That's easy to say if you're skills are in high demand. If they aren't, any you have a family to feed, it can be a much harder position to take. For many people their options may be limited to putting up with a crappy job or living on the street. And often it's through no fault of their own. Not everyone has what it takes to be a rock star software engineer.

Everyone is in a position to improve themselves. Take a class, get a degree, network, learn a skill.

It is not easy. But this is not the same thing as impossible.

Sometimes, sure. More often people who _say_ they are stuck are not stuck so much as lacking imagination, or will.

How quickly can you learn a completely new skill set if you only have one day a week

I know that is a hypothetical but I'll take a crack at it.

- Cut expenses. There is always slack in a budget.

- Cut hours. The 6-day work week is for over the road - Get a teamster job working local.

- I've now got nights and weekends free, leaving me oodles of time to get cracking on mastering that new skill.

There are better employers out there. Employees who work for bad employers are enabling them. By not quitting, they're not only ruining their own life, but other people's too.

it isn't your way, it is a public way. If you see any violations in his behavior - just call Highway Police. Otherwise, learn to deal with the fact that not everybody and everything in this life is created to satisfy your every whims.

>Suck it up, buddy.

yep, suck it up, buddy.

Maybe if they weren't over-regulated* and actually assigned the costs associated with blocking traffic, the trucking companies could come up with something as novel as a 'governor override budget'. I.e., "If you find yourself in a situation where you need to pass and it'd be best for everyone involved if you actually get it over with, you may do so. Just don't expect to spend the whole trip at the higher speeds because you only accrue so many override minutes per hour and you need to save them for complications that may arise. There are gas prices to consider, after all."

If we're going to insist on having humans behind the wheel, I assume it's because they have the capacity to reason. Ultimately, we need to incent them properly and then trust their judgement.

* Speed limits significantly below the 85th percentile of traffic == revenue. Also, penalizing motorists (who have, by definition, opted out of public transportation) by failing to build additional, needed lanes.

have you ever drove a U-Haul truck? Let alone a 40 ton one? Do you understand the accident risk (and scale of a damage, just an example of pretty light one http://www.10news.com/news/24315900/detail.html) of a fully loaded semi trailer making a pass at - how fast would you like it to go instead of 68mph? - would 80mph be enough for you? Do you really think you're a better judge of how to safely drive the truck than the truck driver actually driving it and who does have economic incentive to go as fast as it is possible while still ensure the high probability of making it to the destination?

How fast? In Minnesota (where I'm from and also where the article was published) I can tell you offhand that a recent figure for the 85th percentile speed on rural freeways is 79MPH (that means three out of every 20 drivers are going even faster). Does the truck need to go that fast? Only if it's in the left lane while cars are present.

> I have no tolerance for that.

Being polite? Clearly.

3mph ~= 4 ft/s. Some of the longest semis are 60ft. One clearing the other is 120ft, lets over-estimate and say 200. 200/4 roughly a minute, again, if we over estimate.

So, you cannot wait a minute. And, remember, you're going a constant ~65mph or so in your car at the time -- so it's not like you're at a dead stop.

Instead of jumping the obvious conclusion about your likely personality defects, I would suggest that you take some time to think about why you're so angry about being limited to 65, or even 60 mph for a minute, assuming you're not rushing to the hospital.

I find this post saddening. How little we care about the people responsible for all the things we take for granted in life.

I'm serious here: If you do not like your job, demand more money, better working conditions, or quit and find a better one.

The first 2 of those are what unions were designed to fix. If the truck driving industry (freight industry?) is so horrible, why haven't they unionized and fixed it? If they have unionized, why is their union so ineffective?

I do pity people who think they have dug a hole so deep they can't get out of it. Mainly because they are -wrong-. They have allowed the world to walk allover them and have stopped considering that they can better themselves.

But unions aren't a magic fix for everything.

Also, how quickly we of the first world are to assume that you can just up and change jobs. It's easy when you sit at a desk. It's not easy when all you've ever done is drive a truck, or work at a factory, or done construction.

Your intolerance disgusts me, honestly.

I feel for people who are in a difficult situation, but I expect them to work their way out of it. And the great thing about this country is: they can if they use their wits and are willing to work harder than most people can imagine.

Random internet challenge: Be a truck driver for a month. Then come back to this thread.

So what? Who are you to deserve the right of way? If you don't want to get stuck behind a truck, get off the road. Suck it up.

Hell, it's your fault. You take crap from these drivers. It's your fault, your problem, not theirs. Flipping them off is the best you can do, and it's pitiful.

And yeah, I don't see any reason people should be nice to you.

> I never bought this "I have a hard job, so you should be nice to me" crap.

But you did buy into the "Be an ass" crap, didn't you?

By my calculations, about a minute and a half at the absolute most. So if you were intending to pass both trucks at 80 mph, and assuming the passing truck moves back into the right lane when safely able to, this fiasco adds approximately 10-15 seconds to your commute. Oh the horror.