Nearly all of the 972 meter readers in Southern California Edison's territory accepted retirement packages or were transferred within the company, says Pat Lavin of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

NPR: Practically Human: Can Smart Machines Do Your Job?

Like cities around the U.S., Santa Clara's electric meters are being systematically replaced, house by house, with high tech ones, eliminating the need for meter readers to manually check each one every month but raising concerns about health effects, privacy and cost.

NPR: Calif. City Gets Free Wi-Fi Via High Tech Meters

The Financial Times (part-owner of The Economist) keeps readers on a meter, by charging those who look at more than ten articles a month online.

ECONOMIST: Charging for newspapers online