america_sux

Not all Poles hate or fear Russia although Poland is thick with propaganda, some of it backed by the West.

Source: Am Polish.

The electricity is "free" because the energy generation is highest at noon (sun is at its zenith), and the population is at the work (low demand for residential electricity). So there is an oversupply of energy at that point. Just like there is an under supply of (solar) electricity at night time when people are using lights, watching tv and eating dinner but the sun isn't shining.

It was implied. Why else would you use that argument in responding to ridgeguy's comment about using human-run checkout lines? What machines would you point to as making the world worse?

In any case, since it bothers you so, you explained the situation yourself: "The self-checkout is there because it is cheaper than a cashier."

It's an error to equate "cheaper" to "increase in standard of living" because the people benefiting from the reduction in cost are usually not the entirety of the community, and it's unfortunate that someone of your caliber accepts such lazy thinking.

Over the last twenty years, automation has increased but the standard of living has gotten worse.

Not all machines lead to increase in the standard of living, and many things that would improve the standard of living are not done. At some point the argument you have made becomes irrelevant and cliched.

As an Australian, all I can say is stop being naive.