A community is about people. People perform many functions than just the
one at hand. Some years ago I consciously continued to go to the full
service station near our house, paying a slightly higher price for gas. The
person who pumped the gas was another pair of eyes and ears in the
community. Whether he fully realized or not he scanned the sidewalk and
street while he did his duties and if a senior was in distress or a lost
child appeared he could do something. He also kept a wary eye out for the
odd drunk that hung around the nearby liquour store. He provided an
external benefit to the community. The stuff he did beyond the task at hand
was a public good. Since I believe in community I thought I should support
this public good.
Well, you know how this story goes. Shell gas stations felt he wasn't
selling enough, they yanked his lease, he became the manager of a large high
volume self service station in the burbs and last I heard he died of a heart
attack (or was it heart break). He was a shy man, but in the structured
environmnet of the station he had a clear role and provided many services,
some that he may not have fully appreciated. BTW his old station is now a
parking lot.
So when all of you are pumping your own gas (sometimes getting grease on
your clothes, and forgetting or neglecting to check under the hood) think
of the private and public loss as you amble up to the bullet proof cage to
pay your bill to someone who wants you to pay and move on as quickly as
possible. Sure there are often gains in time, but there also losses--- all
too often we overlook the myriad losses in our quest for private efficiency.
arthur cordell
----------
From: Andrew U. D. Straw
To: Cordell, Arthur: #ECOM - COMI
Subject: Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy
Date: Sunday, February 13, 2000 11:36AM
In my own experience, it is more pleasant to self serve than to have to wait
for someone else (who may be serving another customer) to do a menial task.
Especially for things like filling up the tank with gasoline.
And (sticking with the gasoline case) what if one wants to pay with a credit
card so all one's expenses can show up on one monthly bill? Many people
don't like having to carry cash around to pay for everything. Being able to
simply swipe a card at the pump and get exactly how much is needed is very
convenient. Having to go inside the store, wait in a line, and then wait
for the receipt to print out seems like time wasted. That is, unless this
"more friendly" system is being pushed by those who vend the potato chips
and other junk foods one finds curiously located where people stand and
wait. At a full-service gas station, paying with a credit card means
waiting for the employee to go inside and wait for the receipt to print.
Also, to say that customers should be served by people who work in a
fume-filled environment all day for a low or minimum wage does not make
sense. It would be better to pay a slightly higher tax on the cheaper,
self-served gas and use that money to support community colleges so former
full-service gas station workers can enroll and learn more fulfilling--and
ultimately more useful--skills.
To my mind, the future of work should be better than simply reversing
automation to create more low-skilled jobs.
Andrew Straw
Fredericksburg, VA
----- Original Message -----
From: Cordell, Arthur: #ECOM - COMÉ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Victor
Milne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2000 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy
> Bravo! Self service is no service at all. We just access part of the
> bank's (or supermarket, or gas station, etc.) mainframe, and doing the
work
> ourselves, complicate our day and put people out of work. Amazing. And
we
> call it progress.
>
> arthur cordell
> ----------
> From: Victor Milne
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy
> Date: Saturday, February 12, 2000 12:22AM
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bob McDaniel
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: February 11, 2000 6:58 PM
> Subject: Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy
>
>
> [snip]
>
> In this way may evolve a rationale for paying people for consuming. This
is
> where some similarity with the Tobin tax perhaps becomes most explicit. We
> may see emerge what some writers have already anticipated: micropayments
on
> numerous purchases, i.e. payments based on bits of information. While
> individually miniscule, in the aggregate the pay out may be substantial.
>
> I think we should also be paid when we do the corporation's work for
> them--as in self-serve gas stations, wading through voice menus, and the
> soon-to-come automated supermarket checkout.
>
>
