Labor’s share of return from capital goes from $15x10=$150/hr to $20+0.1*$50+0.001*$100 = $25.10. Capital’s share goes up by $125/h initially but then competition passes on the bulk of it to the shadow-laboring consumers via lower prices so capital gets $10/h more in steady state
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Note that to your point, expert UI implies a cheaper machine. The self-checkout machines are consumer-grade machines and cost more in non-recurring engineering costs to build. Their TCO is also higher because maintenance higher than cash registers. But still lower than humans.
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what's that fordism that goes "if you need a machine and don't buy it, you will eventually find that you will have paid for it but not have it"
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anyway i understand the mechanics and the motivation; it's a deliberate externality generation but that's arguably orthogonal to the bullshittiness, which has to do with taking a locally-optimal configuration and replacing it with an inferior one and trying to claim it's better
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Replying to @doriantaylor @Aelkus
Well, price performance. It’s better for the lower price point. In Seattle, a high-end grocery store rolled back self-checkout to keep the jobs. But stuff costs more there. Actually better = Amazon go store. Walk in, pick up shit, walk out. Cameras and AI do the rest.
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i'm sure they can claim they are "passing the savings onto the customer" which is an empirical question that appears to be answered largely in the negative. an argument can be made that amazon go is the "correct" solution to self-checkout, which of course has its own side effects
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Replying to @doriantaylor @Aelkus
Umm prices for almost everything have crashed in the west in the last few decades except for rent, healthcare and education. It’s not an idle claim or an altruistic one. Pure result of competition
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that's attributable to self-checkout?
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Replying to @doriantaylor @Aelkus
I’m not arguing labels. I’m saying savings do get passed on. If you don’t pass on savings store across town will do that, advertise everyday low prices, and take your market. That was Walmart. In commodity retail there’s no differentiation to justify a price premium.
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yeah i know how that works but there is massive hysteresis in that system; as it stands if you google "does self checkout result in lower prices" you get a bunch of news articles that say "no"
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I’m guessing that’s a mix of labor propaganda and bad economic analysis
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or the switch just plain hasn't paid off yet
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Replying to @doriantaylor @Aelkus
Depends on the chain, the oldest ones are over a couple of decades... they’d probably have depreciated to zero and ready for second gen
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End of conversation
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