At a conference recently, I heard the chief executive of a supermarket chain proudly claim that installing automatic checkout machines was improving the company’s productivity. This is wrong, of course. These machines have replaced traditional checkout equipment — and their paid human operators — with unpaid customer labour in scanning and bagging. The company’s measured revenue per employee hour will certainly be rising. True productivity will not. Economic welfare in the round is reduced by the struggle we customers have with the still-imperfect new machines.
在最近的一个会议上，我听到一家连锁超市的首席执行官自豪地宣称，安装自动结账机提高了公司的生产率。这个说法当然是错误的。这些机器用顾客扫描和装袋的无偿劳动取代了传统的结账设备——以及它们花钱聘请的收银员。如果计算该公司员工每小时为公司带来的收入，这个数字肯定会增加。实际的生产率却不会上升。整个社会的manbetx20客户端下载 福祉还会因我们顾客要费力操作尚不完善的新机器而下降。