Read The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream

I agree. Some people really have a need to feel good about themselves. There's plenty of opportunity out there for them to scratch that itch.

 

I am home every night, in my truck.
I get around to visit at home every month for a few days.

Why would i want to work two jobs, trying to work two work schedules, for probably less time off than I have in my truck each day?
And probably for less money with a lot more stress.

Noble shnoble, I do this job because I like doing it.
Just like every other job I have had in my life.
When I get bored with it or get too old to do it properly I will retire to something else.

Money has nothing to do with anything, to me.
It is just what I enjoy doing at the time.

 

I thought the American Dream was being able to live beyond your means. We all do. Starting with any purchase on credit. Home Ownership is the best example. Foreigners who come here are often shocked by the ability to borrow money so easily. Many perceive almost all Americans as being rich.

 

This is true. I've given up on the American Dream Yeats ago lol....foreigners think everyone is rich here because perception is reality. People think the way things look is how they really are. It don't even phase me to see someone drive a Benz or some similar car. You can appear rich if you want to. What some foreigners see here looks better than what they came from. My mom always said to me, that you never know that you're poor until you see someone that has more than you. That's why when they come here, they think they've made it. It's easy to borrow money because that's the only way big ticket items get sold. Most Americans don't make enough to even buy a decent used car. That's what always gets swept under the rug and that's what drives up borrowing.

 

It is amazing that people really just don't understand Capitalism and it's benefits sometimes.

 

What is even more amazing is how some people think that Socialism will make everyone equal in status and/or wealth.

 

Growing up in the 1980's, I lived in a safe middle class White suburb. It would be considered achieving the American/Canadian dream to live there I suppose. A desirable area. There were truck drivers all over the neighbourhood who owned homes there. For many of them, the trucking income was the sole income for their families, which was often your typical 2 child, 2 car household.

Then in the 1990's I could see that changing. All the truckers slowly started disappearing from the area over time. And no more were moving in. Insane real estate prices combined with stagnating rates/wages are to blame for that I suppose. A variety of forces at play here causing what we see today.

It's hard to believe, but a trucker owned the property below in the 1980's, and raised a family there on one income. It's subdivided now, but the current neighbouring property was part of his property back in the 1980's also, which is now valued at $1,500,000, so almost $3,000,000 combined just for the land alone. The property below is nothing special... just a standard 1/3 acre lot with a normal house on it.

I don't really know what my point is, but I guess as I age it's hard to see some of the changes I'm seeing. What used to be is no more.

 

There really were 'good ol' days', back then.

These days it is just too many, too much and way over the top crazy.