More Robots Taking Jobs?
Fox News has a short video about Lowe's exploring the use of robots to help you shop. I found the comments more interesting. Not many there, but I enjoyed reading of others' minimum wage work histories.
I put my story there in response to one guy's comment asking for examples of how some have turned their minimum wage job into a stepping stone to a higher paying job. Any of you want to share your story?
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It didn't work well this time. I got into some conflict with the machine over how I set my scanned items in the bagging area. I was half way through the process when I got stuck. Embarrassing, since all six machines were being used so there was a gal behind me patiently waiting for me to finish. I finally had to call the attendant over and have her help me get it all sorted out. I'm still not sure what I did wrong.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:30 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
There was an issue with how you placed your items AFTER you scanned them? To my knowledge, the items aren't weighed or assessed in any way after scanning. I place my items directly into my shopping cart.
This is different from how Costco automaion worked... Costco weighed the items, knowing the correct approximate weight of every item. You had to place items slowly on the conveyor belt so each item was separately weighed.
Winco's prices may be low but I'd rather pay a little more and not deal with tweekers and white trash that are touching the produce that I feed to my family. "Hey honey, would you like a nice salad with Hepatitis C dressing and a side of fecal matter?" The shopping carts are also suspect. I've seen Winco shopping carts being pushed by dirty homeless people behind the mall. No way I'm putting my kid in a cart that may have been returned with a nice coating of vagrant maladies. I once found a used tampon stuck to the cart there. No thanks.
" To my knowledge, the items aren't weighed or assessed in any way after scanning."
I'm pretty sure they are now. The screen said something about putting the scanned items in the bagging area. I hadn't put them there until told to. Then it said I had unrecognized items in the bagging area, or something along that line, and to remove those items.
I removed them, and it said something about not having any items in the bagging area. I went back and forth putting the items in the bagging area and back out a number of times. It kept giving me the same messages until it said something about needing a clerk to do something and one had been summoned.
Apparently it knows what is supposed to be in the bagging area by weight, but I put it in the wrong place or something. Was I supposed to put them directly in the bag? I tried that after a bit but got the same message. The process was probably already screwed up by then.
Somehow or another it knew what I had in the bagging area, although why it didn't connect it to what I had already scanned, I have no idea.
Self check-out is nothing more than a job killer as are bank ATMs. If people continue to use such machines it follows that management will reduce jobs accordingly. (It is interesting that everyone talks about the need for creating jobs, but when jobs are created businesses complain that their labor costs are too high.) Individuals can help keep people employed by choosing the human over the machine when making purchases.
"...but I'd rather pay a little more and not deal with tweekers and white trash that are touching the produce that I feed to my family"
I don't know about that, but I'll admit that's why I stopped getting raisins from Winco's bulk food bin. I got to thinking that nobody washes their hands before they go into that store, myself included. Even though they have a scoop for the raisins I'm sure all kinds of gunk ends up in there, either dropped, or dirty hands from God knows where touching the stuff.
I finally just started paying a bit more and buying their packaged Sunmaid raisins.
"...but when jobs are created businesses complain that their labor costs are too high."
They are high, and getting higher, especially when employers are expected to pretty much adopt an employee by providing "living" wages, health care and any number of things.
Automation coupled with artificial intelligence will be taking over more and more jobs, regardless. Pushing minimum wages higher and higher will only speed up that process.
So what are people supposed to do when jobs that require minimum skills are replaced by machines? Sure, they can go back to school and learn new technologies, but those jobs are few and far between in rural areas. Earning a living has gotten too "high tech" instead of "high touch" to use the phrase coined by Alvin Toffler.
"So what are people supposed to do when jobs that require minimum skills are replaced by machines?"
My prediction is that increasing automation, combined with artificial intelligence, will cause the loss of many jobs. Eventually most jobs will be affected, even higher skilled ones.
The gal in that Fox video suggested minimum wage workers might get trained and start making the robots, but robotics are already taking over a lot of manufacturing jobs and pretty soon we'll have only robots making the robots.
I predict that there will be a lot of conflict over the issue of robots vs. people in the coming decades. Very likely serious conflict.
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