I am not disputing anything that has been said, I am simply pointing out that there is an inherent weakness in the developed world which is we need a massive logistical supply chain for our cities and this supply chain is fragile, easily disrupted. Drive on the interstate highways and you will see that 60-80% of the traffic is 18 wheelers. This is the lifeline for our major cities. This lifeline needs truck stops with their ability to service the trucks as well as provide fuel. If you don't have enough trucks, or drivers, or fuel or even tires we will see this lifeline cut.
Now what are the responses we have seen from Canada?
1. Tow trucks -- we discovered that all truckers have sympathy with truckers. The most terrifying thought for any ruler is that they give the order to tow the trucks and no one listens to them. Second of all, sure we have tow trucks that can tow 18 wheelers. However, these are distributed across the country based on need. Bring all the trucks to one city like Calgary or Washington DC and you are completely overwhelmed. In the end we didn't see this employed.
2. Ignore them -- this didn't work, it was impossible to ignore. These drivers are used to sleeping in their cabs and eating junk food on the road. Every day that they sit idle it idles factories and it results in shortages and a breakdown in the supply chain. For the drivers sitting in a protest for a week or two is like taking a vacation whereas for the economy it is extremely expensive.
3. Threaten them with fines and prison. This is the "cut off your nose to spite your face" approach. If you arrest and fine the truckers you don't solve the problem which is not enough truckers delivering goods. If anything you exacerbate it.
4. Replace the truckers. I have heard this a lot. I recently drove back and forth from NYC to South Dakota twice. That is a lot of interstate driving and many people told me they could not do that driving. But it is the kind of driving that a trucker driving an 18 wheeler does. My point is that I would not try being a trucker driving 18 wheelers. This is an extremely difficult and dangerous job that requires a huge amount of training (on one leg we passed 13 accidents including a number of jackknifed trucks from snow and ice) The idea of filling these cabs with 18 year olds is terrifying, you will have massive accidents all over the nation. This is not just about driving on a big interstate, you have to come off the interstate and make your deliveries inside of cities. That is incredibly difficult and add to that these trucks can have very dangerous cargo like the gasoline tankers, etc. (For example I am a high school science teacher, you can say you will "replace me" but I know what that means. You will throw some poor sucker who is not well trained into a class that will eat him alive and he will quit after the first year, if not sooner. Schools have a hard enough time getting decent teachers in normal times, force 10% to quit and you will have a crisis. Same thing with guys who drive 18 wheelers).
But guess what, the whole world has seen this. They have seen the insults, the threats, the ridiculous mandates and if I know anything about Deplorables they have the same attitude towards the elites that the elites have towards them. They are looking for an opportunity to put the elites back in their place. Truckers in Canada, US, Europe and Australia are all doing the same thing. Canada, the US, Australia and Europe represent the vast majority of the agricultural exporters. So then the entire world is impacted.
Now imagine a the disruption to the supply chain results in shortages in fuel so that even though there are drivers who would drive the lack of fuel impacts them, or there are shortages in tires and other key parts. Some truckers won't be able to drive because of this, others will drive with trucks that are dangerous resulting in more accidents resulting in more disruptions. Then what are you going to prioritize? Food which is perishable to countries suffering famine or some truck parts?
If I can figure all this out then you know the truckers knew all of this months ago. They love winning this game.
