Re: Boycott this hardware store and others like it!
I sort of agree with the sentiments in the 'Boycott this' line.
I think that from my point of view, the Supermarket was where me and all my mates worked our way through college, and the first part of University. Clearly, we're not a thick bunch, but it's clear that a lot of people work full time at such places, because of lack of qualifications, ability to commute, or plain lack of aptitude or attention span for roles that would improve their earnings potential.
Now we have the automated checkouts, you can see that one trained Human, can manage issues on up to eight of these machines.
I take the point, that "Lost all faith" puts forward about the advances already made, but surely these robots will in time be able to perform every menial task.
The problem is that I don't think that this will result in Utopia for most people - I already find this all somewhat worrying. The people that I used to work with WILL NOT be able to reskill into jobs that require academic skills, or abstract thought.
So think of a low-end, minimum wage job, and suggest the ones that can't be undertaken by robots - retail jobs, bar work, warehousing, cleaning - all gone. Looks like driving's gone too - that's a good wage, but what about all the HGV and Taxi drivers, bus drivers etc.
Long story short, where do all the people work? There's not much point trying to solve the problems of the consumers if all the people are living in cardboard shanty towns outside of Manchester!
Mark