Beware; once Tig figures out he can wake you by simply sneaking under the covers and warming your back, you’re sleep regime is doomed. They are that sneaky.
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As to EZPass, that is a win-win for the State. They get to lay off workers, AND raise the toll without anyone noticing. Remember the discount that NJ offered for EZP when it first came out? Once they got the customer hooked, it was quietly repealed. Over billings are surprisingly common. Always check the statement.

Last year I was driving across NY, and the Thruway was closed due to snow. At the toll booth, the folks who drove to the window to pay were waved thru without fee because the road was closed and we were inconvenienced. The folks taking the EZP lane got billed.

I told you that they make up to $70,000 per year with overtime, for the insipid act of sitting in a toll booth and making change. That is not a job that should be paying $70k. (And by the way, those figures from from 2003. I shudder to think what they are today.)

All you’ve done is accuse me of hating people who aren’t as skilled as some (like me).

That’s bullshit logic, and it’s insulting.

When you can debate the issues instead of putting up strawmen and putting words in my mouth and accusing me of things I’ve never said, I’ll be back. But I’m pretty much done here.

There were at one time (circa 1950) something like *half a million* elevator operators employed in the U.S. Would it had been better if we had outlawed (or never invented) automatic elevators, so that these people could have kept their jobs?

If you think your job is so indispensable, think again. Any of us could find our industries eliminated.

Don’t wish on others what you wouldn’t want to happen to yourself.

I’ve noticed that banks have closed entire branches because of the consolidation of the banking industry.

David, you’re coming at me with anecdotal evidence. The plural of “anecdote” is not “data.”

I say again: Why should someone earn above $70k annually to take coins and make change in a tollbooth? That’s more than I make managing over 50 websites for my company. And my job takes actual skill.

Fire all their asses. I’m fine with it.

When there’s a 20-lane toll plaza, and only two lanes are staffed (and long lines behind them), that’s precisely because everybody else has been laid off. You don’t need 18 empty lanes to satisfy EZ Pass users.

As for the grocery, I see the same thing. Lots and lots of unmanned checkout lines, even when the store is packed full of customers.

Have you also noticed how banks have closed entire branches because of ATMs? If nobody walks inside, then the entire staff is useless and gets let go.

Maybe you prefer to work in a society devoid of other people (and, I’ll admit, there are times where that’s appealing), but there’s something seriously wrong when all of the “menial” jobs are replaced with automation and people without college degrees have nowhere to go but on the welfare rolls.

I’m especially shocked that you, a former resident of NJ, think that toll-takers should be kept. In NJ, the only way to get a job as a toll-taker is through political patronage. The job pays monstrously high salary and overtime pay for what is, at best, a job a ten-year-old child can do. There is no skill involved beyond giving change.

It’s not my responsibility to supply jobs for people who are too lazy or stupid to get a job that requires skill. And it is especially not my responsibility to pay those people $70k per year with overtime. Go google some articles about how much they make and then come back and complain to me about the poor babies losing their plum patronage positions. States SHOULD be laying off toll-takers. Let them get real jobs.

Kroger is a union store down here, and they have the self-checkout lanes. I’m not seeing any lack of employees. Late at night, when they have only one checkout clerk and everyone else is on stocking and cleaning duties, the self-checkout lane is a blessing.

And also the fact that stores are using them to justify laying off their cashiers. Every time you choose to use the machine instead of a lane manned by a human, an accountant somewhere gets one more piece of justification for getting rid of another employee.

And, FWIW, I think the same reasoning applies to using EZ-Pass on the highways. States are using them to justify laying off toll-takers. You save 5-10 minutes (or maybe only 10 seconds if there’s no line), and somebody else is declared redundant and loses his job. Not a fair trade, IMO.