>"...but the ATM makes the customer a part of the labor chain
>even as she pays for the privilege..."
>
>i believe this began with self-service markets, doing away with clerks
>and relying on customers to find items themselves... followed closely by
>self-service gasoline stations, where you pump your own...this replaced
>tons of workers, and the goods dealt with by "self" were not only the
>same price, but usually more expensive in the bargain ...
Not to be a boring old stick-in-the-mud, but these disappearing workers have been far outweighed by freshly appearing ones:
U.S. EMPLOYMENT (thousands)
total retail finance 1/70 71,175 7,425 3,485 6/04 131,301 15,061 8,038 change 84% 103% 131%