
Trucking Deregulation (1993) - kawera
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/TruckingDeregulation.html
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lbarrett
What a wildly anti-union article.

"Deregulation has worked well. ... Before deregulation ICC-regulated truckers
paid unionized workers about 50 percent more than comparable workers in other
industries."

I understand that cheaper trucking is helpful for some industries, but cutting
workers' income is definitely a negative, not a positive.

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zeveb
> I understand that cheaper trucking is helpful for some industries, but
> cutting workers' income is definitely a negative, not a positive.

It's negative for them, and positive for everyone who buys something shipped
by truck — which is to say, everyone.

The study also notes that truckers are _still_ paid more than comparable
workers in other industries.

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rwallace
First, that assumes the savings mostly go to customers rather than into the
pockets of executives and shareholders. Trends over the last few decades
suggest otherwise.

Second, it's a negative for truckers and their families but also for everyone
who works in any industry that supplies anything truckers buy, directly or
indirectly - which is to say, nearly everyone.

~~~
zeveb
> First, that assumes the savings mostly go to customers rather than into the
> pockets of executives and shareholders. Trends over the last few decades
> suggest otherwise.

The price of shipping over the last several decades has fallen, as indicated
in that article. Those savings _have_ gone to shippers, not to trucking
executives. Meanwhile, given competitive markets, customers of shippers have
realised those same savings.

> Second, it's a negative for truckers and their families but also for
> everyone who works in any industry that supplies anything truckers buy,
> directly or indirectly

Dubious. Reduced friction tends to make everyone better off.

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rwallace
And yet, in developed countries, decade after decade GDP on paper keeps going
up and at the same time in real terms nearly everyone keeps getting poorer, so
something has gone wrong with the assumptions on which this plausible-sounding
economic model is based.

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massysett
How old is this? It's certainly not current, as the ICC has been abolished and
mostly replaced with the Surface Transportation Board in the Department of
Transportation.

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darrmit
Pretty old.

Thomas Gale Moore, "Trucking Deregulation." The Concise Encyclopedia of
Economics. 1993. Library of Economics and Liberty. 15 December 2015.
<[http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/TruckingDeregulation.htm...](http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/TruckingDeregulation.html>).

~~~
dang
Ok, we added 1993 as the year above. Thanks!

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twoodfin
Nixon is frequently given credit for several "left wing" initiatives like the
EPA; Carter doesn't get nearly enough for his aggressive deregulation.

