Classic Rant #69 (August 19, 2009): Where Have All the Ticket Takers Gone?

Another move to get us more in gear for the high-tech world has resulted in a lessening of the "human" aspect of our lives.

This wasn't a big story in the paper, but as I read it, I felt that something was wrong here.

The Long Island Railroad has eliminated ticket takers at a number of stations along its vast line. It believes the stations where the ticket takers were eliminated were ones that did not produce high ticket sales, so why have human beings taking tickets when you can have a machine do it--and do it far less expensively than having a real person dole out tickets?

One of the stations that is impacted by this move is the one that I would use to get into New York City. Honestly, I don't use it much nowadays, but when I did use it regularly, dealing with a human being was a far better way to get my ticket than the way it has to be done now, through a machine.

I know, in these economic times, the Long Island Railroad is looking to cut costs. However, it seems that whenever a big corporation has to cut costs, it cuts people.

It seems that no matter what we do or for how long we do it, we are expendable and replaceable by a machine.

Sure, the machine can dole out tickets faster and probably more efficiently than humans can, but you miss the human aspect of a person actually doing this when you regulate this job to a machine.

And, also, you put people on the unemployment line by taking away their jobs.

I just believe there has to be a better way.