"Outsourcing" Jobs to Machines

In the past few years we've heard a lot about the outsourcing of American jobs to lower paid workers in foreign countries and there's been some outrage over it, but where do you hear any outrage over the loss of jobs to machines?

This morning I was at the local post office and instead of four clerks on duty, there was one. I waited 20 minutes in line and listened to an exchange between the lone clerk and another one who was supposed to get behind the counter as well but was rushing around doing other jobs that were on his list of duties such as replenishing the supplies of everything from passport application forms and delivery confirmation forms to instructions on how to do an online change of address. He remarked to those of us in line that if we didn't want to wait, there was always the machine in the lobby, the "APC" or automated postal center. He said it could do everything they could do.

I am a frequent postal customer and because I send a lot of orders by Media Mail, I stand in line because the APC doesn't do that feature (although if you know what amount of postage you need, you could purchase stamps for that amount). By the time it was my turn, he was behind the counter and I told him that the APC didn't talk to us. He said, yeah, there will always be a certain number of people who want that kind of personal service, but that "there will never be four of us behind the counter at once again because the postal service wants people to use the machines." They are, of course, cheaper than humans.

It isn't quite true that the machine can do everything a clerk can do, but it can do most of it. However, they don't always work, as I've discovered on at least two occasions.

His remark about reducing the number of clerks serving the public prompted me to remark about how many jobs are being lost, beginning years ago with gasoline stations. When I was a teen, there were plenty of teenage boys who had their first jobs at gas stations, pumping gas, checking tire pressure, washing windshields and checking oil levels. That used to be the accepted standard service at any "filling station." Free maps, too. I miss those days. At least I KNEW that my oil and tire pressure were getting checked regularly and didn't have to remind myself to do it, and a lot of young men had jobs that no longer exist for them.

That got me started. Think about it. Banks have fewer tellers. You use an ATM. Big stores are adding self-checkout lanes where no cashier is needed. Even libraries are adding self checkout machines.

It could be argued that all of this is progress, convenient, efficient, reduces lines (for now anyway) and cuts business costs. However, none of those machines can answer questions, solve problems, or fix themselves when they break down . . . or operate when the electricity goes off. Business may like not having to pay employees or the payroll taxes and benefits that go with them, but they are reducing service. The public may like (some of them, anyway) the convenience and time saved (until they get stuck on a broken machine!), but what are we losing?

We are losing JOBS. We are losing HUMAN CONTACT.

It isn't just the outsourcing of jobs or the recession that is taking away jobs. It's replacement by machines, too.

Bottled drinks

Here's an idea that's overdue: bottled drinks that are half the size of those being sold now, which are way too big for kids and small adults and take forever to drink, or get wasted.

More female veterans are winding up homeless - The Boston Globe

More female veterans are winding up homeless - The Boston Globe

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No mass movement

If the prospect of so-called socialized medicine is so awful, why aren't the
Millions on Medicare and other federal insurance like that for federal employees and the military on Tricare all clamoring to get rid if it and go private?

If the private sector can do it so much better, why haven't they? They have certainly had years of ample opportunity.

Why solve any of our problems?

I am so disgusted with both the politicians and much of our population. It seems no one is willing to compromise to find solutions. No one is willing to give an inch to make better things possible. No one wants to govern for the benefit of all, just to advance an agenda. We are like lung cancer patients that insist on continuing to smoke. We are not ostriches with our heads in the sand. . . we SEE the problems, but we, as a society, are just so determined not to solve them. It seems to be far more important to follow a party line, not to give up any of our "living standard" or our wasteful ways, than to face reality. No matter what anyone proposes, the opposition not only begins to campaign against it, they imput evil motives to the other side.

Take the health care crisis and the need for universal medical insurance. Those against it insist that it will be a disaster, that we will have "rationed" medical care, that doctors will be "government employees," that you will have to wait in line for care until you die. First of all, I completely doubt the likelihood of these scary stories coming true. If so, why aren't all the people over 65 clamoring for the repeal of Medicare? If a government administered plan is so bad, why are all of us older folks so glad we have it? Why are so many physicians willing to accept it? Why are so many private companies happy to sell supplement policies? Ever meet a senior who is refusing to use his Medicare benefits?

Try telling all those that have NO health insurance that a government plan would be so terrible for them. They have NO insurance now and can't afford to get care. If they go to an emergency room, they are charged premium rates because there is no insurance to negotiate a rate for them. If they can't pay, they are stuck with terrible debts. They do die standing in line for care. And there are more of them every day.

Try telling the families that have a government health care insurance for their children that it's a bad thing, that they should refuse it. it may not be perfect, and nothing created by man ever is, but it's far better than nothing.

Then let's look at our energy problems, our infrastructure problems, our financial industry problems, our trade problems. The same thinking applies. We can't solve any of them because we can't agree. As a society we are more interested in arguing our points that figuring out what works.

We will go to our doom arguing about our problems when we could have fixed them, improved them, or at least tried.

Socialism -- unless you like it

I'm finding it rather disingenuous the way so many "conservatives" are screaming about how we don't want "socialized medicine," and yet try taking away social security or Medicare. As my son was fond of pointing out, we don's use the word socialism when we talk about our communal defense forces, our communal fire departments, our community schools. We aren't clamoring for the privatization of any of them. Can you imagine the mess if you had to find your own private police department, your own private fire department, and so on and on? Of course, there will always be those who can contract for extra high priced protection such as their own bodyguards, but we seem to agree as a society that we should provide "for the common defense." My son was also fond of pointing out that there aren't many things more directly connected with promoting "the general welfare," as the constitution says, than providing basic health care.

Today I was in a dentist's office. She was making negative comments about how the health care insurance problems will get worse if the government is involved. My comment was to tell that to the people who have no insurance now.

There are also ready forces campaigning to stop universal health care using the usual scare tactics, making it sound like there will be a sudden scarcity of both doctors and medical care. Why? Are all the doctors going to quit practicing? They make it sound as though you'll have no choice about what doctor you see. Why? You can always pay for your own care if you don't like what the insurance will offer. My son worked for the health care industry. His was passionately in favor of universal health care and said that what would develop is what has developed elsewhere . . . basic covered services for nearly all of us, and those with more resources will be able to get a higher tier of care on their own money, just as they do now.

Socialism? Not any more so than so many other things we do as a society (hmmm .. society -- socialism, sounds linked) and don't feel required to label as socialist. Building roads, bridges, harbors, for instance. But maybe you'd like them to be private, too.Medica

Websites Pet Peeve

It's a small thing -- TOO small a thing. Why is it that web designers insist on making the "logout" link on nearly every website so TINY and hard to find? We're supposed to log out of sites we have logged into, and you'd think they'd want us to follow through with that for our own security, but they sure make it harder. It should be easy to find a logout button or link. Not only easy, OBVIOUS. Logging IN isn't hidden in miniscule text. Logging IN gets nice text boxes, prominence.

Plain old logic and business sense teaches us that if you want people to do something, make it easy for them. So, web designers, make logging out EASY.

Hotels and laundering towels

Many hotels I've been in the past few years have laudably posted signs that we can help the environment (and their costs, of course) by using towels more than one day, that if we wish to do that, to hang up the towels. If we want fresh towels, to leave them on the floor. However, I have found that at just about everyone, even IF I hang them up, the maids STILL change them for fresh towels. I don't know whether this is a training issue or a language issue, or whether something else is at work, but the signs aren't working.

The other thing that prevents it from being a successful campaign is the lack of good towel racks to hang the towels ON. Most hotels have these skimpy racks that work fine for folded towels but are lousy for hanging wet towels that need to be dried. There's never enough space for them. I imagine more people would be willing to use the same towels the next day if they thought they had a prayer of drying. I've even tried hanging them on hangers in the closet, when there were ENOUGH hangars, another rarity.

So, there's one of my pet peeves. If they really want this campaign to be successful, save water (a critical issue here in Florida where we are in the midst of a drought), save money, and benefit the environment, they need to train their maids to FOLLOW the rules and put decent towel bars in the rooms.

I think I've written about this before, on this blog, and I've sent it to Ann Landers or Dear Abby, too. Maybe someone will "listen."

Where did the ambition go?

I have sadly neglected this blog in the past year, dealing with my son's death, writing a daily blog about him and our experiences, our sadness, at his death. In January, I posted here that I felt a renewed ambition, but it did not last. I remained committed to the blog about him, not to continuing this one about other subjects. I still am focused on his remembrance blog and probably will be for a long time to come.

That doesn't mean I don't think about anything else, that I don't have opinions about the current political scene, world events, local news. It does mean there isn't energy enough and time to do both, not for now. So, although I may post from time to time, it won't be consistent, though I hope that that day will come.

Renewed Ambition

I began this blog one year ago, and initially I did well at my goal of posting nearly every day. However, a family tragedy in April, the death of our son Leif, not only took away my interest in writing this blog, but took away any time I had for it as well.

Instead, I began writing a blog about his life and death, and our feelings about them. I'm still writing Remembering Leif, and will continue it, but at last I am feeling more interest in other writing and life in general, so one of my New Year's resolutions is to begin writing again, here on Exconsulto, and also other writing for publication. I hope I will be able to stick with that.

There was so much to write about in 2008, the political scene, the economic disasters, and I had much to say, but that is now OBE, as they say in the military (overcome by events) and I am not going to look back.