Do it yourself

For nine years I spent my summer holidays in Finland now. And somehow there was a shift in what is called service. Helsinki Airport had self service check-in terminals, mainly for business people who only had carry-on baggage. You know, those guys that hurry in the plane first - ignoring the fact that we all will start at the same time. And of course the first ones on their feet, grabbing their flight-case and waiting to leave the aircraft. But normal people could use the ordinary check-in, as in go to the counter, show your booking number, leave your baggage, receive a boarding card in return.

It worked this way for ages.

Then - it may have started two or three years ago - you had to use the self-service check-in terminal, even as a ordinary customer. The computer gave you your boarding card and the label for the carry-handle of your suitcase. Afterwards you went to the check-in counter, showed your boarding card, your passport and left your baggage there exactly as in the good old times. A procedure that took almost as long as doing it the old way. That made me wonder where is the reason for all this? Where is the benefit? You as a customer were forced to do something on your own that other people had done for you before. But in the end exactly the same amount of people were working there.

Well, that changed this year. Now you check-in for yourself and even have to check-in your baggage on your own. The number of persons involved still hasn't changed much, there are people standing around and watch that you do it right and tell you how to do it. Is it faster? No! But somehow they got me as a customer to do their job! And of course the people involved can be less educated as before. They must assist you, it's still you doing the work. I jested in two years we must fly on our own to an elder employee that helped my girlfriend and me with the procedure. He answered just with a desperate smile.

Not for the first time in my life I asked to myself where is this streamlining going to end?

Politicians are still babbling about the policy of full employment, the importance of markets and the need of eternal growth. But every child knows there is no such thing as eternal growth. Economization has one effect for sure: there will never be jobs for all again. And the ones that remain are split into two main groups: few jobs for specialists that need a long and expensive education and a pile of jobs for the mass of people with no or a low education that barely bring enough money to live or feed a family.

Where is our society heading to? Has anyone just a glimpse of an idea how to solve these future problems? A future that already has begun! Do you now any system apart from the black and white of communism and capitalism that seems promising enough to solve these problems?

What happens at the end of this spiral? Where is the reset button and who is going to push it?

Yes, there are just questions here for that I don't know an answer. But maybe people should start asking those questions, because otherwise they won't be answered at all. Think about that the next time you do a job someone else has done for you before and you still pay for!

If you are in doubt: yes, I can smile and I laugh loud and often <3