I refuse to use self-serve checkout registers in stores.
They put people out of work.
By using them, you encourage technology to further replace jobs. AND MARK MY WORDS, IF YOU'RE UNDER FORTY--and for many even older--YOUR JOB WILL BE ELIMINATED IN YOUR LIFETIME AND YOU WILL BE ON THE DOLE.
I believe this is already happening, and explains why unemployment and underemployment is already high.
Had a friend of mine lose his career--not just his job--to automation in his late 50s. He went back to school to become a medical technician. No one would hire him because he was too old.
And I still get p1$$ed whenever I call a company and get a voice menu. It's terrible customer service, but when all companies do it, where do you turn?
When it comes to abetting technology--except to dissuade others from abetting it--I'm on strike.
I’m sure like Caliph Baraq you mourn the loss of bank tellers to the ATM onslaught.
You’d like New Jersey, they require gasoline to be pumped only by attendants!
We are on the same wavelength. I refuse to put carts back in kiosks. I only use tellers not ATMs and I mail my bills. I only use human checkers, and I call and wait until I get a human before doing whatever business I have with the company.
That’s what’s scary. I think if most jobs are replaced by robots or automation, there will only be two ways to deal with it. One way, like in the book version of “Battlestar Galactica,” outlaw robots for jobs that can be done by people, except for very hazardous ones such as inspecting the inside of atomic reactors for example. The other way, well, hate to say it, but everyone get a guaranteed living wage, most likely funded by taxation of the profits made by the robots. The downside of that is people will be idle and the old saying, idle hands are the Devil’s workshop” applies. BTW, the other night, I saw a 1964 episode of “The Twilight Zone” where the owner of a factory replaced all his workers with automation and one foreman went crazy and busted up the control computer while yelling about the dignity of work that is needed for every man. Later on, the owner is replace by a robot, played by “Robbie the Robot” from “Forbidden Planet.”