And driver shortage? Hard to believe, oh yeah, they are probably not paying much.

Pretty soon we will be at 100% unemployment. Won't that be fun?

... after hearing a coworker who is a former truck driver boast so much about how truck drivers are the "lifeblood of this country" and "you'd all starve without us truckers". Reminded me of the constant ass-kissing that many soldiers seem to demand nowadays for supposedly "protecting our freedom" when they're usually just making matters worse (not their decisions).

Then I thought about the "common good" and decided that I didn't want to see all truck drivers replaced just because that guy is a worship-seeking jerk. (He lost his CDL temporarily for falling asleep in his car while drunk.)

If the trucks in this country stopped rolling for whatever reason, and they nearly did at the height of the financial crisis, your grocery shelves would be EMPTY inside 2 days.

EMPTY.

Every gas station would be out of fuel. Every ATM would be empty because people would panic and start taking out cash.

Stores as big as Target and Wal-Mart wouldn't have product inside a week.

Empty.

The railroads can not move everything and deliver it everywhere. The guy might have been a pompous ass, but trust me, he wasn't wrong.

... truck drivers could be replaced someday.

I'm more concerned about a massive EMP creating that chaos rather than truckers organizing on a massive scale to cause it. I've worked around too many people who are more willing to slowly kill themselves with a second job rather than try to organize among themselves for a more equitable share of the pie at their primary jobs, so I don't foresee truckers organizing in that way either.

If they're slowly replaced with automated vehicles, they'll allow it to happen just like the other schmucks (including me) in this country. Meanwhile, people will continue to be more socially isolated, face-to-face, and have their brains filled with ideas that make it harder to trust anything beyond our corporate Gods and the so-called "free market" system that's coddled by our militaristic nanny state.

By law, it became treason for Germans to speak against the Nazis. It limited free speech and pitted Germans against each other as some would "turn in" their neighbors. Same kind of thing happens in this country, but in a less centralized way. Most companies will rid themselves of employees who even SPEAK of unions, and there's far too many employees who will gladly rat on a coworker for such talk just to win some brownie points with the companies.

Edit: And many industries could cause similar effects, such as a massive strike among agricultural workers (which won't happen either). It would make as much sense for them to say they're the "lifeblood" of this county, if not more so.

Plug .25 into an inflation adjustment calculator from '87 to today and you get $.55

Guess how many fleets are starting experienced drivers at fifty five cents these days?

Not only have truck drivers not gotten a raise in 30 years, we've gone backwards.

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm