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.
在最近的一個會議上，我聽到一家連鎖超市的首席執行官自豪地宣稱，安裝自動結賬機提高了公司的生產率。這個說法當然是錯誤的。這些機器用顧客掃描和裝袋的無償勞動取代了傳統的結賬設備——以及它們花錢聘請的收銀員。如果計算該公司員工每小時為公司帶來的收入，這個數字肯定會增加。實際的生產率卻不會上升。整個社會的經濟福祉還會因我們顧客要費力操作尚不完善的新機器而下降。
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