"Outsourcing" Jobs to Machines

In the past few years we've heard a lot about the outsourcing of American jobs to lower paid workers in foreign countries and there's been some outrage over it, but where do you hear any outrage over the loss of jobs to machines?

This morning I was at the local post office and instead of four clerks on duty, there was one. I waited 20 minutes in line and listened to an exchange between the lone clerk and another one who was supposed to get behind the counter as well but was rushing around doing other jobs that were on his list of duties such as replenishing the supplies of everything from passport application forms and delivery confirmation forms to instructions on how to do an online change of address. He remarked to those of us in line that if we didn't want to wait, there was always the machine in the lobby, the "APC" or automated postal center. He said it could do everything they could do.

I am a frequent postal customer and because I send a lot of orders by Media Mail, I stand in line because the APC doesn't do that feature (although if you know what amount of postage you need, you could purchase stamps for that amount). By the time it was my turn, he was behind the counter and I told him that the APC didn't talk to us. He said, yeah, there will always be a certain number of people who want that kind of personal service, but that "there will never be four of us behind the counter at once again because the postal service wants people to use the machines." They are, of course, cheaper than humans.

It isn't quite true that the machine can do everything a clerk can do, but it can do most of it. However, they don't always work, as I've discovered on at least two occasions.

His remark about reducing the number of clerks serving the public prompted me to remark about how many jobs are being lost, beginning years ago with gasoline stations. When I was a teen, there were plenty of teenage boys who had their first jobs at gas stations, pumping gas, checking tire pressure, washing windshields and checking oil levels. That used to be the accepted standard service at any "filling station." Free maps, too. I miss those days. At least I KNEW that my oil and tire pressure were getting checked regularly and didn't have to remind myself to do it, and a lot of young men had jobs that no longer exist for them.

That got me started. Think about it. Banks have fewer tellers. You use an ATM. Big stores are adding self-checkout lanes where no cashier is needed. Even libraries are adding self checkout machines.

It could be argued that all of this is progress, convenient, efficient, reduces lines (for now anyway) and cuts business costs. However, none of those machines can answer questions, solve problems, or fix themselves when they break down . . . or operate when the electricity goes off. Business may like not having to pay employees or the payroll taxes and benefits that go with them, but they are reducing service. The public may like (some of them, anyway) the convenience and time saved (until they get stuck on a broken machine!), but what are we losing?

We are losing JOBS. We are losing HUMAN CONTACT.

It isn't just the outsourcing of jobs or the recession that is taking away jobs. It's replacement by machines, too.