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Indentured truck drivers

2017-06-16 18:34:19.450037+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Rigged. Forced into debt. Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing.

A yearlong investigation by the USA TODAY Network found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.

[ related topics: broadband History Current Events California Culture Machinery ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: Indentured truck drivers made: 2017-06-19 09:47:58.036771+00 by: DaveP

Capitalism wouldn't be a bad system if it weren't for the fact that so many capitalists are assholes, too.

#Comment Re: Indentured truck drivers made: 2017-06-19 16:50:20.491681+00 by: Jack William Bell

That's the real problem isn't it? Every organizing system humans have tried - political, economic, or both - can be captured by charismatic sociopaths. Good people can rise in those systems as well, but often not as easily as those who don't care about the human wreckage they leave in their wake.

I'm convinced the only way to limit the damage sociopaths can do is to limit the power they can accumulate. The problem with that is the fact few will willingly give up power and there are studies showing that having power literally changes the brain. So there is no way to get there from here short of violent revolution.

Besides, there are no guarantees whatever system to limit power you come up with will provide enough safeguards. For example; do we still feel the American system of checks and balances is sufficient?

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