Vulnerable People and Places Blog

Photo by Patrick Hart Written by Patrick Hart In this, part two of I, Unemployed, I will take you through the frontline jobs in the publishing industry and explain how not even seasoned veterans of the trade will retain job security in the coming years . If the corporate desire for rapid profit growth exceeds a humanitarian desire to take time to implement these technologies in an ethical manner to stave off economic disaster, these positions will be at risk. Before that, let me quickly first define what AI models are at their basest root. AI models are programs that utilize artificial intelligence trained on immense amounts of data to analyze data, establish and recognize patterns, and solve queries on their own with minimal to no human interaction. Warehouse Workers and Drivers: The physical pivot point of the publishing business, books need to be moved from one point to another, stored and moved for sale in both a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) capacity. ...

Photo by Patrick Hart Written by Patrick Hart Think about this for a second, across the breadth of human history, there have been many technological advances that allowed us as a species to flourish beyond life as nomadic tribes, as well as feed our innate propensity toward laziness. The wheel afforded humanity the ability to transport large amounts of goods and ourselves in fractions of the time and effort. Irrigation brought us agriculture, so we could settle and, by proxy, create complex societies, security, and art. The printing press led to the democratization of information, allowing what we know as a formal education to be more accessible to those less well off. And the industrial revolution was the start of our ability to mass produce goods, eventually bringing prices down for mass consumption.  On paper and long after the fact, these advances have been net wins for humanity once we eventually learn how to integrate our workforce in and around them. The assembly line, for i...

When times are hard, many return home as adults to have a safe place to plan for a fresh start. Others may remain home a few years into adulthood in order to be prepared for starting out on their own. But when many foster children age out of care, these safety nets are not there for them. For those who do not reunify, connect with other family members, or get adopted, emancipation is the end goal of their foster experience. Ready or not, they are independent adults.  In Oregon, data for 2021 shows that 60% of 16 to 21-year-olds who left foster care were emancipated (1). The Oregon Department of Health and Human Services has published a page with resources for those transitioning out of foster care (2). In 2022, they published a follow-up with 21-year-olds who formerly were in foster care. Of those who continued to respond at the 3 year mark, 24% of the respondents had experienced homelessness in the last 2 years, and only 9% were employed full or part-time (3). These are grim numb...

  Photo by Jonathan Kho Ming Jun on Unsplash This isn't a problem subject to one place. This is a problem that grows in areas unknown. They hide in caves. The hide in forests. They hide in areas they know no one will go.  While yes, they're safer here, And no, we don't have many here- They're still here. They come out in the daylight and stand on the corner. They ask politely, "may I have a quarter?" No. No.  Yes. Here's a dollar. No. Get a job. They make so little,  It's their innocence that's robbed. Nobody listens. Not to us, at least. We're too far from the source. "They're better off there–I'm sure they can work." Maybe this is why everyone goes. Maybe they're tired of feeling alone. Maybe. We shouldn't leave them alone.