Commentary upon the morning news

[unixronin]

New York State's law banning cellphone use while driving is apparently having little effect.  It is reported that cellphone use by drivers had dropped by about a quarter a few months after the law passed, but has now bounced back.  A Democratic member of the New York State Assembly proposes various measures to help fix this, including billboards and an 800 number that people can call in on to report aggressive drivers and drivers talking on their cell phones.  (Using their cell phones, presumably, as the person behind them reports them in turn, and so on, and so on....)

An economist was also heard from, holding forth on the issue of IT job outsourcing to India, Russia and the Phillipines, wherein he asserted that the expected loss of jobs from this really isn't going to be a problem.  Just as the loss of blue-collar jobs in the 60s from the move overseas of US manufacturing jobs (and from the subsequent factory automation in efforts to remain competitive) was ameliorated by the new jobs created with the PC boom, then the Internet boom, he insists that white-collar workers will simply move to new types of employment.  (He didn't specify what types of jobs these would be, or what would happen to the people flipping burgers now.)  After all, he maintained, "the reduced cost of labor will drive prices down and increase consumer spending," displaying a naive faith on the magnanimity of rapacious corporate CEOs.  This isn't about lowering prices.  It's about increasing profits.  Even if it did, you can't drive consumer spending when the consumers have no money.

This charlie had an almost religious certainty that some new change factor like the PC would magically come along, as if mass job loss caused unexpected miracles to come along.  The 20 years of urban ruin in the rust belt in between the gradual fall from supremacy of US manufacturing industries and the arguable recovery of the 80s appeared to have completely escaped his notice.  Presumably he's never seen the wastelands left of towns like Youngstown, Norristown, Allentown or Conshohocken.  Myself, I smell a strong, rank scent of denial.

Comments

[vixi.livejournal.com]

I've heard perl ninja.. but you are the first unix ronin i've heard of :)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm working on the ronin part. :)

[darthgeek.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Allentown is a pretty damn depressing place. All you see are just these huge factories that have been abandoned for years, all surrounded by fences. Just utterly depressing.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Heard Billy Joel's "Allentown"?

Norristown was much the same way. It used to be a wealthy, upscale town, until the steelworks in Conshohocken closed down. Then it turned into a dead-end with a per-capita murder rate higher than Washington DC and Chicago.