I think the vast majority of our society would function just fine if ~10% of the populace worked a 40 hour week. It may not be obvious why hiring a cashier to

I think the vast majority of our society would function just fine if ~10% of the populace worked a 40 hour week. It may not be obvious why hiring a cashier to run your gas station is better than buying a credit card reader and a vending machine, but the reason is there somewhere. There's a continuing search for cost effective replacements for human labor, and when we figure one out, it gets used. We had several fully automated no-attendant gas stations in my town a few years ago. They're all shut down now.