About a year ago, there was an automated self-checkout machine at my local library. Then, it no longer was there. Yesterday, I asked the guy behind the checkout counter about what happened.
He said, "they are coming back soon. I don't like them. They take people's jobs."
Unfortunately for this fellow, it doesn't make sense to avoid a more cost-effective solution to a problem in order to "save jobs." This is really protectionism and in The Choice, Russell Roberts does a fantastic job of explaining why we're all worse off as a society when we try and do this. It may appear that society isn't doing so well when one person loses a job, but that's because the hit to the rest of us isn't as big, but aggregated it is.
There's a good article here about raising the minimum wage as it relates to billboard jobs (and checkout machines) that is somewhat relevant.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
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