BigNote

Yeah, fair play.

That's a startling number. It goes far towards explaining some of the responses my comments get.

It's also residential. On big commercial and industrial construction sites it's almost all big but fully functional trucks for exactly the reason you mention; they have to be able to haul trailers and heavy equipment --like generators, water buffalos, sand-blasters and the like-- over unpaved rubble or dirt.

But those are almost all company vehicles in any case.

I think she suffered from clinical depression all her life, but that's just what I've been told, so maybe it's not true?

I don't know. I've never been a big enough fan to look into it and am only reporting what I've been told by my wife, who is a big fan.

Also, say what you want about Islam, but it's just a simple fact that for the vast majority of her life Catholicism would have had a much bigger impact.

And I say that advisedly, as an American of Irish descent, who grew up in the Catholic Church and had some close friends affected by very unpleasant aspects that I won't go into here, but that were part of what drives my current aversion to organized religion.

There's been a ton of research on this and the effect of higher unionization is pretty well documented and understood. There's a reason why anti-union "consulting" companies are so lucrative.

Dang! IBEW journeymen are at something like $60-70/hr where I am. I've been told it's $69/hr but maybe that's bullshit.

My local had a no strike clause after losing a strike in the 80s, but it expired a few years ago and since then we've won $16/hr in raises without ever officially striking and only picketing a handful of times.

We've also gotten more money into our pension and healthcare trusts, which is big.

Unions work. Unions give you dignity and recourse to unfair labor practices.

Clinical depression is what I've been told. Not sure if true.

Well that's precisely my point. You can do it, for awhile, when you're young, and maybe you even like it; but there is no world in which one can work 80 hour weeks in construction indefinitely without wrecking your body and playing serious hell with your home life.

Ask me how I know.

Agreed. That said, it's not my intention to buy a "new" small car. Why would it be when what I want is something that's fuel-efficient and cheap?

A "new" car never even occurred to me.

It wasn't a park, so unless someone filed a missing person report the car itself wouldn't necessarily trigger anything since people abandon all kinds of crazy shit on national forests.

It's a joke, right? That's how I took it. I actually thought it was pretty clever. Now I'm confused and unsure of myself.

I don't care what anyone says, it's just a fact that the vast majority of people who use these huge trucks as daily drivers do not actually need to. Obviously there are exceptions, but they are relatively uncommon.

I use my mid-sized pickup as a daily driver, but that's because I used to need it and my work situation recently changed. My plan is to get a little commuter car as soon as I can and use that as my daily driver and keep the truck for when I actually need it. The gas savings will pay for it, and again, I don't even drive a full-sized pickup.