Or business.

There are also other issues. One aspect.

 

NW Ohio, 4.89---5.49

Still have crops to plant, we are good, some guys are looking and one supplier has 12 days of product left.

 

very interesting with a lot of valid points.

 

Driving out West, Electric cars will not be feasible.

 

You Tube

 

Time to kick some UP rail line ***.

 

In part, all railroads are having staffing issues due to their practices. Before Covid, they were reducing staff to improve "productivity." Whenever you hear a company or agency talk about productivity, it's not that people are increasing output; there are fewer people. In the auto industry - more robots are doing the jobs people were doing. Supply industry (Amazon, for example) - robots are getting the products or assisting workers.

But Covid also impacted staffing, including when companies let workers go because of their constitutional choice of not taking drugs they didn't want. I've been a stock holder of UNP over the years; overall, it's been a good stock to own, but if you read the reports ....

Another factor is if it's not in front of a computer, many of today's younger people do not want the job. Carpentry, ironwork, auto service, trucking, and railroad. It's crazy how much a good welder can make today.

So it's part of the supply chain issues, and the railroads are trying to keep the same schedules of trains (Locomotive plus cars) with less labor at the yards. This is nuts because they lose money with less product shipped and fewer cars attached to the train.

Thank god we have a competent federal transportation agency that's on top of this.

Recovered to pre-pandemic levels? That would be a third of what there used to be.​​​​​​​

 

But wait…..The current administration has created more jobs than ANY OTHER administration….just ask them. So everything is ok….nothing to see here. The economy is healthy, what we are experiencing is transitory, nothing to worry about. If you don’t like the fuel prices buy an electric truck. Just part of this great transition.

As a side note, I work for a company that relies on entry level labor to pick things up and put things down. We currently pay $18 to $20 per hour and upwards of $24 for these unskilled positions. Many distribution centers in the area had to follow suit. We fight for the same pool of workers. We are creating a problem because some of our workforce pulls from more skilled or apprenticeship positions such as laborers from our sprinkler vendor, electrical companies, plumbing and HVAC to name a few. Why get an entry level position to learn a trade making $16/ hr when you can make $20 doing mindless repetitive work. We offer better benefits, tuition reimbursement, and time off. I’ve seen it first hand. It’s dog eat dog, and now we’re seeing it as many service companies and manufacturers lead times are exacerbated by lack of entry level labor. Many small service companies can’t keep pace and eventually close the doors, or rely too heavily on the skilled positions and burn their folks out, or injure them.

Although we have been raising our wages to retain a workforce for years, nothing can compare with the government paying people to stay home. What was an “essential business” to do? As a major player in US and Int’l logistics, we increased wages slightly above the government’s. Can other businesses do the same? What’s the ripple effect?

Anyway, This is just another facet in a much larger, complex problem many haven’t even thought about or heard of. But I’m just a dumb maintenance guy, what do I know. Perhaps Soros, Koch and the great masters of civilized society have a plan to save us all…..

 

As we know, returned to work, not created.

And Apple is raising their wages to a ridiculous level. I think I saw a sign at Walmart for $20.

Since Covid, my wife's salon business has been hurting - can't get stylists. With shops shut down for a while, many stylists started to work at home or go to people's homes, which is illegal in our state. And it's a cash business. They are not coming back; they are not declaring income. She can't get hires.

And there is so much Covid money sitting in treasuries. There are still articles about historic small businesses closing their doors in the statewide newspapers. We go into recession; this will be a bloodbath if we are not there already.

 

Got this from GasBuddy today.

 

Diesel in my area dropped 10c down to $6.19. Gas has risen 20c now to $4.77. Both are records in NH. I’m mostly driving my gas pickup at the moment.

 

Grove City Ohio(suburb of Columbus) high as 5.69/gallon for diesel, a few stations still have it for $4.99.

Remember, the prices went up cause of Ukraine/Russia, yet only about 10% of oil comes from there. Yet our oil reserve is good for another 430 years at the production we need. I didn't vote for the idiot or his cronies! When will people learn? All this "free" money had to come from somewhere, now we all pay for it and they blame it on other stuff. The Republicans said this would happen before the money was spent, Dumbocrats said it wouldn't, look what happened!

 

Some of the Jersey people I talk to have a black hole mindset. Totally oblivious to shutting down pipelines, curtailing leases, and increasing regulations having any effect on gas prices. Nor any idea how much we rely on petroleum for everything else.

Diesel is coming down a little while gas is going up.

 

When someone supporting the current administration innocently asks me why I think the prices of fuel are so high, I mention things like the Keystone XL, federal oil drilling leases, just an overall unfriendly position towards oil. They then come back with their punchline, which is how the US is currently producing as much or more oil than during the 2017-2020 years, and we are the #1 producer in the world...how can I call the current admin oil unfriendly?

That's when you have to go deeper and start talking about ESG scores, banks being pressured not to loan or transact with oil companies, subsidization of all things solar, wind, electric while ever more onerous restrictions and regulation on the sale of all things oil related. Yeah, we're still producing a lot, with record profits because a lot is being exported to high priced markets, especially with Europe choosing the voluntarily ban Russian oil. We've created a worldwide shortage with the "Russian war" but while we get lip service ("we're doing everything in our power to lower gas prices") in reality they are doing what they can to sustain high fuel prices.

I'm sorry to be political, I'm not naming names, but as someone who's business depends heavily on consuming fossil fuels in vehicles and equipment, I'm having to work harder to earn less. Its very frustrating.

 

They know, they just are in line with what the current administration is doing to America. They think the people that don’t subscribe to their way of thinking are just idiots.
I no longer try and reason with those types, they have an agenda and aren’t interested in reasonable conversation, nor are they going to move from the direction we are headed. This is so much bigger than petroleum prices but they don’t think we know that.