Taylor Swift's "Eras" Tour has generated so much money that even the Fed has noticed. By the time the tour concludes, it's estimated that Swift will have added $5 billion to the economy; Eras is being billed as the highest grossing concert tour ever. But unlike so much of the profit these days, those rewards haven't only gone to the top. In addition to making revenue for a host of small businesses in cities her tour has blown through, the superstar has issued massive bonuses to the crew on her tour—including bonuses issued to the drivers hauling it all over North America. Swift gave her truckers a bonus of $100,000 each.
That's quite a bonus for a leg of the tour which started in March and is scheduled to end this month in Los Angeles. The bonus works out to $20,000 a month or $5,000 a week for the duration of the tour—at least double what those drivers' salaries were to begin with, if they're getting paid anything like the average trucker. The average wage of a long haul trucker in the United States in 2021 was roughly $48,000/year, per the Bureau of Labor Satistics.
Obviously, Ms Swift is awash in cash and can afford a level of generosity not possible for most trucking companies. Yet she took the time to write a personally signed letter to every driver on the tour, per the USA Today. The drivers were called into a meeting that they thought would be about the schedule, and were surprised when Swift's father made a speech about how much he appreciated their service, and then handed out the letters, which had the amount of the bonus printed at the bottom. Truckers being what we are, not everyone realized at first that they had been given a life-changing bonus.
"The funny part is, they just glanced at the letter quickly and didn't look at the amount, so one driver read it as $1,000, another driver read it as $10,000. And then another driver said, 'Oh, this has to be a joke. $100,000?' which then made the other ones reopen their letters," Mike Scherkenbach, the CEO of Shomotion which transports Swift's equipment, told USA TODAY.
It's not often that truck drivers see bonuses at all, let alone to the tune of twice our yearly salary. It's the kind of job that operates on the margins, and is, in the words of many, a thankless job at that.
Given the gross income disparities which exist in America and the unprecedented upward transfer of wealth witnessed under the COVID lockdowns, to see someone like Taylor Swift be so generous to those who helped her create her wealth is shocking, if only because the working class has been conditioned to simply accept lower wages and a reduced standard of living. Thanks to decades of neoliberal policies that destroyed working-class wages, we've been forced to simply accept that the next generation will be the first in modern history to have less opportunity and wealth than those that came before it.
This is especially true of trucking, which used to be the most lucrative of the blue-collar jobs in the U.S., and which under current market conditions and in many sectors, now barely pays a living wage.
Most truckers are modest, no-nonsense types who just want to be left alone, get their jobs done, and provide for their families with a minimum of fuss. I don't think many of us expect much out of anyone, and given the forces which are arrayed against us, as well as current economic conditions, just keeping our jobs would be bonus enough for many.
But Swift's generous gesture has the potential to be a game-changer, and not just for the individual truckers whose lives she changed. Swift's gift raises the bar across the industry, and even beyond. Why can't other owners and managers find a way to express gratitude, even if bonuses are out of the question?
It would be bonus enough to pay truckers overtime like every other worker is paid, or perhaps do something about the most important commodity any human has and stop wasting so much of our time. Maybe they could talk to their friends in government, and stop making us compete against indentured servants from other countries. Maybe they could let us use the bathroom, or let us park somewhere for the night?
As you can see, there are quite a few issues our corporate elites and government managers could fix up for us, policy changes which would make our lives so much better, even without having to cut us a check for $100,000.
Many parts of the trucking industry are owned, managed, and regulated by a particular caste of people—the professional managerial elite, what we used to call bourgeoise. Perhaps these people don't see themselves as such, but many of them are definitely within the realm of "minor nobility," and I would suggest Taylor Swift's bonus checks should give them pause to think about how they treat people farther down the food chain—you know, those who produce (and deliver) the food.
Swift's act was a classic case of noblesse oblige—the idea that if you're lucky enough to make it to the top, you have a moral obligation to share the wealth. Her simple act should shame the rest of the people in her class, or even those not as rich as she but who have contributed to the class divide, instead of trying to shrink it.
In Year of Our Lord 2023, however, it appears the nobility seem only obliged to pay for themselves and their children to go to very expensive concerts.
Gord Magill is a trucker, writer, and commentator, and can be found at www.autonomoustruckers.substack.com. A different version of this story originally appeared in the author's Substack and is being repurposed by Newsweek with permission.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
