Act Like A Sucker, Get Treated Like One

And the size of the labor pool is determined by the amount and quality of work available. If wages go to pot, the quality workers will move on to different endeavors.

 

They are related but it's not determined that way. Sometimes there is a large pool of talented workers but few jobs. A recession is an example. Sometimes there is a labor shortage due to things like a localized boom economy. Wages go up and down based on market conditions, not because there is a universal law that says bricklayers shall make $28/hr plus benefits and overtime after 40 because...well, just because.

Rather than debate, I'll just link the information. In a market based economy, no one has to apologize for undercutting wages because of the assumption of rationality:[h=2]Definition of 'Rational Choice Theory'

An economic principle that assumes that individuals always make prudent and logical decisions that provide them with the greatest benefit or satisfaction and that are in their highest self-interest. Most mainstream economic assumptions and theories are based on rational choice theory.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rational-choice-theory.asp[/h]Now, a "planned economy", a socialist economy, that's different.

 

A couple of days ago while hauling PW to a drilling rig, I ran across an driver that had done 26 years OTR, but was on his 2nd day in the oil patch. Anyway he worked 40 hours straight before he an another driver got relieved. He stated he would get 5 hours of sleep, then come back again. So much for DOT rules. I think they make about $20 per hour, plus time and half, double time for Holidays.

 

Was he an OO or company guy?

 

Company guy and across state lines. They are suppose to run logs when they cross state lines but they don't.

 

Some of my buddies in the Bakken are working 70 hours for hourly plus overtime, sleeping in a private bedroom every night, eating in a real kitchen shared with two other guys, sharing a full bathroom with one other guy, bringing home $1500 a week NET, working out and relaxing daily, and living in town where there is life and women, um I mean someone beside other drivers (no, not Williston!). That is becoming my idea of the ideal driving job in ND. Sure, you can work 120+ hours/wk at the firm that runs balls-out for alot more money. But for some guys, that is not sustainable work or life. I myself do not comprehend how someone could live permanently in a box slightly larger than his bed.

 

Yeah if you think an average company driver in North Dakota makes 150k/year you are sorely mistaken.