Self-Servitude
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I was in Europe (just visiting) and they immediately put me to work. At the airport, I had to check myself in and tag my own bags. At the supermarkets, I had to scan and bag my own own groceries. At the bar, I had to take your own order. They call this self-service but it’s really just the customer doing free work for the owners. It’s not self-service, it’s self-servitude.
Consumer Labor
I have worked basically every service job and they’re not easy. I worked at McDonald’s when I was 14 and finger-jamming the menu was work, that’s why they paid me. I worked Big Bear grocery at 15 and scanning and bagging groceries was work, that’s why they paid me also. When you’re doing this work for hours you definitely notice and it sucks, but when you split it up into minutes and assign it to the customer, this is somehow a convenience. But it’s not. Self-service is not actually faster, it’s not actually better, it’s just the capitalist shaving minutes of labor from the customer to make a buck.
All the self-service economy has done is turn the register around, double the prices and call this an improvement. If you put a bunch of 14-year-olds in boxes and called them an app you would have a ‘voice-activated AI agent’…
