How come in 1970 it took 4 guys to crew a freight train and 2 guys to do the evening news on TV. And now it only takes 2 guys to crew a freight train and 5 guys to do the evening news?
Youth wants to know. And now a word from our sponsor.
Mitch
Mitch-
I’m working on it. I think you have found a good topic for a two hour “History’s Mysteries” on the History Channel. We can get Mark to write it. Obviously, you will get the graphics.
Jay
The wounderfull world of TV!
'Cuz TV can afford to hire extra people, the RR’s can’t.
You guys asked the wrong question. The right question is: How many guys or gals does it take to report the day’s news?
Rudy
Simple,
Market pressures support and demand five people in the newsroom just as market pressures do not support and demand five people in the cab.
Gabe
Well-At least one to hold the light bulb.[:D][:D][:D]
Jay
tomtrain
Should we explain that Ray Scott predated remote volumn control? That device wasn’t necessary because Mr. Scott was not joined in the booth with two other guys and all of them stressing vocal cords to the max.
Come to think of it-that is the answer to the original question posted by Mitch. No one person could shout that loud through an entire newscast.
Jay
The reasons it takes 5 people on the news:
1: New readers are geting dumber. 2: They are trying to hide point 1 by implying that they are experts in different phases of the news.
Technology.
A little box and lineside detectors now do a significant part of what was done from the caboose on an over-the-road train.
The people involved in presenting the news (or what passes for it) have gone from behind the camera to in front of it. For on-scene reports it’s no longer necessary to develop the film, edit it, then run it on the air. One person with a remote van (satellite uplink, no less) can now report “live from the scene.” In addition, the two or three cameramen in the studio have been replaced by robots, and the projectionists and other support personnel in the control room aren’t necessary. Even videotape is being replaced by computers. Director and switcher is about it, and that may be the same person…
Come to think of it, it probably takes less people to put on a newscast as well.
…As we continue to find ways to do operations without employees…In the long haul, I wonder who will be earning the wage to purchase products we try to make…
It’s like my father said in 1973. “Someday we’ll all be doing each other’s laundry.” Or as my attorney said, “We’ll just be selling anuities to one another.”
When I started this thread I meant it in jest. I wanted to see how many funny remarks we could get. But now comes some serious questions. We’ve moved Trenton NJ to China (What Trenton makes, the world takes.) so I’m curious as to what we still make here besides parking lots.
Mitch
Not only robots but outsourcing as well, as stated above.
This is actually a very true reality that has dire consequences.
What’s slowly happening is the “middle class” that the industrial revolution created is now getting smaller, as outsourcing and robots take the jobs of the average worker. As a result, there will once again be a large gap between the people living large in the upper class and people who are living in the lower classes/poverty.
It’s all just a matter of time before the middle class is nothing more than a faint memory.
Someone sitting in a mill doing the same repetitive task 1000 times a day five days a week (for honest pay) may not sound like an important job, but it’s the glue of the middle class society, a very big deal indeed.
Mitch
In keeping in jest (maybe), a shot at pre-TV media went like this. “Life magazine is for people who can’t read and Time magazine is for people who can’t think.”
Now both conditions are accommodated at one place.
Jay
Never thought of that. (smileing to myself)
Most people are morons, the news is moronic, so the two go together to get more money by having more morons on the shows.
Adrianspeeder
I’ve seen that sign on the bridge when riding the NEC. It always sounded “resentful” to me, as if the world was full of ungrateful thieves. They must not have meant it that way.
As for the other points in this thread…I do see the disappearance of the middle class as a big issue and a major problem for the future of the country.
Very briefly put: railroaders are really bright, hard working, people, and getting and working smarter every single day. This is manifestly not true of newscasters, my friends…
I believe that the undercurrent of the sign “What Trenton Makes the World Takes,” comes from a time when Trenton was a manufacturing giant, and the products produced there were used world-wide. And the city was quite proud of it.
I guess a new sign would read,“What they make, we gotta take.”
Mitch