Autonomous commercial big rigs means the loss of jobs for 1.7 million truck drivers.

Courtesy of DC Velocity:

The proliferation of self-driving, or autonomous, tractor-trailers threaten the jobs of nearly 1.7 million commercial truck drivers, according to a study published late last month by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). 

The study, released Dec. 20, said the jobs of between 1.34 million and 1.67 million truck drivers would be at risk due to the growing utilization of heavy-duty vehicles operated via artificial intelligence. That would equal 80 to 100 percent of all driver jobs listed in the CEA report, which is based on May 2015 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the Department of Labor. There are about 3.4 million commercial truck drivers currently operating in the U.S., according to various estimates. 

The report also predicted that between 165,300 and 495,900 jobs held by light truck or delivery service drivers would be at risk because of autonomous vehicles. That represents between 20 and 60 percent of the CEA's universe of 825,000 driver jobs. Fewer of those drivers are likely to be displaced, because they operate in more densely populated urban areas where the risk of pedestrian deaths or injuries would be greater if autonomous vehicles were used. In addition, many delivery drivers operate over short distances, so labor costs would be less of a factor. 

CEA estimated that, on a net basis, the use of autonomous vehicles enabled by artificial intelligence would threaten between 2.2 million and 3.1 million full- and part-time driver jobs of all types; the figure includes approximately 364,000 self-employed individuals driving with ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

Once again, whether we like it or not, this IS our future. 

This article really caught my attention because I had a guy about 23 years old asking if I thought becoming a trucker was a good career move, and I told him bluntly that I don't think the job will exist in the next twenty years. 

This article essentially supports that conclusion.

And this is just one example of how automation is going to reduce the need for human workers in the very near future.

Donald Trump can talk about bringing jobs back until he is orange in the face (Oops, too late!) but the simple fact is that with these new advancements in computer technology and automation, there are going to be fewer and fewer jobs available for carbon based life forms.

There is already talk about creating a minimum income, or mincome, for non-working people so that they can live in relative comfort while machines do the heavy lifting.

Personally I am somewhat confident that my job will not be taken over by automation until well after I am too old to adequately perform my duties anyhow.

 As for the rest of humanity, well I would suggest that learning to program computers and repair circuit boards might be a good place to start. Though I think we know it is only a matter of time before machines will evolve to take those tasks over as well.

There is nowhere in America where you can rent a one bedroom apartment while earning minimum wage.

Courtesy of Vox:

There is no state in the union where a full-time, minimum-wage worker can afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment for less than 30 percent of his paycheck (which is a standard measure of housing affordability). 

That's the depressing takeaway from a new report by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. 

In Texas, a minimum wage worker needs to put in 73 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom unit. In California, it's 92 hours. In the District of Columbia, it's a solid 100 hours.These are, of course, state averages. 

Rent will be more expensive in some cities — but those cities will often have a higher minimum wage than the rest of the state. Sadly, as this chart from the report shows, the increase in rental prices tends to be much higher than the increase in the minimum wage:

 That is shameful.

And people wonder why some young people continue to live with their parents instead of striking out on their own. How can they when the only jobs available to them do not even pay them enough to put a roof over their head?

My own daughter, who has always made more than minimum wage, has lived on and off with me for years due to the unpredictability of the jobs in her chosen field.

Today she is making more than I am, and living the good life, but that was only after putting many years into her career and suffering long stretches of unemployment.

If she could not have relied on her father to provide her with love and support, there is no telling where she could have ended up.

Let's face it, some people, both young and old, do not have that support system. So when they work hard and still cannot afford a place to live, what does that do their self esteem and ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Assuming of course that there is a light at the end of their tunnel.

Some days I really miss Fred Rogers.

An absolutely perfect statement.

Today we try to start our children's education almost the moment that they open their eyes for the first time, but the fact is that their play IS their education for the formative years.

They learn about their bodies, their environment, their limitations, how to engage with others, how to share their belongings, essentially how to be human beings.

The rest of their learning will go on for the rest of their lives, and hopefully there will always be some time to play. But as a child that is really their most important job.

How I start every morning.

A little behind the scenes info for visitors to IM.

The other day somebody was asking if there was an alert to let people know when I am about to put up a new post.

Simply put, nuh uh.

However I am nothing if not a creature of habit. And if you have been paying attention you should have recognized a rather obvious pattern.

I almost always put up seven posts a day. (Occasionally that number drops by one or two, but that is the exception to the rule.)

Before I go to bed at night I write three robo-posts that will publish while I am in La La Land.  One at 2 AM, one at 4 AM, and one around 6 AM. (Though I am usually awake before this last one hits the internet.)

I also have my I-Pad on the bed next to me, like a totally non-cuddly teddy bear, so if you see that comments have been published in the middle of the night that is often because I had to get up and pee, or had that nightmare where a hairless, floppy breasted, Sarah Palin tries to seduce me again. ("Oh God, oh God, make it stop!")

When I finally do wake up, which is usually around five, I immediately stumble into my office and fire up the old computer and then continue upstairs to start my morning coffee. (It's a bitch when I get these two confused.)

After that I come back downstairs, where I sit at my desk and peer through my bleary bloodshot eyes at the monitor to start sorting through the comments that I did not get through the night before.

After I have finished that I stumble back upstairs, often tripping over my daughter's dog, and then get a cup of piping hot inspiration juice.

Back downstairs and the day officially begins.

I also have an actual job so that is often what I work on for the majority of the morning, but I do like to type another post before 9:00 AM my time. (I also fit in an hour and a half or two hour workout in there as well at least five days a week.)

My usual modus operandi is to put up a post every two, two and half, or three hours.

Usually that goes something like this:

2 AM Alaska time (6:00 AM EST)
4 AM Alaska time (8:00 AM EST)
6:15 AM Alaska time (10:15 EST)
9 AM Alaska time ( 1:00 PM EST)
12 PM Alaska time (4:00 PM EST)
2:30 PM Alaska time (6:30 PM EST)
4:30 PM Alaska time (8:30 PM EST)

If you go back several days you will see that I adhere to this schedule almost religiously.

Now what this does not take into account are stories that break during the day which require an immediate response, updates to posted stories as new information becomes available, and of course comments that arrive any damn time they want which add interesting details or clarification to a post.

So hopefully this will be of some use for those who are worried that they are going to miss anything earth shattering.

However this does NOT mean you should stop obsessively checking IM every five minutes. Because then I'll start to miss you, and that's not good.

Conservative think tank decides to demonstrate their disdain for unions by working on Labor Day. Oh yeah, that'll teach'em.

Courtesy of The Seattle Times:  

Just when it seemed the right wing couldn’t get any more divorced from reality around here, a local conservative group has launched a protest against what it sees as a pernicious cultural touchstone. 

Labor Day. 

Yes, bittersweet old Labor Day — the first Monday in September, the holiday that’s been around for generations and is known to most non-ideologically blinkered Americans as an end-of-summer free day honoring all the hard work you put in the rest of the year. 

But to the Freedom Foundation, a business-backed Olympia think tank, the day is evidence of the power of unions, which to them equals the decline of America. Rather than stoop to taking a union-backed day off, they plan to fight the power by ... working all day Monday instead! 

“I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor, so it would be hypocritical of us to take a day off on its behalf,” said Freedom Foundation CEO Tom McCabe, in announcing the “work-in.” 

That’ll show those unions who control everything around here. Let’s all go into the offices and the factories and work like dogs instead of barbecuing or watching parades! Who’s with me? 

Of course, if McCabe followed this principle to its logical end, he’d have to work every Saturday, too. Year round.

But why end with working Saturdays?

The unions are also responsible for out ability to be paid overtime, have lunch breaks, receive paid vacations, the 40 hour work week, safety standards, child labor laws, etc, etc., etc..

Clearly these idiots know NOTHING about American history.

President and Mrs; Obama want their daughters to work minimum pay jobs. What, no reality show?

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama want their children to experience the virtues of hard work at minimum-wage pay. 

“I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it’s like to do that real hard work,” Michelle Obama said in an interview with Parade magazine published Friday. 

“We are looking for opportunities for them to feel as if going to work and getting a paycheck is not always fun, not always stimulating, not always fair,” President Obama added. “But that’s what most folks go through every single day.”

I 100% agree with this sentiment, and applaud the first family for teaching their two girls the importance of hard work and the joy of independence. 

I mean with their connections they could easily put their girls on the path to easy street, with book deals, reality shows, buy them a beauty shop to work in, or simply pay them to stay out of trouble and not embarrass them.

But really what kind of crappy parent would do that?

Julianne Moore talks about her role in Game Change, the movie.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

 Courtesy of MTV Movies Blog:

"It was hard, really, really hard," she admitted. "I had a great director, Jay Roach who was incredible. I adored him, [he was] so supportive, so smart. I did a lot of research, I worked really hard. It's hard to play someone who is very present in people's minds, who's on television, very idiosyncratic, I did my best. We'll see, I hope we pulled it off."

And how about mastering that accent, eh?

"Practice, an incredible amount of practice," Moore said about getting Palin's northern-inflected speech just right. "I had to listen to it over and over again. My son was embarrassed because [Palin's speeches were] all that was on my iPod. He said, 'Where's your music?' [I told him] I erased all my music."

It kind of sounds to me like Moore did more preparation for her role as Sarah Palin, than Sarah Palin did for her role as John McCain's running mate.  I'm just saying.