Comment by _siis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _siis | Hacker News Reader

This article has almost no relevant information. The comments are not very educated from what I've seen so far.

There have been no significant increases in labor pay matching inflation for years (every year workers have taken a loss).

Additionally, the remainder of the industry is as good as nationalized which started with legislation in 1966, and worsened with the charter of the Surface Transportation Board in 1996.

Railroads can't raise their own rates to increase their profit, despite costs. Little investment has been forthecoming for the industry prompting loans from the government which don't fix the fundamental problem.

There were even points where railroads had to have a bailout because of fraud on the bankers parts, which as far as I know was never actually punished.

The simple fact is, inflation hits everyone, rates aren't matching inflation, and of course people won't continue to work when their livelihood is threatened.

Ironically, this is a problem you only generally see in centralized, socialist systems. The next clear step is Directive 10-289.

https://theexplanationproject.fandom.com/wiki/Directive_10-2...

Pot calling the kettle black. This has nothing to do with inflation or even pay rate for the workers. It is strictly about quality of life and paid time off.

No, you are very wrong, and on a brand new account no less so there is always the strong possibility you are one of those trolling bots. Thus my responses will be limited, credibility of new accounts is tenuous at best.

If you were educated you would realize there is a fundamental limit under which real purchasing power cannot go below for any length of time, and rate of pay failing to meet inflation yearly for several decades would eventually reach a breaking point.

Paid time off simply translates into purchasing power, and the fact they can't hire more people because almost no one is willing to enter the industry because there's no profit to be made, and yet everything depends on it running smoothly. They can't raise their prices, have two conductors (god forbid something happen to one in-transit) or even hire security guards to ensure people don't steal from slow moving trains.

If you have the inkling and want to educate yourself, I'd recommend you start with The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith 1778.

It describes the fundamentals of why our economy worked, and why it has slowly stagnated with the increased legislation (regulation), consolidation (monopolization), and frauds of various entities.

After that, a primer on socialism's key elements (i.e. centralized power structures, (lack of)property rights, monopolistic industry, etc,) and its major failings which is why most people say its responsible for more deaths than any other system (Nazis, Mao, etc).

From there, Wealth and Poverty of Nations by Landis and you should then be able to competently speak.

>they can't hire more people because almost no one is willing to enter the industry because there's no profit to be made, and yet everything depends on it running smoothly.

I agree, nationalize the railroads. Not reading the rest of your turgid weirdo libertarian spew, have a great weekend :)

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