And the advantages are being enjoyed by all of us, at least in the US.

If you’re the kind of person who eats food, uses toilet paper and paper towels, and lives inside a building made of lumber, insulation, HVAC, pipes, and electrical components, those all got to your point of use on a truck.

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bryanlarsen 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The US has a really good freight train network. Yet there's a good chance the products you discussed didn't use the much more efficient train for the long distance portion of their transit.

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gryfft 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If it's more efficient, is that not an arbitrage opportunity?

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bryanlarsen 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

- it's less convenient. If the cost difference is small because trucking is cheap people will pay more for convenience.

- the cost difference is smaller than it should be. Trucking is highly subsidized, since diesel taxes don't come anywhere close to paying for the roads. OTOH railroads have to maintain their own infrastructure.

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andrew_lettuce an hour ago | parent [-]

... Usually on the best land they were gifted for building the railway line on the first place, so heavily subsidized as well

	▲	bryanlarsen an hour ago \| parent [-]
		They were gifted the land when the land was close to worthless because the transport costs for western products were higher than their value. The train is what made western land valuable. That land had value before the train came through was almost pure speculation -- people bought and settled land assuming that it would have value once a train arrived. It was a real subsidy, but it was small and it was > 100 years ago. OTOH, the land the freeways and roads were built on already had significant value before it was expropriated for road construction and wasn't paid for with diesel tax revenue, so it's yet another subsidy for truck traffic.

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Zambyte 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's efficient in terms of energy, but slow after decades of neglect. People pay for fast.

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2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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thelastgallon 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Businesses will have an incentive to transport goods efficiently, if the costs are not subsidized by consumers.

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BenoitP an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Diesel, or rather energy, is also a way bigger part of every single aspect of our modern world. Let's take drinking a can of coke as an example:

First degree: It came into your home from the factory through the shop. 80% product + 20% diesel.

Second degree: Product is aluminum can + water + ingredients. Aluminium came to be a can through 70% refined aluminum + 15% diesel (transport) + 15% electrical energy (pressing the can). Water was pumped locally: free from the ground + 100% electrical energy. Ingredients came from a farm: 80% local product + 20% diesel.

Third degree: Electrical energy came from 40% gas turbines, 30% hydro, 30% wind farm. Ingredients from farms came from soil 40%, 35% nitrogen fertilizer (== gas), 25% diesel (machines)

... and so on

If you decompose everything all the way, the global tally is either matter, which is given to us by nature for free. Or energy; The sources of which being vastly composed of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel prices affect everything.

These fossil resources being finite we can also conclude we're experiencing a centuries-long hay-fire. But hey, we're merely plateauing right now; and most of us won't be here for the harder part of the crash.

And I didn't even mention climate change.

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lotsofpulp 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why does that matter? If you consume more toilet paper and paper towels and lumber, insulation, HVAC, pipes, and electrical components, then you would end up paying proportionally more.

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wat10000 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just because everyone benefits from it doesn’t mean it’s good to subsidize it.

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andrew_lettuce an hour ago | parent [-]

This is basically the definition of something that should be subsidized. Same story for public education, health care, clean drinking water, etc

	▲	abenga 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Those others have far fewer externalities than burning diesel to move heavy trucks.

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toynbee_cunt 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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