low-end jobs

[cellio]

Automated alternatives to humans in the service industry have been around for a while. ATMs were probably the first widespread case of this. The real value of ATMs was the ability to interact with your bank at times when the bank wouldn't otherwise be available. I think ATMs are a real win for that reason, and the only time I visit humans in my bank is when I want to make a deposit.

More recently, I've interacted with automation that is designed to specifically replace humans rather than broadening service. The automated check-out at grocery stores is the big example here. Instead of one cashier per line, stores now need one employee per 4 or so lines. This isn't making things more convenient for customers; unlike ATMs, the scanners are only available when the store is open anyway.

There are practical reasons I tend to avoid the automated checkouts, mostly related to speed. The line for the human has to be about three times as long as the line for the machine before the machine looks like a time-saver. People may get more proficient at scanning and packing over time, of course.

But I find that even absent that consideration, I'm reluctant to use the machine. Doing so helps to eliminate a low-end job that might be the only job the job-holder is capable of doing. Most of the cashiers I see at the grocery store aren't college-age kids looking for spending money; they're middle-aged and sometimes visibly handicapped.

This is not wholly a compassion-based argument; it's also one of expedience. I think we as a society are better off if almost everyone has a productive job. And some people are only capable of the lower-end jobs that are most in danger of being automated away. (Aside: for this reason, requirements for high minimum wages are also a bad idea -- don't make it cost-ineffective to hire people at prices they're willing to work for!)

We cannot avoid automation, of course, and in many cases it's a good thing. I'm no Luddite (she says, typing on her computer :-) ). But I kind of wish that we could focus it a little differently sometimes.

And yes, sometimes the humans are annoying to deal with. Last night I lost close to ten minutes to an inept cashier, and there is one (mentally challenged) bagger who I will never again allow to touch my groceries because he seems utterly bewildered by ideas like "the bread goes on top" (multiple failures). People who aren't capable of doing the job shouldn't hold the job anyway just out of pity. (Giant Eagle was right to fire the guy who was partially eating food and then putting the package back on the shelf, and I don't care that he didn't understand that this was wrong.) But y'know, the machines aren't painless either -- just try to get a scanning error fixed. And for the most part, the people holding these jobs are quite capable and willing to work, and I find I'm rooting for the people over the machines.

Comments

church and state

[cellio]

That's an excellent observation, that the RC church used to provide the human services now (badly) (somewhat) provided by government.

I assume this worked because the church was near-universal. There are certainly people who were left out of those benefits -- Jews, for example -- but they reached a high percentage of the population. No single body does that today, though many (mostly-religious) organizations still do similar things within their own ranks. For example, the Jewish community tends to have aid grants for the needy, (kosher) food banks, free-loan societies, and so on. I assume the RC church still does some of this within their ranks. I assume that other religions/denominations do as well. But no one is doing it all, even within their own communities, and not all communities are doing any particular thing.

But even if they were, this leaves out a lot more people than the church left out in the middle ages. Some of that gap is plugged by other voluntary associations -- for example, look at the outpourings of support when SCA members face crises like fires. This is not the same as the day-to-day support needs of poor people, of course, but -- here's that word again :-) -- community comes in many forms today, perhaps more than at any pre-industrial time. Sometimes people are able to draw on that community. I've known people who were pretty much always the beneficiaries of event leftovers, for instance. But again, it's very spotty.

What would you say to an institution (we need a name for it), existing in parallel to and independent of the "government" (yet which might be said to be a "government" of its own), to which all such social programs were relinquished and which got not one dime of tax money; and once a year you got a bill for one twentieth of your income which was completely, utterly, 100% voluntary to pay or not as you like?

Assuming that this replaces the government programs, I'd be completely up for that. Let it act as a federation as much as possible rather than trying to centralize, and it's even better.

I'm not sure if this would be a net positive or negative, but consider a stipulation: if you ever benefit from the service, you're required to contribute some when you find yourself in better circumstances. (This is that "free loan" idea.)