Re: Removal of Self-Checkout Machines
True enough, but where are we going with this concept?
Are we going to eliminate self-service gas pumps so that we can go back to the '50's with the man with the star coming out to pump my gas and take my credit card information? There's at least 10 people gassing up at the same time at the Chevron station I go to. We now have to wait for someone to come out to pump the gas? And pay extra for the privilege as that is factored into the gasoline price?
No more ATM's, so I've got to go inside a bank during banking hours to top up my wallet as well?
This may be a kooky concept, but let's go forward rather than backward. Solar energy plants are marginally economical at this point. But if we're going to spend billions on "stimulus" and bailouts that just line rich people's pockets, let's instead build the smart grid infrastructure required to get the electricity from the Southwest to the rest of the country and use all this sunshine we have out here to power the country.
Put people to work, stimulate the economy, go green, and get us off foreign oil (use all that power and/or American natural gas to power our vehicles) all in one fell swoop.
But, again, I'll be greatly surprised if Albertson's puts four checkers working in place of the 4 self-checkout stations monitored by one worker. Now that worker will be serving only one person at a time rather than up to four at a time.
Automation isn't what put this economy in a tailspin -- it was easy money from the Fed fueling unsustainable bubbles that resulted in an inevitable crash where the big players then were bailed out with public money. Making me wait in line at Albertson's . . . and the gas station . . . and the bank . . . ain't gonna fix that.
