Just Because We Can Doesn't Mean We Should
Our local Wal-Mart installed last week new self-checkout registers. Customers can now zip through with a few beeps and be on their merry way. A local supermarket, Tops, has had self-checkouts for a couple years, and when the store installed them, it was fun to use them (and the kids, in particular, thought it was nifty neat). I've since had a change of heart about self-checkout aisles. Sure, they're fun, and if there's not some blockhead in your way who can't figure out the technology (and there is a surprisingly large number of these people), then they're speedy and convenient, too.
But what about all those cashiers who no longer have jobs because they've been replaced by self-checkout registers?
Mind you, these are the people who, in our society, are already the most vulnerable. They have low-paying, part-time jobs with sporadic schedules; many have been unable, for a variety of reasons, to get an education; many don't have skills and experience to do much beyond simple service jobs.
Yet these are the very jobs we're eliminating when a company installs self-checkout registers that the rest of us then flock to. Sure, it's nominally convenient for me, but it's literally someone else's livelihood. I see these people disappear from the registers at Wal-Mart and Tops. I see them disappear from the toll booths along the turnpike. I see them vanish all over the place as technological efficiencies continue to replace human beings.
In China, I saw people cutting lawns with clippers and sweeping streets with straw brooms, not because the government couldn't afford lawn mowers and street cleaners but because the government couldn't afford to have all those people out of work. There are 1.3 billion people in China, and they all need something to do. The government looks for ways to employ people, and that means letting people work rather than replacing people with otherwise readily available technology.
There's something to be said for the idea that people need something to do. They need employment--even if it's seemingly menial employment--because there is productivity and sufficiency in it. There is dignity in work. Certainly, meaningful employment that pays well and respects workers is ideal, and I would not automatically subscribe to the philosophy that "bad work is better than no work"--but I've also seen too often that idle hands are, indeed, the devil's plaything.
So, I've been making it a point to go through check-out lines at Wal-Mart that are peopled by human beings, and I've made a point to tell them, "I'm going through your line because you are here, and I want to protect your job." Maybe that's a little righteous-sounding, but so far, every cashier has smiled and said, "Thanks." They certainly get it.
But what about all those cashiers who no longer have jobs because they've been replaced by self-checkout registers?
Mind you, these are the people who, in our society, are already the most vulnerable. They have low-paying, part-time jobs with sporadic schedules; many have been unable, for a variety of reasons, to get an education; many don't have skills and experience to do much beyond simple service jobs.
Yet these are the very jobs we're eliminating when a company installs self-checkout registers that the rest of us then flock to. Sure, it's nominally convenient for me, but it's literally someone else's livelihood. I see these people disappear from the registers at Wal-Mart and Tops. I see them disappear from the toll booths along the turnpike. I see them vanish all over the place as technological efficiencies continue to replace human beings.
In China, I saw people cutting lawns with clippers and sweeping streets with straw brooms, not because the government couldn't afford lawn mowers and street cleaners but because the government couldn't afford to have all those people out of work. There are 1.3 billion people in China, and they all need something to do. The government looks for ways to employ people, and that means letting people work rather than replacing people with otherwise readily available technology.
There's something to be said for the idea that people need something to do. They need employment--even if it's seemingly menial employment--because there is productivity and sufficiency in it. There is dignity in work. Certainly, meaningful employment that pays well and respects workers is ideal, and I would not automatically subscribe to the philosophy that "bad work is better than no work"--but I've also seen too often that idle hands are, indeed, the devil's plaything.
So, I've been making it a point to go through check-out lines at Wal-Mart that are peopled by human beings, and I've made a point to tell them, "I'm going through your line because you are here, and I want to protect your job." Maybe that's a little righteous-sounding, but so far, every cashier has smiled and said, "Thanks." They certainly get it.