We can't feasibly stop automation, nor should we. We SHOULD be taking the profits back from billionaires that they've stolen since time immemorial. Automation means less work overall. But we need to ensure the workers actually benefit from that.

The 'job killers' argument is kinda bullshit. I want to kill jobs - I want to eliminate all labor that can be automated, such that in the ideal perfect future, no human ever has to work; they can spend every moment doing things they enjoy without worry.

But self checkout is not automation. No human work has been eliminated. It is the same exact fucking checkout process, only now the customer does it instead, and the store doesn't pay the cashier. And no they don't pass that savings on to you because of course they don't, they just pocket the difference.

This is a bad, regressive argument.

We need to legislate the benefit of automation for society.

Trying to bury the technology never works if it is indeed an improvement. Technology is benign, people twist it for malice.

This is the same argument as still using oil based street lamps, just to maintain a the lamplighting jobs that don't need to be done anymore.

It's a Bizaare hill to die on to fight to maintain jobs a robot can do faster and better, rather than fighting to make society the beneficiary of such advances through taxation. Either way, you have to fight the billionaires and will probably lose, so why not fight for a better outcome than maintaining shitty, menial jobs?

Okay but fuck those stores where the self checkout “bagging area” is smaller than the size of a hand cart. Like what fucking idiot designed those.

"job killer" automation in a reasonable society should mean less need for work and the same amount of resources available (if not more).

But we will never reach the point where we consider picnics, parties and painting more valuable than manipulative marketing, unnecessary polluting but profitable industry, and especially the all-important busywork. Do something profitable. Anything profitable. It doesn't even matter if it's a net negative to society, just do something.

Self checkout is so much faster than waiting in like with all the other goobers

I don't want to interact with a cashier either but fuck if I want to scan my own shit either.

It's also way more awkward when something goes wrong and now I have to initiate.

I think that a lot of people here are confusing "introversion" with having social anxiety.

Being an introvert doesn't mean that you're scared of socialization. It means you generally prefer quiet time over socializing.

From Merriam Webster:

A person whose personality is characterized by introversion : a typically reserved or quiet person who tends to be introspective and enjoys spending time alone.

You can be both, but they are definitely not the same thing.

I would like self-checkout a lot more if those cost savings were passed on to the consumer instead of being hoarded by ownership.

It's the classic paradox. Technology and automation could be used to reduce the amount everyone needs to work and enrich everyone's lives as long as those gains are distributed properly. The distribution is the problem.

no one wants to be a checkout clerk at walmart for $6 an hour. This is a good thing. The problem is that the people displaced aren't taken care of. We should be pushing for ubi instead

I prefer self checkout but I do feel you should be getting a discount for using it.

Fuck me I love self checkout.

Norway has roughly the same unemployment rate as the us, but most supermarkets have the option of self service, most fuel pumps are self service (never have someone pumping it for you), and if anyone bags your groceries for you it's kids raising money for their football team or something. Very few people (comparatively) have menial jobs but unemployment isn't really higher. I also don't know anyone who has to work more than 1 full time job to survive. Menial jobs trap people who could otherwise flourish.

I use it because it's faster.

I'm not waiting in line for someone else to scan my 5 items.

The real job killers are the employers

For a few items, sure. But even I, a rabid introvert, will seek out a cashier for my weekly shopping. To say hello and goodbye. You all forget to be human beings. Stop making being InTrOvErT yet another singular form of personal identity.

I'm so tired of people with social anxiety always trying to appropriate introversion. Introverts don't have that kind of phobia of personal interaction.

I only use self checkouts, it eliminates like the only major variable of shopping.

It should be

"Billionaires make thousands of dollars per second every day even if they don't get out of bed in the morning, we need UBI for every amercian citizen and double that of a living wage as the minimum wage.

I don't mind using a self checkout except that they're all terrible. The rep has to come over so often, it's just a regular checkout with extra steps.

I don't have a problem with self checkout. It has its place. If you're just grabbing an item or two, and want to get out quick and not wait in line, or if you are buying something that you may find personally embarrassing, or any of a number of other reasons.

Cashiers also have their place, for when you have larger checkouts and what have you.

What pisses me off is they are firing cashiers, and replacing them with more self checkouts.. So you have to take your big monthly load of groceries through self checkout, cause theres no cashier, or worse.. one overworked cashier with a huge line.

And its all to have less jobs, less pay checks, and more profits for the C-Suits.

And lets not even get into the fact that its easy for a screw up to happen then some overzealous dickwad comes screaming calling you a thief, and gets you tresspasssed because either you accidentally mis-scanned something or because they THINK you mis-scanned something and thanks to their stupidity you can no longer shop at your local, convenient store.

I've always been fine with it. It doesn't feel like I'm forced to do someone else's job to me because they can be convenient if you have a small order, and it reduces lines. That said, I'd much rather see people employed and sometimes I like the personal interaction.

Everywhere near me has the anti-theft devices turned up on self checkouts to the point that traditional checkouts are both faster and require less human interaction.

I’m fairly allergic to human interaction, but there is now way I’m manually scanning 12 packs of the same soda 4 times.

As a weekly shopper who only gets 20-30 items at a time, self checkout is better. The cashiers tend to have customers with 100+ items and I usually have to wait 5-10 minutes. At the self checkout, I'm done and out the door in 3.

WHAT? People love self check out, what is this tomfoolery?! lol

Wait, you’re supposed to pay for groceries?

The people who deny self-checkout sometimes have quarrels with the cashiers.