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Comment by tjr225 | Hacker News Reader

Ugh. I will _always_ prefer friction to my own convenience if it means some person can have a job. I could care less about efficiency and I could care less about some shareholder's bottom line. Maybe I would feel differently if we lived in a country that would actually take care of people who didn't have money or opportunity.

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> I will _always_ prefer friction to my own convenience if it means some person can have a job.

No you won't. Our standard of living is built on automation in a million ways, big and small.

You're only actually opposed to recent, more visible examples. Why?

There's still one person to help at the door, one person to check ID for the alchohol section, a security guard, and clerks that fill up the aisles, refill the shelves, put things back in their place, etc.

Also, they have a kitchen attached to them, and prepare food in it, so they have kitchen staff for that and all the delivery surrounding it.

They also now need to hire engineers to work on the system, maintain and repair it, and service workers to setup and maintain the infrastructure needed in the store.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure the whole things turns out way more expansive for them than hiring a few cashiers. I think the idea is that the extra convenience given to the customers mean that customers will prefer to shop at Amazon Go instead of elsewhere, and that might be worth the extra cost to grow the marketshare.

It isn’t as if there’s no staff. Someone still needs to restock, clean, answer customer questions, etc.

Do you send email?

In for the penny, in for the pound? Nobody is a saint so you may as well double down on sin? Interesting philosophy. I'd rather people be morally inconsistent and do less harm than do more harm in the pursuit of moral consistency.

Pretty sure the point was that almost everything was an optimization that used humans at some point.

A weird moral compass that had you not using technology that replaced menial labor would be actually impossible in any (even ancient) society.

It's a bit ridiculous making such a non-differentiating statement claiming to be against automation when that is a lot of what the digital revolution is about in the first place. No less on hacker news, which is one of the hubs to talk about the digital revolution.

You're mistaking the argument being made, which is really about recognizing ones own moral inconsistencies instead of claiming moral high ground over others where there is none to be had.

A tech worker who claims to value a cashier's job over their own convenience is basically gorging on two large deluxe pizzas while criticizing others for eating an olive.

Just look around you. Pick just about anything. A wall. A refrigerator. Your shoes. A spice jar. They all have stories to tell about automation and job loss.

Go ahead and automate away every job you see, but don't say I didn't warn you when anti-tech pogroms take your head. The public perception of this industry has been taking a nose dive for a few years now and stuff like this, attitudes like yours, only reinforces it.

And any mobs stupid enough to pogrom will be shot and deserve it for being literal murders, any society to condone it will richly deserve its downfall from superior rivals.

It was stupid scapegoating in the past and it is even stupider now. Notice specifically that scapegoating is specifically at who is weak and at hand - not actual sources of problems.

Anger the general public at your own peril. The elite always believe themselves invulnerable, until they find it proven otherwise.

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