A look at the most common jobs today reveals how the country has changed. Corporations bought up most of the family farms and older farmers died off. Independent farmers are now a dying breed. The internet all but eliminated the need for secretaries. They became the buggy whip of the 21st Century. There is no need for machine operators when all the machines and manufacturing plants are located in China, Vietnam, and the rest of Southeast Asia. The Ivy League MBAs gutted American manufacturing and sent all the jobs to Asia, where they could produce the same products 80% cheaper and drive their corporate profits sky high, along with their own stock based compensation. So we are left with a nation of truck drivers transporting cheap Chinese produced crap to the millions of retail outlets, where the low wage slaves borrow to buy the crap. The American Dream achieved in 36 short years.

This is how you turn a nation of producers into a nation of consumers. And it couldn’t have been accomplished without the prodigious amounts of debt aided, abetted and distributed by the Federal Reserve and their Wall Street owners.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

... apologies for the double post of the map. The interwebs are tricksy.

[cripplecreek]

And just think. Truck driving is fast becoming on of those jobs “Americans won’t do”.

[MSF BU]

I wonder how the map would look if “Welfare” were added to the list of occupations?

[SSS Two]

Don’t worry. As driverless vehicle technology improves, we’ll need fewer and fewer truck drivers. This map will change again in 20 or 30 years.

[GeronL]

my brother is going back into trucking

[KoRn]

I’m SURE people are fast working on bringing in Indians(hotel type) and Mexicans in here by the boatload to drive trucks on H1Bs as we speak. They’ll drive for $4 per hour. lol

You can bet on it...

[Mr. Jeeves]

1970 saw companies filled with knowledge workers who were indispensable because they "knew stuff".

By 2010, the Internet "knew stuff" and paying all those people became unnecessary.

It isn't much more complicated than that.

[cripplecreek]

They’ll get paid by the mile.

Personally the only way I would ever drive truck would be as an hourly local factory to factory driver so I could work 8 to 10 hours and go home. The last factory I worked in had 2 drivers who drove out of Manchester Michigan to Livonia and Homer. I think they made around $12 an hour.

[KoRn]

Yeah, 20 years from now, the map will show mostly service(restaurants) and retail. lol

The only really good money for the average person will be Whiskey Stills and growing Marijuana. There will be lower risk, because be then, the cops will be in on it too, or paid well to look the other way....

[ClearCase_guy]

I spent a little time working as a messenger at a Boston law firm in 1979. They had a room full of women who typed. In addition, each lawyer had a secretary who typed and took dictation.

I was in college and I knew women who were in secretarial school -- rather than get a college degree, they were learning how to type and take dictation.

I hope that worked out for them.

[VerySadAmerican]

The Mexican drivers are already here. When you’re out on the road pay attention to who’s driving the trucks.

[Just_Sue]

In the mid-70’s I was a secretary at a mainframe computer company. I was there when the first PC’s appeared. I was fortunate enough to be able to learn programming, and database design because of that. I left that company and eventually became a helpdesk manager because of my knowledge of PC’s. It all worked out for me, but not sure what happened to all the other secretaries out there.

[VerySadAmerican]

I hauled expedited freight in a “straight truck” for a year. I was bringing in ten to 12 grand a month by cooking the log book. Then the company got scared and stopped giving me long hauls and I was lucky to bring in a few grand a month so I quit. Now you rarely see a straight truck anymore. Even FedEx seems to have gotten out of the straight truck business. Every now and then you might see a “Panther” straight truck.

[old curmudgeon]

The reason Virginia shows so many other than truckers is because of all of the office people in government sitting on their asses.

I can assure you that there are as many or more truckers in VA than the map would indicate.

For instance, I drive one highway every Monday. I go east at 3:00 AM and return westbound in mad afternoon.

That highway is highway 58 which runs from south central Va to Norfolk.

You have no idea how many container trucks run that highway, either going to Norfolk, or carrying goods west.

And they are hauling all of the stuff that used to be manufactured in VA; furniture, textiles and even granite for your kitchen from Brazil.

When you see a 1.4 size container on a chassis with four or so axles under the trailer, it is hauling either granite or marble. But regardless of what they are hauling, every single one of those trucks represents many jobs lost in this country.

[Olog-hai]

Definitely Mexicans. Plenty of news stories recently about that.

[cripplecreek]

The loss of factories is killing us.

For the most part the trucks have always been on the highways but they used to be hauling things made in American factories. Now they’re mostly hauling things made in factories elsewhere.

[Dartman]

Your post 17 is exactly right.

Been truckin' for a little over 40 years now.

D-man

[Alberta's Child]

There's a lot of nonsense in the article at the top of the thread.

For one thing, the biggest factor in the growth of jobs in trucking isn't "cheap Chinese produced crap." It was the deregulation of the trucking industry in the early 1980s, which made it cheaper and easier for a small company to get into an industry that had previously functioned as a "closed shop" due to Federal regulations.

Secondly, the decline of farming as an occupation isn't driven by the decline of farming in general ... it's automation, which means it takes a lot fewer workers to farm a 4,000 acre grain farm today than it did to farm a 160 acre grain farm 50 years ago.

[BobL]

Time to PARSE:

“Corporations bought up most of the family farms and older farmers died off”

Family farms are very, very, inefficient. It was a wonder they survived as long as they did. Having college becoming widespread meant a lot less kids to work the farms. Smaller families didn’t help either.

“Independent farmers are now a dying breed.”

Jobs come and go...

“The internet all but eliminated the need for secretaries. They became the buggy whip of the 21st Century.”

Secretaries generally don’t add value to a product, now that computers do the job - that’s life.

“There is no need for machine operators when all the machines and manufacturing plants are located in China, Vietnam, and the rest of Southeast Asia.”

Thank the UNIONS for that. Between their direct actions - being overpaid for being lazy, and electing DEMOCRATS that made manufacturing in the US a virtual nightmare - UNIONS get the credit - all of it.

“The Ivy League MBAs gutted American manufacturing and sent all the jobs to Asia, where they could produce the same products 80% cheaper and drive their corporate profits sky high, along with their own stock based compensation.”

Again, UNIONS. How about we look in the mirror first?

“So we are left with a nation of truck drivers transporting cheap Chinese produced crap to the millions of retail outlets, where the low wage slaves borrow to buy the crap.”

Thank the bankers for the borrowing binge. The “crap” from China is generally as good as anything union-made (often better), or it wouldn’t sell. We would have truckers no matter what.

“The American Dream achieved in 36 short years.”

Not sure what that means.