KCRag Forum

FangKC wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:28 pm Through privatization, the number of federal jobs has gone down since 1990. Locally it looks like about 6,000 less workers. I assume many of those functions are being done by contractors.

IT is a common one to outsource. There's at least three departments with two agencies in KC that outsource basically all their IT through one contracting company.

Think of how much is reliant on IT to function these days.

Doesn't the FAA hold a lot of power in the shutdown, like tomorrow they could say "If this government isn't back up and we are not paid tomorrow we are not working due to the financial stress our employees have" Stress is not a good thing when it comes to an Air Traffic Controller. The entire airspace in the US would come to a complete standstill and it could cause a lot of havoc on our whole economy, the shutdown would probably end the next day.

They could go on strike.

Air Traffic controller is probably the most powerful to strike because it has a long uptake time to learn the skills, it's highly visible in it's results when it happens and it's already hard to replace people in the position.

It worked out really well for them last time they went on strike.

https://www.politico.com/story/2008/08/ ... 981-012292

Not sure if PATCO 1981 is a super apt comparison given the unique context here though. Trump would find it politically more difficult to mass-fire federal employees who are striking because they're being forced to work without pay due to a government shutdown that a majority of Americans already blame Trump himself for. If he did it anyway, it would trigger lawsuits that would potentially get into some very interesting questions about labor relations (although I'm not really eager to see the logical contortions Trump's handpicked SCOTUS would engage in to find in favor of the government).

True, but the shutdown is just a cover to shrink government permanently anyway.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/seni ... al-workers

There is so much talk about automated cars recently with Tesla and others working in self driving. I’m surprised that airplanes haven’t also seen movement in this direction. This would eliminate pilot cost and allow automated air traffic control systems. The cost would probably be paid for by the extra first class rows you could put where the cockpit is now.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:35 am There is so much talk about automated cars recently with Tesla and others working in self driving. I’m surprised that airplanes haven’t also seen movement in this direction. This would eliminate pilot cost and allow automated air traffic control systems. The cost would probably be paid for by the extra first class rows you could put where the cockpit is now.

Read these articles.

https://www.flightdeckfriend.com/can-a- ... omatically
http://www.askthepilot.com/questionansw ... ion-myths/

So why did we let the government shut down for over a month? Anyone still believe that we would be just fine with small government?

cityscape wrote: ↑Sun Jan 27, 2019 5:05 pm So why did we let the government shut down for over a month? Anyone still believe that we would be just fine with small government?

What it showed is everything government shutdowns don't work. The idea of making someone work without pay will get push back much quicker in the future. There's a case to be made that some parts of the federal government are bloated, technology is going to streamline many processes and end some positions, but you can't just blanket shutdown whole agencies.

You still need people to take out the trash.

beautyfromashes wrote: ↑Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:35 am There is so much talk about automated cars recently with Tesla and others working in self driving. I’m surprised that airplanes haven’t also seen movement in this direction. This would eliminate pilot cost and allow automated air traffic control systems. The cost would probably be paid for by the extra first class rows you could put where the cockpit is now.

I'm sufficiently skeptical about the driverless car stuff. Automated planes sounds even further away. I can't even imagine the encyclopedia of FARs that would have to be written.

An experienced commercial pilot told me a few years back that the planes can already fly themselves, and the only real reason they still have jobs is to deal with emergencies. He wasn't worried about being replaced anytime soon.

Also skeptical of autonomous cars for near future. Would be fine if you had roads dedicated to autonomous and separate dedicated roads for human drivers but might be hard to pull off. Given KC wants to be a 'living lab' for these things, an interesting experiment would be autonomous uber/lyft cars on certain streets downtown except allow passes for human cars if garage access only on an autonomous road. Along with the pass comes some form of app that helps driver and driverless car be more aware of each other. Something along those lines though maybe not useful if downtown only. If tied to scooter apps sharing road, auto cars could also be more aware of scooters as well. But very high dependency on technology working and phones having power.

cityscape wrote: ↑Sun Jan 27, 2019 5:05 pm So why did we let the government shut down for over a month? Anyone still believe that we would be just fine with small government?

There's maybe a case for reduced govt spending in some cases (reducing military bases around world in appropriate timely manner) but taking away entire depts/divisions cold turkey is clearly not the way to go, especially using the labor force as political leverage as Trump has.

The basic math of car ownership says it will be decades before private vehicles are replaced by any sort of driverless vehicle. Subscription services cost dramatically more than paying a couple thousand for a used car and when we still see 40 year old cars in regular use it will take a long time to remove all current cars from the market.

It will become very common in commercial trucking. Your per trip labor cost changes if you can replace every skilled driver in a fleet. Simply put fuel attendants in place at a fleet repair shop in rural zones between cities and you can run trucks 24x7. Can time more trucks for off peak driving rather than working to human schedules. Or in a city, a lot of high demand courier services. I believe it was one of the Wolverine X-men movies that included automated long haul trucks in the movie

I would expect the initial person driverless services to be more about service reliability than driverless. Your hotel shuttle type of service will love it. Put a member of staff on board to handle luggage and let them ride along too telling abou the services the hotel provides and handling check in on the way to the hotel.

It continues the trend towards non-skilled third party work. You wouldn’t be employed by the hotel or trucking company but by the company that provides the vehicles. You would be part of a pool of workers that arrives at a depot and works for whatever service needs you that day.

This article irked me today and kind of makes me want to move out of this state and actually consider Kansas for the first time - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

It got me to thinking and was wondering if Springfield will eventually overtake the Missouri Side of KC as the 2nd Missouri Metro in terms of importance, state funding, political influence, etc or has it already gotten to that point? The Springfield metro is reaching the 600,000 range, the region is ultra conservative, very religious and I would say it has more of influx of new money compared to KCMO, i would say these are all very important for state politics going forward

brewcrew1000 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:54 pm It got me to thinking and was wondering if Springfield will eventually overtake the Missouri Side of KC as the 2nd Missouri Metro in terms of importance, state funding, political influence, etc or has it already gotten to that point? The Springfield metro is reaching the 600,000 range, the region is ultra conservative, very religious and I would say it has more of influx of new money compared to KCMO, i would say these are all very important for state politics going forward

I think Springfield will never be second or first. Yes, they keep growing but I don't believe as fast as KC or STL. KC is fine but what I think will happen is that even more state resources will go to St. Louis if the merger is approved and cause problems for KC and Springfield. Not sure if that's the answer you wanted.

brewcrew1000 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:54 pm This article irked me today and kind of makes me want to move out of this state and actually consider Kansas for the first time - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

that could happen in any state with a republican supermajority

According to this, KS has significantly moved away from being the most GOP state now more towards Indie from 2013 to 2017. MO has increased in Indie identity as well but GOP increased higher than KS.

http://ava.prri.org/#politics/2017/Stat ... S-KS,US-MO
http://ava.prri.org/#politics/2013/Stat ... S-KS,US-MO

STL metro actually gained GOP identity while KC metro dropped GOP significantly during same period. KC also now has more Indie identity than STL while both now have same DEM identity.
http://ava.prri.org/#politics/2017/Metr ... ty/m/13,28
http://ava.prri.org/#politics/2013/Metr ... ty/m/13,28

Right click and open each of these in a new tab to see comparisons. I think 2018 data comes out around late Spring.