The lack of jobs of any kind, be they for college graduates, or especially for the common man, may not rest at the feet of Obama, the Democrats, or for that matter, any political party. How’s that for an opening sentence? I always try to be as logical as my logical mind will take me, regardless of built in prejudices, political philosophy, or not being fond of most politicians and past or present presidents. Look at it this way, from the mind of an 80 year old, who well remembers the past in my dotage. So many jobs that existed in my youth, no longer exist. Jobs which required little technical skill, college education, or specialization. Millions of jobs for Joe Sixpacks, which have vanished.
As a kid (here we go again!) I grew up in my Dad’s drugstore. It was a wonderful childhood! But I realize now, that when my pharmacist Dad and his pharmacists and other employees were employed in that drug store, probably most of those jobs no longer exist. Hear me out, and blame no one but progress. First of all, there are no more drug stores of the old fashioned kind. People get shampoo, aspirin, and cosmetics at super markets now, or big box stores, which didn’t exist when I was young. My dad’s drug store had nickel and later dime phone booths, which no longer exist, and neither do the jobs associated with them. My Dad’s drug clerks no longer exist. The super drug stores now extant, are self service style, with a no-nothing cashier to pay. No cashier, at any location, need know simplistic arithmetic, as the cash registers automatically tell how much change to give. Products come with bar codes on them, so no prices need be marked on each item, which we used to have to do. Cash registers were heavy, motor driven, with lots of gears and repairs needed. No more. In my Dad’s drug store, we ordered each day from a wholesaler, but now, computers keep track of items sold, and orders are all automatic. Those employees at ’The Washington Wholesale Drug Exchange, no longer exist. Pharmacists in my Dad’s drug store typed prescription labels on typewriters, and prescriptions were hand written by docs and filed away. It’s all computerized now. No more typewriters and repairmen to fix them. My Dad’s drug store was located in a large apartment building with great manually operated elevators, which I loved to operate. There was a PBX switchboard in the lobby, which had an operator routing and answering calls to and from the various apartments. Who has heard of a telephone operator today? All gone. All elevators are push button, computer controlled, self service now. Elevator operators long gone.
Credit cards have replaced much cashiering and cash transactions. With credit cards, mail ordering is common, but it didn’t exist when I was young. ATM machines, and credit and debit cards, have cost thousands of jobs. The jobs that credit cards, automation, and robotics did create, are microscopic in numbers, and are not low skill, compared to the tens of millions of jobs lost, and never replaced. Chain saws and power operated equipment, have cost thousands of loggers their jobs, and ’cherry pickers’ have cost linemen and fruit pickers their jobs. One farmer today, in his air conditioned, computer controlled, John Deere (nothing runs like a Deere), have cost manual laborers their jobs. Lung cancer (which my Dad died of at age 63), has made tobacco farms and cigarettes almost extinct, costing millions of low skill jobs, to the good of course. Clock repairs? No more almost. An “AA” battery will make a clock work perfectly for a year. No more clock repairmen or watch repairs, since watches are mostly electric now, and trouble free. My Swiss electric watch is 19 years old, and aside from a new battery every few years, it works perfectly and keeps perfect time.
Movies and cameras? Now, there’s an industry which has lost at least a million jobs, which will never be replaced. I was in the theatre business for 11 years with 6 theatres; all of which had conventional projection booths, with arc lamps, and two projectors. Every 20 minutes, a ’changeover’ had to be made, switching from one projector to another. Each reel lasted 20 minutes, and film was heavy and expensive. Years ago, I wrote an article predicting that movie theatres would eventually have no film, but a disc with the pictures and sound on it. That is exactly what has happened. No more projectionists! No more heavy film cans transported by trucks to theatres. No more arc lamps, but a strong, brilliant projection bulb has replaced arc lamps. One small ’projector’ is all that’s left in what used to be large, complex projection booths. Movies are now being shot in video tape, which is cheap and easily edited. Look at cameras, with their film, developing, and printing. No more, thanks to digital cameras and no film. All those jobs are long gone. It’s wonderful not to have to shoot expensive film and have it developed! Pictures cost nothing to shoot now, and if you don’t like them, erase them. Imagine the jobs lost through technical advances. Jobs that used to pay well, but required little technical skill, no longer exist in many industries.
Railroad locomotives are no longer steam, but diesel. No more low skill roundhouse locomotive repairmen, boiler cleaners, coal loaders, tender fillers, firemen, brakemen, or hundreds of railroad jobs which no longer exist. Today, a single engineer runs 12,000 ton freight trains, with multiple locomotives, and there are no more cabooses even. Everything is computer controlled, from signals, damage detectors, speed control, and parts of track maintenance. Gone are millions of low skill railroad jobs, which paid good money. Rapid transit or ’light rail,’ has replaced low skill streetcar operators. San Francisco’s BART, plus others, run totally automatically, from starting, stopping at stations, speed control, and everything a motorman would do. One sits in the cab just in case, but he does nothing. Millions of jobs in street railways vanished.
When I started doing precious metals in November of 1977, there were no computers of any kind. I used an electric IBM typewriter to write my news letter, which I called “The Diatribe.” Inventories and all office operations everywhere, were manually controlled. The computer was a future thing. We didn’t even have calculators! My news letter had to be hand printed. Today, I write these on a keyboard and computer. No postage, as tens of thousands read them without their ever being printed. Print shops are virtually extinct, and the jobs which went with them. Letterpress and Linotype operators? No more. Computers have replaced the U.S. Mail to a large degree, and post office employee numbers, are a fraction of what they used to be. Even in restaurants, orders are sent to the kitchen and bills done all with computers. Millions of jobs lost around the world, because of computers, which are so useful, that no one knows how we could do without them, or how we ever operated without them before.
Autos today, run 100,000 miles with no tune ups, or any but the most basic of maintenance. My new Mercedes is supposed to have its oil changed every 10,000 miles or a year, which ever comes first Newer cars’ transmissions don’t even have drain plugs, since they are sealed for life, and the same with wheel bearings. Auto mechanics are no longer ’shade tree,’ but complex, and requiring computer diagnosis when something goes awry. Fuel injection and solid state ignition, have replaced carburetors and distributor breaker points. How often do you see a broken down car on the road today, or one which won’t start? Rarely, and the jobs that went with breakdowns, flooded carbs, etc. are gone. Tubeless tires replaced tubes decades ago, and there went a lot of tire repairs and those who did them. Whoever heard of a gas station attendant any longer? Gone with the wind, and jobs that went with them. I have a large, metal, “Kendall Motor Oil” sign in my garage, and it has two fingers pointing in the air. That meant that with Kendall, you only had to change the oil every two thousand miles, rather than the customary one thousand miles. Grease nipples and grease jobs are long gone on cars today, the the low skill jobs that went with them.
Microwaves have eased the job of the housewife, as have lots of appliances, washers, dryers, wrinkle free fabrics, and frozen foods. Modern refrigerators are virtually repair free, have ice makers, ice water dispensers, and are huge, compared to refrigerators in my childhood with their motors driving a compressor with a belt, ice trays, and boy, were they crude! Snow blowers have replaced snow shoveling in a lot of instances, and reel type, hand pushed lawn mowers are true antiques now. When I was a kid and wanted to call someone, I picked up the receiver and told the operator what number I wanted. My home phone number was Adams 2704. Then dial phones came along, and then push button ones, and each successive one required fewer and fewer employees. Dial telephones, required huge switch gear, and many people to keep them running. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost, switching from operator to dial, and more from dials to push button phones. Cell phones, computers, and solid state electronics, have cost millions and millions of low skill jobs, which used to make America go ’round and be healthy. Do I want to go back to non-computer days, crude refrigerators, manually operated elevators, steam locomotives, coal fired furnaces, wringer washers, tube operated TV and radios, and old fashioned just about everything? In a way, yes, because I am an old geezer, and old things have a great charm to me. I have often said I’d love to turn the clock back to the 1920’s and 30’s. We did without modern stuff then, and were happy and prosperous, with lots of jobs, 20 cent gas, nickel Hershey Bars and Cokes, and gas station attendants who washed your windshield and checked your oil. We can’t go back, and few would want to, but I have at least explained where the jobs went for semi-skilled, honest, hard workers, and why they are at a loss today. It’s sad.
As a ten year old kid, I had a wagon, and hauled groceries for ladies who shopped at the walking distance grocery store. I got nice tips. Today? Everyone drives to the super market. Even kids’ jobs are gone. As a teen in high school, I was making big money doing TV repairs. Ever hear of a TV repairman today? They’re all solid state, flat screen, and if they give trouble, throw them away and buy a new one. We’re living in a society, which basically repairs nothing, because everything is either non-repairable, or much cheaper to buy a new one…made overseas probably, with cheap labor. Incandescent light bulbs which took low skill jobs to replace? No more. I have converted my whole house to LED’s.
P.S. I’m putting this up Monday, instead of Wednesday, and I think I’ll change to Mondays. That’ll leave the week free if I want to go some place or do something away from home. I’m 80, and may not retire, but I am considering myself free to do as I want, and not be tied to a desk or computer. I doubt that my columns generate any business for Colorado Gold. They’re just my way of telling it like I think it is or should be, and I’m not going to write any more books. I’m going to Santa Fe and Phoenix, and taking the week off. Call my kids if you need anything.