The Twilight Zone

The end of November is upon us, and with that, comes the dreaded month of December for Los Angeles Times employees. Just like clockwork, employees are let go in the last month of the year at the newspaper, and this year will remain the same if history repeats itself.

Just yesterday I heard from the square that our computer help desk employees will be outsourced to the Philippines, with five to ten employees being let go. The Information Technology employees are taking each week as they come, not knowing how much longer they will remain with the company, before their jobs are outsourced.

With all the outsourcing we have witnessed at the Los Angeles Times it causes me to reminisce about Rod Serling and his black and white television program called The Twilight Zone. In the episode titled “The Brain Center at Whipples”, which was released on May 15th, 1964, Mr. Whipple attempt’s to be more efficient in his factory, and replaces all of his employees with machines. He himself is let go when a robot replaces him.

Machines are replacing American workers at an alarming rate, but countries like India and the Philippines, instead of machines, are taking jobs away at a much faster pace than anything else.

The outlook for future generations of Americans is not a bright one.