In New York, there were arrangements like that. However, they were not the
primary way that service was provided, at least not in the New York metro area.
Service was provided by three large, private multi-service agencies, each of
whom had a variety of programs serving people of all ages. The Industrial Home
for the Blind, later called, Helen Keller Services for the Blind, located in
Brooklyn and serving people in Brooklyn and on Long Island, had a legally blind
director and a blind assistant director. The director was a sweet person. The
assistant director? Not so much. There were blind social workers and rehab
teachers in the areas where independent travel was possible. The Lighthouse
was run by sighted people, but it had blind rehab teachers and some of the
music teachers in the music school were blind. At some point, I was employed
in the recreation program, teaching guitar and autoharp to children and adults.
I can't remember if I was the only legally blind person employed there. But at
Camp Lighthouse, there were some legally blind young people who were also
employed. A lot of the states employed blind rehab teachers who traveled all
over the place to people's homes because sighted drivers were employed to drive
them. As for self determination, my feeling is that even when it became
fashionable, it was, and still is, a myth, in the same way that it is a myth
that we live in a Democracy and that our vote determines who governs or that we
are all equal before the law. What Fred said back in 1962, was still true
decades later. The people who benefited most from the agencies for the blind
were the people who were on their professional staffs. If you look at the
majority of people who became blind when they were relatively young in life,
the ones who had good jobs either worked for agencies for the blind or they
worked in government jobs. Other than that, the other people who may have done
well with employment were those with very good partial vision. In New York, the
people who enjoyed the Lions' Club services were the elderly, recently blind
population. Today, people on the email lists, a lot of them, appear not to be
working. Some have jobs that require computer skills. Lots of them work for
Humanware or Freedom Scientific, or they earn money by helping people privately
with computer issues. But many who work, are working in blindness rehab
agencies.
Miriam.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2021 3:17 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Robots Are Coming for Millions of Blue-Collar
Jobs
When I became blind in 1965, agencies were still set up based on what was
called "The Medical Model". Professional Workers, usually sighted social
worker types, were appointed to direct the existing programs and agencies.
Blind "Clients" were still dealt with as though they were patients. Services
were provided without consulting the blind client. But even as this continued
to be the Model set in place by our state government, it was already changing.
We moved from the agency professionals determining what was good for us blind
folk, to a Plan that included input from the client, to a system where the
client was entitled to full disclosure of all services and training available.
The VR counselor was expected to be knowledgeable enough to be able to give an
unbiased overview of all services. The idea was that we were now "Partners" in
developing a service plan. It might have been a noble idea, but the VRC was
still in control of the various components of which the client had little
knowledge. Anyway the search continues for a better, more equitable way of
delivering services.
But back in those early days in the 60's and 70's the Lions were deeply
involved and committed to "serving the blind". This took the form of Lions
Roundups where Lions would pick up blind people and bring them to a night of
fun and food, taking them home. It was a once a month event and it was free.
The Lions also had the annual fishing derby. Once again they picked up the
blind people, drove them to Everett, helped them onto boats, set them up with a
fishing pole, baited the hook and even reeled in any fish. Lunch was served to
those fishing, so they did not need to move. And there was the Lions
Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner. Again, the Lions rounded up the blind and
delivered them to the Hall. The dinner was scheduled midway between
Thanksgiving and Christmas, and featured a Turkey feed with all the trimmings.
The blind were seated and Lion's wives scooted about setting plates of food in
front of each participant...with the turkey already cut into bite size chunks.
All of this, and so much more, was done by loving, caring people. And despite
their love, the message to the blind people was that they were helpless and in
need of charity.
To try explaining to these loving Lions that they were reinforcing
helplessness, was a cruel slap in the face of those proud providers.
It took rebels joinging together, before attitudes began to change.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/18/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Private agencies for the blind were influenced with this idea that
they should be more efficient and that led to a diminishment of
services. So, for example, suddenly, it became more efficient to bring
groups of elderly people into the Helen Keller agency to learn
homemaking skills in a group, rather than individually in their homes.
A model apartment was set up in the Brooklyn headquarters for this
purpose. But then people still needed rehab teachers to come to their
homes to help them transfer these new skills to their own home environments.
Fred never questioned what the agency required.
He followed orders as blind people have been trained to do from birth
by the sighted world and the blindness system. I remember when two
people from the Ethical Humanist Society of which I was a member,
became consultants for the New York Lighthouse for the Blind. The two
people were the religious leader and a society member whose profession
I don't remember. I have no idea why they were invited to give advice
to this agency for the blind when they had absolutely no experience
with blind people. But back then, the blindness field had decided that
it would be best for blind senior citizens to be integrated into
senior citizens' centers, rather than to attend recreation programs
for blind senior citizens. I think this was in the eighties when the
Lighthouse had developed a wonderful, rich recreation program for
senior citizens. They dismanteled the whole thing and sent people off
to centers where, most probably, if they were congenitally blind
and/or totally blind, they would have been socially marginalized. In
the 90's, the big agency for the blind in Los Angeles, (I forget its
name), did something similar. They had a marvelous recreation program
but little by little, they discontinued their program that picked up
clients and brought them to the agency so the program died. Los
Angeles allowed blind people to ride without charge on their buses,
but it is so spread out that it would be close to impossible for many
older blind people to make that trip independently. I suspect that all
of the changes, whatever the reasons given, were caused by a decision
to cut funding. Today, most services exist in name only. People can
delude themselves all they wish about independence, self sufficiency,
advocacy organizations, People with disabilities require services,
but beautiful phrases. Annual conferences of national advocacy
organizations or monthly meetings of their chapters are not substitutes for
solid, well funded services. Those services existed in the 60's and 70's and
began to wither in the 80's. By the 90's, they were changing significantly.
Now?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2021 11:32 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Robots Are Coming for Millions of
Blue-Collar Jobs
Control, power, profit!
What other outcome would we expect when Humans do not figure in the
bottom line?
Capitalism and democracy are not compatible. But we, the working
class have been brainwashed into believing that Capitalism can be
"managed". Maybe, if we dedicate our full attention to drafting
controls. But remember, Capitalists have a very different philosophy.
For them, the People are simply another resource, to be used when
needed and tossed aside when their usefulness is at an end.
This attitude has found its way into the thinking of all levels of
government. During my years in state employment, each time planning
began for the next State Budget, I would receive a notice from the
Governor requesting that I show how I would run my Program on a 10%
reduction and a 5% reduction. It was always assumed that there was
fat which could be trimmed off. In Washington State, the Legislature
was our Employer. Most of our legislators at the time, were small
businessmen, doctors, lawyers and a sprinkling of wealthy women who were the
wives of corporate bosses.
The overall attitude held by the legislature was that government
workers were a lazy, self serving bunch. This attitude reflected that
attitude held by the Private Sector. Along with the attitude of the
legislature, most blue collar workers were held in the same contempt.
Boeing workers worked at the "Lazy B", and were regarded as incapable
of doing any task that was not spelled out for them.
When the day arrives when Robots can be purchased, programmed and
operated for less outlay than a human worker, the Robot will be
embraced. When AI becomes so refined that it can do the daily work of
the mid management employee, then AI will replace the worker. What
happens to those displaced employees is of no concern of the corporate
bosses. For all they are concerned, they can starve to death. They,
the white collar workers, had believed that they were American
Citizens, with certain inalienable Rights, but it turned out they were
seen by the Establishment as just another resource, as replaceable as burned
out light bulbs.
Working Class Americans need to come to a place in our thinking where
we no longer believe that the wealthy Establishment folks think the same as
we do.
We're in two different worlds. Our thinking is not alike. They are
not bad people, anymore than we are greedy, lazy ignoramuses. The
fact is that we have a different bottom line. The bad news is that we
all cannot have the life style of the corporate executive. But the
good news is that there is enough wealth and resources to allow us all
to live comfortable, healthy, productive lives. It's merely a matter
of redistribution of our collective wealth.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/17/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Published on
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
byCreators.com
Robots Are Coming for Millions of Blue-Collar Jobs CEOs urgently need
euphemisms to soften the image of their constant hunt for ways to
kill jobs and funnel more money to themselves and top investors.
byJim Hightower
Ford F150 trucks go through robots on the assembly line at the Ford
Dearborn Truck Plant on September 27, 2018 in Dearborn, Michigan.
(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) Ford F150 trucks go through
robots on the assembly line at the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant on
September 27, 2018 in Dearborn, Michigan. (Photo by Bill
Pugliano/Getty Images)
Some people find hunting for sport to be abhorrent, so hunters have
come up with euphemisms to make what they do sound gentler on the
ears of the nonhunting public. For example, animals aren't killed;
they're "harvested."
And dead prey is not gutted but "processed."
Corporate America has taken note of this verbal ploy and is now
adopting it, for CEOs urgently need euphemisms to soften the image of
their constant hunt for ways to kill jobs and funnel more money to
themselves and top investors.
Their urgency is that they're now pushing a huge new surge in job
cuts-this time targeting college-educated, white-collar professionals!
Their weapon is the same sort of neutron bomb they've used to
dispatch millions of blue-collar workers: robots.
But that term has a very bad reputation, so robots have been
relabeled with a nondescript acronym: RPA, "robotic process
automation." These are not your grandfather's old bots merely doing
repetitive mechanical tasks.
Sophisticated automatons armed with artificial intelligence have
quietly moved up the corporate ladder to take over cognitive work
that had been the niche of such highly paid humans as financial
analysts, lawyers, engineers, managers and doctors.
McKinsey, the world's biggest corporate strategy consultancy,
calculated in
2019 that the emerging revolution of thinking robotics would displace
37 million U.S. workers by 2030. Now, seeing the current corporate
stampede to impose RPAs on U.S. workplaces, McKinsey analysts have
upped their projection to 45 million job losses by 2030.
This is more than just an incremental extension of a long, slow
automation process. It's a transformative Big Bang, presently ripping
through America's workforce at warp speed with no public or political
attention, and most of the vulnerable employees have no idea of
what's coming.
Corporate executives, boards and investors do know, however, for
they've been rushing furtively in the past year or so to implement
RPA initiatives.
The New York Times reports that a survey of executives last year
found that nearly 80% of them have already put some forms of RPA in
place, with an additional 16% planning to do so within three years.
Yes, that's 96% of corporate employers. Sales of the new-age
automation software are booming, turning little-known providers like
UiPath and Automation Anywhere into multibillion-dollar behemoths
intent on radically shrinking the job market here and elsewhere.
McKinsey, the world's biggest corporate strategy consultancy,
calculated in 2019 that the emerging revolution of thinking robotics
would displace 37 million U.S. workers by 2030. Now, seeing the
current corporate stampede to impose RPAs on U.S. workplaces,
McKinsey analysts have upped their projection to 45 million job losses by
2030.
Returning to the hunting analogy, professional jobs requiring
human-level judgement have been presumed to be beyond the range of
robotic firepower.
But, as one economist who studies labor now notes, with the mass
deployment of RPA technology, "that type of work is much more in the
kill path."
The corporate vocabulary does not include the phrase "job cuts."
Rather, such unpleasantness is blandly referred to as "employment
adjustment."
Moreover, terminations are hailed as universally beneficial-they're
said to "streamline" operations and "liberate" the workforce from
tedious tasks.
Now, though, corporate wordsmiths are going to need a new thesaurus
of euphemisms to try glossing over the masses of job cuts coming for
those in the higher echelons of the corporate structure. Don't look
now, but an unanticipated result of the ongoing pandemic is that it
has given cover for CEOs to speed up the adoption of highly advanced
RPAs to replace employees once assumed to be immune from displacement.
As one analyst told a New York Times reporter, "With R.P.A., you can
build a bot that costs $10,000 a year and take out two to four humans."
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, many top executives feared a public
backlash if they pushed automation too far too fast. But, ironically,
the economic collapse caused by the pandemic has so discombobulated
the workplace and diverted public attention that corporate bosses
have been emboldened to rush ahead, declaring, "I don't really care.
I'm just going to do what's right for my business." While the
nationwide shutdown of offices and furloughing of employees has
caused misery for millions, one purveyor of RPA systems approvingly
notes that it has "'massively raised awareness' among executives
about the variety of work that no longer requires human involvement,"
The New York Times says. He cheerfully declares, "We think any
business process can be automated," and his firm advises corporate
bosses that half to two-thirds of all the tasks being done at their
companies can be done by machines.
Conventional corporate wisdom blithely preaches that all new
technologies create more jobs than they kill, but even those
Pollyannaish preachers are now conceding that this robotic automation
of white-collar jobs is being imposed so suddenly, widely and
stealthily that losses will crush any gains.
"We haven't hit the exponential point of this stuff yet," warns an
alarmed analyst. "And when we do, it's going to be dramatic."
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public
speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A
Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the
Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of
Political Subversion" (1998).
Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on
behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families,
environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
C 2021 Creators Syndicate
