But, self-reliance has its limits. We cannot do it all. Where lies the line between doing-it-yourself versus having somebody else do it for you?
Over the past few years, it has been pissing me off that I am increasingly required to do everything. Like how at the big box stores, self-checkout is rapidly becoming the norm. Even at hotels. Remember this post from three years ago?
I walked up to check in. There were more than a dozen flashing electronic screens instead of people. Yep, those screens were for checking in. First it was at the airports, and now at hotels too!If I am going to be doing everything, wtf!
You see how I have been pissed off about this for a while now? I don't see how this level of self-service is progress. It is a rapid annihilation of human contact, that's what it is!
Misery loves company.
Self-service supposedly represents the march of progress. A more prosperous society requires improving productivity: the best way is to substitute machine labour for the human sort. Are grumblers like me the modern-day equivalents of Luddites raging about the spinning jenny?Exactly!
The self-service revolution is reversing the division of labour. You find yourself doing all sorts of jobs that you’re untrained for – acting as a travel agent booking a trip, an airport porter weighing and labelling bags or a shop-attendant checking out a basket of goods. Meanwhile a handful of companies suck up abnormal profits by turning their customers into unpaid labourers. The real sweatshop workers in the post-industrial economy are you and me.We do all the work through self-service and some social misfits twenty-something programmers rake it in big time. It is also highly likely that these programmers do not do a damn thing by themselves, and instead hire people through one of the many apps. Self-service is for us suckers!
