From: malQRMassimilation@gmail.com   
      
   On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 11:40:32PM -0400, Michael Trew wrote:   
   > On 4/19/2022 21:53, Bill Horne wrote:   
   >> Flexibility looks to be the name of the game as operators bring their   
   >> employees back to the office, with a majority - including big names   
   >> like AT&T and Comcast - telling Fierce they're opting for a hybrid   
   >> work model going forward. A smaller portion, however, said they plan   
   >> to remain mostly remote, citing benefits for both employees and the   
   >> company alike.   
   >   
   > Understandable for some office and call center jobs, but of course, this   
   > can't apply to field techs and central office positions.  Unless much of   
   > that switch-work can be done remotely?   
      
   In fact, it can apply to anyone who isn't protected by the laws of   
   physics. No joke: the only thing keeping most Central Office   
   Technicians employed is the transit time to and from the Clarke Belt:   
   the wet dream of the oligarchs who run American industry is to   
   eliminate the need for any kind of specialized expertise in those   
   uppity technocrat members of the workforce they think of as serfs on   
   their plantations.   
      
   Actually, almost all of that switch work can be done remotely, and by   
   workers in other time zones on the other side of the world. That's not   
   being allowed as yet, because the best Congress that money can buy is   
   deathly afraid of not having a constant stream of money flowing into   
   the Social Security Trust Fund, a formerly inexhaustible cache of   
   capital which they have treated as a candy store they could rob at any   
   time they wanted every since it was created.   
      
   The real reason that existing cables and drops are being abandoned in   
   favor of fiber-optic media is that each pair of copper wire is   
   slightly different from others, even in the same cable, even with the   
   same bridge taps, even with identical splices and junction boxes.   
      
   Fiber-optic pathways are being installed at breakneck speed because   
   copper requires something that can't be bought: the loyalty and   
   dedication of union men and women who can actually think about seeing   
   their kids graduating from college - instead of task-trained menials   
   applying computer-generated settings in private rooms located in   
   rented space where unions can't picket.   
      
   If they could, the overlords of our country would move all the   
   telephone and computer infrastructure overseas, to third-world   
   crapholes that are populated by uneducated and superstitious peasants   
   whom are glad to have a handful of rice at the end of their day, and   
   maybe even water that doesn't make them too sick to go back the next   
   day and bow down to their betters all over again.   
      
      
   --   
   Bill Horne   
   (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)