Phil Ochs – Automation Song

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People have been talking about automation since the 1950s. Has anything really changed since then? Technology has gotten more efficient, smaller, and able to process many more inputs quickly then in the past. But many jobs aren't easy to fully automate, due to the unpredictability of life. Computers are good at doing repetitive tasks accurately, but not very good at dealing with unexpected circumstances or widely varying materials and conditions. Microcontrollers only do what they are programmed to do, they can't do anything they aren't told to do.

January 7, 2020 Night

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Good evening! Cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Calm wind. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 9 am. 🌡️ Not a super cold night but so far January has been pretty mild on the east coast.

After work I went over to John Wolcott house 🏡 for a few hours going through his files 📂. I am pushing him to wrap up the project soon, I am going to type up the index 📇 and make printed labels for the folders. I don’t have a printer but I’m hoping Lynne Jackson can print the labels 🔖. I’ll have to talk to her.

Thursday night 🌃 I’m heading over to Cynthia Pooler house to practice and test cutting the video 📹 for the documentary on Reszin Adam’s the social activist I am working on putting together. I’m mostly going to be filming some of it and maybe a little interviewing. Not totally sure.

I got home and made a quick pot of pasta up before going for my evening walk. 🚶 Not too cold out and the fresh air was nice. My neighbor was out for a while so I could have ridden the bike but I prefer walking when the weather is nice. I left my laptop at work so couldn’t watch YouTube even if I wanted. 🎦 That’s fine, I already watch too much although I think a lot of things are watch are good – learning a lot about hunting and trapping, processing and handling animals. 🐮 Even if much of what I watch doesn’t have immediate impact on my life, I still think I’m learning a lot about how many people live their lives and many practical skills. 🔪 The stuff I watch on YouTube isn’t glamorous and but it’s practical. Skinning a coyote for its pelt or butchering a rabbit 🐰 is about real life. With my downloading script I never see any ads or commercial content. 🎬I plan to get to sleep shortly. 💤

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 27 degrees at 5am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 19th. Light and variable wind. In 2019, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 29 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1878.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 91% illuminated. At dusk you’ll see the moon in the east (92°) at an altitude of 33° from the horizon, some 241,833 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 The Wolf 🐺 Moon is on Friday, January 10. The darkest hour is at 12:02 am, followed by dawn at 6:54 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:26 am in the east-southeast (120°) and last for 3 minutes and 22 seconds. Sunrise is 8 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 8:11 am with sun in the southeast (128°) at an altitude of 6°. Tonight will have 14 hours and 47 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 10 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be scattered snow showers before noon, then scattered rain and snow showers between noon and 2pm, then scattered snow showers after 2pm. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 40 degrees at 12pm. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 4th. Breezy, with a light and variable wind becoming west 19 to 24 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 44 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 2008. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1923.❄

As I think I have to dress up for work tomorrow 👔I need to get an early start. With the dress shoes on I’ll probably take the local bus to work which is typically a few minutes earlier to leave for then the express 🚍. I have left my dress shirt hanging in the bathroom so it should be wrinkle free but maybe I’ll want to run an iron over it in the morning. At least now I get to go home at five o’clock each night after work.

In four weeks on February 4 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (248°) at 5:12 pm,🌄 which is 34 minutes and 11 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly sunny, mild temperatures and temperatures between 56 and 39 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 15 degrees. The record high of 61 degrees was set back in 1991.

I am quite worried about Trump’s 🎺 Iran War. It seems like a totally unnecessary waste of human life to say nothing of taxpayer dollars. 💵 But the biggest concern is over the enengy supply ⛽. Blow up the Middle East and nobody knows what that means to energy markets besides a lot higher prices for all of us. Plus more security and delays everywhere we go. 👮 We should be cutting government not expanding it.

Looking ahead, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is in 1 weeks, Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 2 weeks, Save the Pine Bush Turns 42 🦋 is a month away, Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛 is in 5 weeks, National Drink Wine Day 🍷 is in 6 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is in 10 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 3 months, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 17 weeks, Flower Moon 🌕 is in 4 months, Strawberry Moon 🌕 is in 5 months, Primary Day 🗳️ is in 24 weeks, Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 43 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 43 weeks.

Manufacturing

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You often hear from politicians that expanding manufacturing jobs is key to growing the economy. It sounds good, making physical stuff.👷 You can see and touch things that are manufactured. But few Americans actually manufacture things, even though we are outputing  more American-made products then ever before.🏭 American manufacturing is highly automated, it relies less and less on humans.

Americans typically make the most advanced devices and technologies in our country. We outsource lower-skilled manufacturing to other countries.🌏 Low-skilled manufacturing produces lower wages, and those low wages are not enough to pay for a decent living in the United States. Americans expect a good job, one with healthcare and a pension or retirement plan, something that can not be produced with a low-value product.🏥

The future of jobs in America is not in manufacturing. It’s in healthcare, education and creative professions like design, engineering and arts.🎭 The jobs of the future about designing products and providing services that Americans want. Traditionally, many of these jobs have offered less stability and benefits compared to old-line manufacturing.🕴

The solution is not to try to bring back obsolete industries, but instead ensure modern industries in America provide adequate benefits to workers. 🖥This can be done by government mandates or the government providing the service — e.g. opt-in to government retirement or healthcare plans.🙊 The economy is changing, and government shouldn’t stop low-wage jobs from off-shoring, but instead ensure workers are taken care of in the industries of tomorrow.