Some of these reasons seem like I'd be susceptible… E.g., shipping companies encourage truckers to work as contractors instead of as employees. Many truckers do this so they can have more control. Being a contractor-trucker gives you many choices about how to operate, and if you're detail-oriented, you can pay a lot of attention to optimizing various processes and figuring out how to be better at this game… without stepping back and realizing you should find a better game to play. Oh, that sounds like me.
Anyhow: history of the Teamsters; present-day truck stop life; USA economic woes; growing gap between rich and poor… This book covers a lot of interesting ground.
I heard about this book thanks to an Alison Chaiken tweet; she programs vehicles and tweets about programming and vehicles and related things and unrelated things.
