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Are people becoming surplus to requirement?

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I went to ASDA at Woodseats last week and found all the tills are now automated with a couple of staff hovering around to help. There were a lot of stressed, angry people getting fed up with the blinking red lights and automated voices telling them there was an unidentified object in the bagging area or buying alcohol needed age verification from the staff.

Today, I've been to the Sculpture Park and after parking in the country park car park, found the helpful lady selling tickets who was there last year has been replaced by automated ticket machines demanding £7.50 exactly as they don't give change. It was the same in the main car park; I had to find the info desk to get change. Are people becoming surplus to requirement?

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No silly, technology is granting us more time to spend pursuing leisure activities along with time at home with the family that's all :)

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Cost cutting init.

 

Machines don't call in sick, they don't argue, they don't bicker, they don't give lip to customers, they don't turn up late, and of course once you've paid for it, it's there forever.

 

I mean they're perfect for social introverts like me who don't particularly want to interact with any sentient being whilst performing day-to-day chores, or have a checkout girl judge me because I'm buying PopTarts, milkshake, a microwave curry and some Rolo yogurts.

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The talk in business journals is that wages have been so low the last few years that companies have been putting off new automation and kept employees on, when such costs rise again then there is a mass of state of the art automated equipment/processes which will be implemented when labour cost rise(if they do)

 

very worrying and makes a mockery of blaming people for being unemployed...

 

---------- Post added 23-08-2013 at 11:52 ----------

 

Cost cutting init.

 

Machines don't call in sick, they don't argue, they don't bicker, they don't give lip to customers, they don't turn up late, and of course once you've paid for it, it's there forever.

 

I mean they're perfect for social introverts like me who don't particularly want to interact with any sentient being whilst performing day-to-day chores, or have a checkout girl judge me because I'm buying PopTarts, milkshake, a microwave curry and some Rolo yogurts.

 

 

Ah, but it could be you next...

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As another poster said, Machines which do 'drudge work' give people more time for leisure.

 

They also give people more time to set up their new 'self-employed' venture.

 

Perhaps - if cashier/checkers are becoming scarce - some enterprising individuals might like to set themselves up as independent cashier checkers and provide a personalised service to those shoppers who can't (or don't want to) scan their own purchases?

 

They would, of course be paid directly by the people who wanted their services.

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...or advertise one's self as a 'personal shopping getterer'

Edited by Daid

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I've been saying this for a long time. Thanks to new technology, unemployment is going to grow. We have to find ways to cope with it. Carping on about the unemployed isn't it.

 

There will quite simply not be enough jobs to go round.

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or have a checkout girl judge me because I'm buying PopTarts, milkshake, a microwave curry and some Rolo yogurts.

 

 

 

She's probably judging you on the fact your tits are bigger than hers.

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There was a very strange story doing the rounds about 40 or 50 years ago------to the effect that as robots and computers became more widespread, everyone would need to work fewer hours and thus have more time for the finer things in life. [ Broadly speaking----more time to pursue Culture ]. Everyone would be working around 20 or 30 hours a week-----the work would be evenly spread out, so to speak.

 

Something has gone sadly wrong with this fine plan----to say the very least ! Now, we 've got millions of people dashing around all day like loonies on speed----always at the beck and call of their mobile or laptop ; other poor saps are commuting about 3 or 4 hours a day to some soulless London or inner-city office.

 

Meanwhile, millions of others are slumped at home on the settee, watching Big Brother and cookery programmes. It was also predicted in days of yore that by now we 'd have an almost paper-less society. THAT must be the biggest joke of all time !

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....and don't forget 'the three-day week';)

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Maybe people would be happier going back to a agricultural society, like we had pre industrial revolution. Or if you don't like supermarkets cutting back on staff, going back to having individual "open all hours" style shops for each thing, greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, dry goods, miliners etc?

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Maybe people would be happier going back to a agricultural society, like we had pre industrial revolution.

 

A good famine and plague would probably cheer you up no end.

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