Posted on 03/01/2020 12:16:21 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In the 1960s, Milton Friedman reportedly visited a construction site in a foreign country. To his surprise, the canal builders used no heavy machinery and instead armed thousands of men with shovels. He questioned the bureaucrat about this odd choice and the bureaucrat responded that it was a jobs program. “Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal,” Friedman said. “If it’s jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels.”
Friedman’s absurd proposal illustrates the absurdity of make-work bias—the belief that conserving labor makes us poorer. Make-work bias was particularly popular during the Industrial Revolution, when legions of new machines upended the old way of doing things. No one was more famously upset than the textile workers of the early 19th century—Luddites—who railed against the automatic loom, the “job-killing” machines of their day.
Modern Day Luddites
We in the Information Age have our own Luddites. Among their ranks are Las Vegas culinary workers trying to hold back AI servers and bartenders and teamsters opposing self-driving vehicles and delivery robots. Luddites and their sympathizers heap a particularly large amount of criticism on self-checkouts, probably because their ubiquity makes them an obvious target.
Their apprehension is understandable. The proliferation of self-checkouts touches our daily lives so completely that it’s hard to imagine cashiers not losing their jobs or suffering smaller paychecks. Self-checkouts threaten cashiers as surely as excavators threatened shovel manufacturers. It is no surprise that protests erupted after a French supermarket used self-checkouts to get around labor laws or that the Oregon AFL-CIO backed a petition which limits the number of self-checkouts to two per store. Every supplier hates competition.
(Excerpt) Read more at fee.org ...
Do they attach RFID chips to each piece of fruit/vegetable?
These are the people i think to myself,”why are these idiots allowed to vote?”
Amazon does ALL the work for you. You go online, pick your products, and a few clicks later you’re done. The next day your stuff arrives on your doorstep.
Did you have to go the Amazon warehouse, find your product, check yourself out, drive the truck to your house and deliver your own package? Of course not.
I PAY people to do those things. Why the hell should a supermarket or other store transfer those labor costs to ME and get ME to do their work for them. That is just ridiculous.
I’m happy you are snookered and like doing work for the stores and not get compensated. You probably are happy to wear their logos and advertising on your clothes without any compensation, either.
Our SuperOne markets here In North Idaho hire the nicest checkers and baggers. They are usually teens to maybe 30 and always have a smile, nice things to say, are happy to chat, always ask how your day is going and what you have planned for the weekend. The friendliness here is so wonderful.
“I notice that it’s mostly older people that seem to hate self-checkouts.”
That’s because you younger people grew up in an ere where the stores conditioned YOU to do their tasks for them...and not compensate you.
You have no recollection of what true, pleasant service was like because it all happened before you had your breakfast this morning.
What time savings? Between self-checkout and employees shopping for the pick up service at my local store (thereby clogging the aisles with these gigantic carts full of food that they’re picking out for people), which is why I would never use it because I’m a discerning shopper when it comes to packaging, especially cans with dents and other such things that the shopping-employees really don’t give a hoot about... they just want to fill the order so they can pick up the next order to take out to the parking lot to give to somebody who did their shopping on their app. It’s, it’s crazy.
What time savings? Between self-checkout and employees shopping for the pick up service at my local store (thereby clogging the aisles with these gigantic carts full of food that they’re picking out for people), which is why I would never use it because I’m a discerning shopper when it comes to packaging, especially cans with dents and other such things that the shopping-employees really don’t give a hoot about... they just want to fill the order so they can pick up the next order to take out to the parking lot to give to somebody who did their shopping on their app. It’s, it’s crazy.
Self check outs are great
I use them most all the time
I usually have to go through this list before the AVR recognizes one of them and will send me to a person:
* operator
* customer service
* representative
* agent
* associate
* team member
* human being
* person
I also find screaming “YOU GOD DAMNED F@$#@#%ING USELESS STUPID ROBOT GET ME A HUMAN BEING.” works, too. I think they’ve programmed them to detect suicidal levels of outrage.
I wish someone would still pump gas and clean windshields.
I personally think there is a place for full-service but I detest govt mandating it.
From what I have read, the bigger issue with shop-lifting is the prohibition of plastic bags.
I appreciate checking out my own groceries and bagging them.
There are out people here, right here, incapable of selfcheck
Exactly... I will not become an unpaid employee
I think it was China. And it was a dam not canals.
Even better use the phone APP. They almost all have deals like free fries or such.
I’ve come to appreciate self-checkout lanes.
That way I avoid having to interact with annoying store employees who tell me what I should or shouldn’t buy, try to sell me on getting a store card, or get in long conversations with people ahead of me in line.
Good points in article. I still try and not use the self checkouts.
Not me. I will only check out myself when they start paying me to do so. This could take the form of discounts or store credit. But i will not do it for free.
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