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...

    Homelessness is more common in Portland, particularly in the neighborhoods that have house service providers. The affordable housing problem has been increased by Portland real estate's limited supply and ongoing demand, further reducing the amount of housing available to needy individuals. Homelessness results from rising rents and property values in Portland, Oregon. Analysts for the state estimate that Oregon now needs about 140,000 housing units to accommodate the state's population. Statistics on homelessness show how complicated the problem is. The 2023 Year in Time Report indicates that thousands of individuals are homeless on our streets. Portland's overall homelessness rose from 1,887 to 6,297 people in 2023, a 65% increase.  Furthermore, the leading causes of homelessness in Portland--- DRUGS AND ADDICTION : Addiction is listed as the most common problem in the lives of homeless persons in 68% of American cities. It takes effective addiction rehabilitat...