Could Be a Good Thing

 The more I think about it, this labor shortage could be a good thing.  It is already driving up wages, and the blue collar wages are increasing faster than the white collar wages, which might help narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.  That's the right way to do it you know, raise up the poor rather than cutting down the rich.  Of course Uncle Ken and his ilk won't approve of that, they want to reduce everybody to the lowest common denominator.

Another result of the labor shortage is that more women and minorities are being hired than ever before.  Uncle Ken and his ilk should approve of that, but they might not because it's not being forced upon the employers by the government.  

I used the self checkout at Walmart again yesterday.  They had three regular lanes open, but they all had lines, and I noticed one of the self checkouts didn't even have anybody using it.  I encountered a couple of glitches, I figured out one by myself and the host lady came over and helped me with the other one.  I didn't time myself but I'm pretty sure that I still got out of there faster than I would have going through one of the regular lanes.  When I was done, the machine said "Thank you for shopping at Walmart and have a nice day."  Okay, any of the regular checkout clerks might have said the same thing, but the machine sounded really sincere about it.  I stepped back, saluted the machine, and said "Thank you. It's been a pleasure doing business with you."  I guess it won't be so bad, robots taking over the world, if they're all polite and friendly like that.