Posted on 09/14/2011 7:58:28 PM PDT by Olog-hai
On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews admitted to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that it "sounds Marxist" but he truly believes that automation in the economy has killed jobs by replacing human clerks in CVS and camera operators at MSNBC with "robots":
I don't want to skip to your left on this but.... [W]hen I see automation, when I go to a CVS that used to employ a lot of people just above the poverty level, above the minimum wage. And you walk in there now, it's all machines. Now it's very convenient for the customer, it's all machines. There's a check-out machine, by the way, that talks to you and says "Don't forget to put your CVS card in."
And by the way, I used to have about seven or eight cameramen. I don't have them anymore. It's all automated, it's all robots. Everywhere we go is robots!
You used to go to a gas station, you'd have somebody would check your tires, check your oil. There ain't anybody there, there's nobody working at a gas station! …
Actually, blaming machines for job losses doesn’t sound Marxist, it sound Luddite.
But, given the general level of historical illiteracy in the country, I suppose if one were in a forgiving mood, one could let it pass that a leftist “pundit” can’t to tell one looney 19th century movement from another, even if one is named for an actual person and the other for a mythical figure.
Actually, my son owns an air-mattress with a built in pump. The inflation instructions call for allowing the pump to rest for two minutes in the middle of inflating the mattress. (Which raises the question: who would design an air pump whose efficiency decreases so drastically after five minutes of operation that is needs a rest?)
On a long car trip this summer, we were stunned to discover that NJ requires the use of gas pumpers. The pumper who enlightened us said that the only other state with such a law is Oregon.
I do miss gas pumpers.
Ok, I go to CVS frequently and I have never seen a robot. I wonder where Mathews shops.
What a moron. Those CVS kiosks simply check prices and spit out coupons.
Actually, MSNBC could replace it’s HOSTS with robots. Just have Kos and HuffPo phone in the days drivel and the robotic host could spew it out just like Chrissie and that other guy (Maddow?) do.
If he is so concerned with robots replacing humans, use the register with actual cashiers. Most stores have both open, giving the consumer choice.
Often times I find the self-checkout lanes quicker for small trips, and I can get things bagged the way I want. Most of the time if a regular lane is open and has no bagger people just stand around looking confused instead of getting on the end and bagging. Then I have to wait while the cashier scan and bags the items.
They still have cashiers employed. At any supermarket with self-checkout they will have one cashier to watch several lanes and assist when needed.
The gas pumpers scratched the hell out of my car, the street sweepers used to shove dirt into people’s houses, baggers never did it right and always managed to drop some of my stuff, furnace stokers used for respiratory diseases, women *still* take in washing.
You have rotten luck. Many wonderful people who had little jobs worked well in our lives at home.
We had a local station who used a mentally pretty limited guy as a gas pumper. The new folks took over and did not keep him. My son and daugher pump for me now. But I miss the other guy. He visits the station and sits around. Probably on disability and with no work.
The gas pumpers are still scratching the hell out of your car (now with malice) in New Jersey and Oregon, where it is illegal to pump your own gas.
As for ‘little jobs’, that’s what Goodwill Industries is for.
There was a gas station in a small town in Texas that offered personal service at no extra cost every Saturday.
It was provided by the high school cheerleaders, wearing hot pants and T-shirts. Tips were welcome -- to fund their senior trip.
You could even get an oil change or a flat fixed(these were farm girls).
I suspect it was the busiest station within a fifty-mile radius on Saturdays.
They’re behind everything. Skynet just won’t give up!
:-)
What about the people who design the machines, manufacture them, program them, install and maintain them, manage contracts with raw materials and parts suppliers, those kinds of people?
Gee, let’s bring back horse and buggy drivers, hand-lettering of manuscripts, manual tilling of fields, oarsmen to propel boats, the pony express - lots of jobs there.
And instead of putting on a hi-tech television show, Chris can hire an army of town criers to go throughout the land, proclaiming the news (which he has obtained by carrier pigeon - give those pigeon breeders and trainers some job opportunities).
The minimum wage keeps rising. It is no longer cost effective to pay a person to perform some tasks.
Would be a great boost to the economy if "the good stuff" was more widely available.
Someone who made it out of plastics that overheat after two minutes because it gets the production costs down to less than $5.
Bring back Max Headroom.
Max would be a true talking head. Just program him to spit out the liberal talking points, and Max can put Chrissie Mathews out of a job.
The gas pumpers are still scratching the hell out of your car (now with malice) in New Jersey and Oregon, where it is illegal to pump your own gas.
As for ‘little jobs’, that’s what Goodwill Industries is for.
No, goodwill industries are sheltered workshops, and we need some work for the guys and gals who dont need shelter but cannot do a lot.
Or we can just line them up and shoot them.
You might find Charles Murry a good read. He was one of the authors of the Bell Curve. He has also written other social policy and community books from a conservative/libertarian perspective.
The minimum wage keeps rising. It is no longer cost effective to pay a person to perform some tasks.
I know, this issue is one of the most important for the elimination of the minimum wage.
That is sad. I can’t imagine not keeping him there. (I heard from friends in MA that part of Ted Kennedy’s inexplicable - to me- appeal was that he set up jobs like that for the mentally challenged. That he had a guardhouse built on a bridge so that such a guy could have a “job” watching the cars passing over the bridge.)
I am forever grateful to a gas station in Alexandria, VA that had its guys come out to pump patrons’ gas during the DC sniper shootings. Pumping your own gas then was an absolute nightmare.
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