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Ulrich If we could manage our expectations better and learn to live more frugally 90% of our problems would be gone. That's alot more than most folks in other parts of the world can say.
If we could manage our expectations better and learn to live more frugally 90% of our problems would be gone. That's alot more than most folks in other parts of the world can say.
Sage advice but I fear it would lead to a precipitous drop in railborne container traffic..after all;a lot of people's "living beyond means" these days sails from Asia to Long Beach on a container ship and crosses the country on a stack train (insert emoticon here)..
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
UP is doing fine.. stock up today which is notable given the issues with Greece. I would have expected investors to sell off in droves.. maybe that's still coming.
You could get ahead so long as you weren't female or of a color other than white, in which case your options were severely limited. The 60s and earlier were good years, I'll agree with that. I was a little too young then to remember much, but I do remember that we always seemed to have enough money and mom didn't have to trapse off to work (although she dearly wanted to.. working and independence weren't options for her so housewife it was).
I'm not big on materialism either.. whenever my wife drags me off to the mall I become depressed for two reasons.. 1) I hate shopping and 2) seeing how awash in excess we are. Where soap used to be good enough we now have 50 types of pimple cream and 100 types of toothpaste to choose from.. very few people are skinny apart from the very few who seem to work out at something. We're drowning in excess and we seem to want more and more everyday. 50 years ago a nice bungalow was good enough... now people are wanting 3000 sq. ft. homes just to start out.. Expectations today are through the roof it seems. When my sister in law and her husband came over to my place to discuss the purchase of their first home I tried to gently persuade them that renting might be a better option for them given their sparse finances. Well, they didn't talk to me for a week.. wife gave me hell too. How dare I make such a suggestion.. spent the better part of a week in the dog house for it. Now they've got themselves into a home they can't afford.. and of course its not their fault!
Ulrich,
Don't just judge quality of life by material possessions or technological advances. Life in the early 60's might have moved slower than today but it was pretty good for most in the USA. (The exception was those still trapped in segregation and unable to move elsewhere.) But if you were willing to work hard, you could get ahead before too long.
The USA will be OK in the future only if the right decisions are made by most individuals and reflected in all levels of commerce and government. I admit my thought is greatly influenced by my having constantly worked the last 20 years of my career with government bureaucrats at all levels and seeing how "crushing" they could be as well as a too prevalent lack of common sense on their part. Between civil service and even more by the union protections that they all had, too many were either duds or little dictators.
Ulrich I wouldn't be so pessimistic. Look at how life was just 50 years ago.
And what, exactly, was wrong with life in Canada and the U.S. 50 years ago?
jeffhergert ouibejamn Euclid I do not expect it to ever recover to robust growth. Never? Seriously? Anybody older than about twenty has seen our economy go through boom and bust cycles. Where you are in that cycle depends on what type of work you do and where you do it, I suppose. I think the economy is great for some, not so great for others. If you get most of your income from wages, it's not so good. Sure we've had cycles before and will have them in the future. Problem is, so much has changed. Years past, when the economy has come back the quality and quantity of jobs returned or surpassed what had been. We may have even lost entire industries, but new ones took their place to employ those displaced. Now the jobs return much slower, the quality for most is less than what they lost. And with globalization there is always someone who can do it cheaper somewhere else. That is, if they don't find a way to automate the job and eliminate it entirely. I read an article last year where some economists said we could eventually see 50% unemployment rates become normal. That because of technology becoming better and cheaper. Jeff
ouibejamn Euclid I do not expect it to ever recover to robust growth. Never? Seriously? Anybody older than about twenty has seen our economy go through boom and bust cycles. Where you are in that cycle depends on what type of work you do and where you do it, I suppose.
Euclid I do not expect it to ever recover to robust growth.
Never? Seriously? Anybody older than about twenty has seen our economy go through boom and bust cycles. Where you are in that cycle depends on what type of work you do and where you do it, I suppose.
I think the economy is great for some, not so great for others. If you get most of your income from wages, it's not so good. Sure we've had cycles before and will have them in the future. Problem is, so much has changed.
Years past, when the economy has come back the quality and quantity of jobs returned or surpassed what had been. We may have even lost entire industries, but new ones took their place to employ those displaced. Now the jobs return much slower, the quality for most is less than what they lost. And with globalization there is always someone who can do it cheaper somewhere else. That is, if they don't find a way to automate the job and eliminate it entirely.
I read an article last year where some economists said we could eventually see 50% unemployment rates become normal. That because of technology becoming better and cheaper.
Jeff
I wouldn't be so pessimistic. Look at how life was just 50 years ago. Go back another 50 years and life was truly brutish and usually short by today's standards. We're going to be okay.
Unfortunatly it's too late for the replacement plant in Bay City Consumers wanted to build. Much cleaner than the existing plant but the environmentists had Gov. Barbie on their side at the time and she pushed through a law requiring 10% of power to come from windmills and solar. UP and BNSF won't be sending many coal trains to Michigan.
How well is the Union Pacific's competition doing?
BaltACD SCotUS knocks down EPA Mercury rules http://news.yahoo.com/us-supreme-court-rejects-mercury-emissions-regulation-153652063.html
SCotUS knocks down EPA Mercury rules
http://news.yahoo.com/us-supreme-court-rejects-mercury-emissions-regulation-153652063.html
The fight was led by the AG of Michigan, where I live. However, the two big power companies in the state have already largely completed the upgrades for their baseload plants. They are mostly retiring smaller obsolete plants that are not worth upgrading. I'm sure the ruling will save some dirty power plants somewhere, but I would not count on it steming the downward trend in thermal coal.
I agree, there will have to be a major shift in policy or coal to be a growth commodity again. The only problem with using intermodal to replace coal is that the average revenue from a carload of IM is much less than the average revenue from a carload of coal. Saw some figures not long ago (which I can't remember specifically) that I believe had the revenue from IM about half that of coal.
Euclid ouibejamn Euclid I do not expect it to ever recover to robust growth. Never? Seriously? Anybody older than about twenty has seen our economy go through boom and bust cycles. Where you are in that cycle depends on what type of work you do and where you do it, I suppose. Yes, I mean never, but I suppose I should qualify that because I do not mean "never" in terms of geological time. What I mean is to never return as a country to the economic prosperity of the past. I am referring to the average performance since there will be performance spurts here and there.
Yes, I mean never, but I suppose I should qualify that because I do not mean "never" in terms of geological time. What I mean is to never return as a country to the economic prosperity of the past. I am referring to the average performance since there will be performance spurts here and there.
Well it would if you stopped playing on the computer all the time and got a job ike the rest of us.
Just sayin'....
Murphy SidingHey you kids! Get off my lawn!
LOL! I don't know about this site, but I know a few rail-related websites where that should be their mission statement.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
I've never seen the world in such an unstable state. We're learning that there are alot of negatives to globalization ..i.e. if Greece implodes as it likely will all of us will take a hit. What does Greece have to do with selling shoes in Dubuque? Apparently alot.. Maybe we've swung too far towards globalization and perhaps should look at insulating outrselves from world events as much as possible by encouraging self sustaining regional economies. In the meantime I guess whenever someone in Greece or China or wherever sneezes we catch a cold.
I don't know if it is as bad as the Great Recession. I guess it depends on how you measure it. I think it is certainly worse than the mid to late 1970s. But again, it depends on what you are doing at the time. What works for me is an economy growing at 4-6% GDP per year and very low unemployment. Today feels like long term decline.
ouibejamn Euclid I am referring to the entire period up to the start of the 2008 recession Does that include the period from 1930 to 1938?
Euclid I am referring to the entire period up to the start of the 2008 recession
EuclidI am referring to the entire period up to the start of the 2008 recession
Does that include the period from 1930 to 1938?
ouibejamn Euclid What I mean is to never return as a country to the economic prosperity of the past What period or periods are you referring to? Was this a period of prosperity for the middle class, recent immigrants, corporations?
Euclid What I mean is to never return as a country to the economic prosperity of the past
What period or periods are you referring to? Was this a period of prosperity for the middle class, recent immigrants, corporations?
I am referring to the entire period up to the start of the 2008 recession. I am referring to prosperity in general as an average expressed in the true facts of GDP, and not to success or failure of individual groups.
Johnny
jeffhergertI myself have doubts they can or will change. While I'm not ready to retire for a while, there are times I'm glad that I'm closer to that instead of just starting out. While I should be OK, I worry about those just entering the work force, railroad or otherwise.
A whole generation of managers leading these companies, and most of them have no clue how to actually railroad (move cars and serve customers). All they know how to do is write new safety rules and blame everyone else for their own incompetence.
Used to be a good career, but the last 5 years have been painful to witness.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
EuclidI do not expect it to ever recover to robust growth.
I didn't see the UP CEO's latest quarterly report message. A conductor told me he had said "we can do better" in reference to not making their targeted numbers. It was shortly after that when the cutting started.
It's always appeared to me, that as long as they can make their numbers even at reduced business levels, they are happy. Less traffic actually can make some of their metrics seem better, such as velocity. During most of the economic slow down, beginning in 2008, they were able to post very good performances, even has traffic dropped considerbly. They had to cut to do it, but were able to look good. I wouldn't be surprised that there are some in the glass palace (HQ) who are far enough removed from how the world works, who think the company is better off at reduced levels because of that past experience.
Eventually though, you reach a point where you can't cut anymore and are actually going to have to find new business. And not just new business gained because your competitor is having their own problems. (How long is that business going to last once your competitor fixes their problems?) It may require a change in attitude towards what business is worth having. Maybe they will have to look at business that is less than 100 cars at a time or runs in shorter lanes.
I myself have doubts they can or will change. While I'm not ready to retire for a while, there are times I'm glad that I'm closer to that instead of just starting out. While I should be OK, I worry about those just entering the work force, railroad or otherwise.
Trash
With today's society, Trash and its disposal is a growth industry.
With the clear exception of CN and maybe CP, the class 1s are too heavily invested in coal regardless of any fault on anyone's part. Coal for a number of reasons is not likely to become a growth commodity again so the only clear path to continued profitability is to find alternative sources of revenue as quickly as possible. In my opinion focussing on building up the intermodal business and improving services to the paper industry are a good start. The intermodal business in particular has lots of room to grow both from a domestic and international standpoint. Further out, taking back the LCL business might be another avenue to followup.. that business was lost to trucking decades ago but could be won back at least to some degree.
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