Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

run in circles, scream and shout! It’s the end of the world isn’t it? Global meltdown,  Economic Recession, terrible, bad. Oh yeah, I forgot, People are ALREADY doing that.

News Flash. This has all happened before. We did OK then, we should do OK now. Overall. Mostly. Some won’t. Deadwood will be trimmed, the herd will be thinned. Those of us who survive (and I use this term in the loosest possible way, we’ll most likely ALL literally survive, some of just a little leaner than before, financially and perhaps in a different occupation) will have better opportunities than before.

Once again the Power of the Internet lends a more accurate perspective on current events than does the pandering News Media. Google is still your friend and Wikipedia is a quick and easy way to get an immediate overview of “what’s happening”. Vast vistas of info are available for anyone who has a little bit of initiative. Being uninformed is no longer an excuse anyone can find out just about anything with very little effort and very quickly.

To Illustrate, go to List of recessions in the United States to find a very informative article concerning US Recessions. Perhaps not what you might read over supper but nonetheless relevant to today’s current events.

Reading the article and doing a little high class math (using my fingers to count) I determine immediately that in the history of the US , since 1797, there have been 17 recessions. Actually 18 if you count this one. Actually 16 recessions and 2 Depressions if you want to be picky. (I bet you didn’t know about the Long Depression? )

Assuming the USA began in 1776 and being aware that today is 2008, that’s 232 years. Wow. How time flies. Accounting for the fact that the Great Depression (10 yrs) and the Long Depression (23 yrs) lasted quiet a bit longer than any of the others that would be 200 non-depression years not counting this one. With a recession (on average) every 12 years lasting (on average) about 4 years each. Lately they’ve tended toward being quiet a bit shorter.

Why am I playing with numbers like this..you might ask?

1. Because I can. Have the news media ever mentioned anything like this to put the present situation into perspective between their incessant, mindless commercials for constipation remedies and breakfast cereal and suchlike? Nope, I seriously doubt it. Some kind of things are not “sound bite” adaptable and actually require a multi-minute attention span. The internet however, has made it possible to determine a close approximation to the truth which might have taken weeks in times past,very quickly, a few minutes even.
2. To illustrate how in the greater sense this current economic downturn might be pretty insignificant. For example: In the Long Depression of 1873–1896 “in the United States, …. industrial output increased fourfold. “
3. To illustrate that in the greater sense this current economic downturn might be pretty damn important.

Important in the sense that if folks don’t pay attention they may be stampeded into doing something they, their children and possibly other’s might regret for a long, long, time.

Pay attention, get the facts, formulate your OWN opinion (don’t trust the media or the CB) and vote accordingly when the time comes. There are quite a few truckers. Taken as a whole we’d be a pretty significant “block“ of voters, almost two million.

In the Presidential Election of 2000 ” candidate Al Gore with 50.16 million votes, Republican candidate George W. Bush with 49.82″. The reason Bush is President is due to the electoral college. I’m sure everyone knows just exactly how it works. (I’ve heard it explained in great and obscene detail on the CB, repeatedly, different each time. My point being that the election was CLOSE. A difference of .34 million. That’s 340,000 people.

There were five and a half times that many over the road long haul truckers. (1,860,000) at that time.

Wonder how many voted?

So yeah, run in circles, scream and shout. It’s the end of the world isn’t it?