McDonald's ex-CEO just revealed a terrifying reality for fast-food workers

[PokerGuy]

Seems to me that high school and college kids are in class, usually between the hours of 8am-ish, and at least mid-afternoon. Who the hell is going to work the breakfast and lunch shifts if these jobs are "for high school or college kids."

College kids often have flexible schedules where they can work certain hours on certain days etc. Fast food places and many other min-wage or low wage places can work around those kinds of schedules, whereas other positions often can not. The statistics bear out that the younger set (school / college aged) were primarily the min-wage workers in the past. That has changed and is changing quickly.

Also, I question the psychology of the customers - given a choice of seeing a person make their burger on a grill at a mom & pop restaurant, vs. a machine spitting out food, will a lot of the public get turned off by it? I think you still need some human aspect to the creation of the product for it to broadly appeal to the masses.

You could make the same argument about buying stuff at the store, but Amazon is a dominant force. Human interaction might be important to some, but better prices with more efficient / quicker service will win over most. In fact, assuming the automated process produces similar food products, I'd prefer not to have to deal with dolts and just enter my order myself and have a robot prepare it correctly each time without screwing it up. I'm guessing most people share that opinion, but we'll see if that's true or not over the next few years.

 

[ivwshane]

They get could get uppity or have the reserves to open a competing business.

They could and I'm sure they'll take their minimum wage earnings and open two businesses. /S

 

[zinfamous]

Also, I question the psychology of the customers - given a choice of seeing a person make their burger on a grill at a mom & pop restaurant, vs. a machine spitting out food, will a lot of the public get turned off by it? I think you still need some human aspect to the creation of the product for it to broadly appeal to the masses.

You overestimate the generation that will be replacing you. They spend 80% of their waking life staring at little screens and "communicating" to other humans, apparently, via protracted garbles of words resembling their respective native language. Oh, and cat photos.

Whether or not they care about the entity preparing their food (they don't), they are too distracted by their little screen to be aware of anything happening in front of them. Believe me--they don't want to interact

 

[soulcougher73]

Just scare tactics. But their is truth to it.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

The truth is there is no threshold of low enough pay or poor enough treatment that keeps you safe from being replaced by a robot.
Foxconn cuts 60,000 factory jobs, to be replaced by robots

 

[zinfamous]

The truth is there is no threshold of low enough pay or poor enough treatment that keeps you safe from being replaced by a robot.
Foxconn cuts 60,000 factory jobs, to be replaced by robots

what kind of reinforced nets do they need to install to save those suicidal robots? That is going to be expensive.

 

[waggy]

Also, I question the psychology of the customers - given a choice of seeing a person make their burger on a grill at a mom & pop restaurant, vs. a machine spitting out food, will a lot of the public get turned off by it? I think you still need some human aspect to the creation of the product for it to broadly appeal to the masses.

when I'm out and just need a bite to eat and in a hurry is when i hit fast food. At that point i really don't give a shit if it's a screen or person. i just want food.

If i go to a decent sit down restaurant then I want human service. I suspect a good majority will be the same.

 

[Jeff7]

Seems to me that high school and college kids are in class, usually between the hours of 8am-ish, and at least mid-afternoon. Who the hell is going to work the breakfast and lunch shifts if these jobs are "for high school or college kids."


Also, I question the psychology of the customers - given a choice of seeing a person make their burger on a grill at a mom & pop restaurant, vs. a machine spitting out food, will a lot of the public get turned off by it? I think you still need some human aspect to the creation of the product for it to broadly appeal to the masses.

Depends on the viewer.

I would love to go to a burger place if I got to see cool robots making everything.
I'm also in a technical field, and I love automation, so that's probably got something to do with it. And when I think of food preparation in general, my first thought is "That's something a machine should be doing." I don't much like to cook either. Too dull, and.....it's just food, so it's not worth much effort (to me) anyway.




At some point, our society's constant push to eliminate manual labor will be (already is) a very significant challenge.
</first world problem>

 

[werepossum]

What's hilariously stupid is that you think a change in cost per hour of at least 50% wouldn't be a catalyst for re-evaluating the value proposition of automating more processes. Perhaps at $8 per hour they looked at it as something they should investigate and evaluate, whereas for $15 per hour, it's something they actively pursue.

50% increase in the cost of labor is not a "token change". It's a significant enough change to warrant further investigation into alternatives.

It's just like oil. At $50 per barrel, alternative fuels are just not that interesting, but when the price gets to $130 per barrel, you'd better believe there's a lot of interest in speeding up the move towards other energy sources. Regardless of price per barrel it's something that will be done in the long term, but the price sets the pace.
SNIP

Well said.

The robot arm that costs $35k will cost $25k in 5 years. The automation threshold is falling. Meanwhile the government price-controlled worker that costs $20k now will cost $25k in 5 years. You can bend and stretch these numbers one way or another, but you simply cannot stop their general trajectory. Within 10 years, half of all current fast food jobs will be gone. The only solution is to let the market set wages, or simply lose even more jobs propping the cost of labor up above the automation threshold.

This is true, but the rate of automation determines the level of societal disruption. Had water-driven manufacturing been able to replace manual labor in a generation, Europe would have burned in the fourteenth century.

And by the way, it's not the min. wage PER SE or the robotic arm "causing the job loss", it's the CEO and other decision makers who are "causing the job losses" as a way to compensate for less profit.

Job losses or increased prices for goods/services happen only if a company doesn't want to (or can't) tolerate a loss in profit that comes with higher wages. No one "forces" McD that their profits must steadily climb (or keep steady), even in situations where they had higher expenses due to higher wages. (In theory, they could swallow a loss of profits but keep the same amt. of workers and same prices for goods). I say "in theory" since in practice of course no-one would do this.

It's THEIR decisions and only they are to blame.

You have an amazingly and amusingly wrong view of business. Businesses do not exist because society owes you anything, they exist because someone wishes to risk his wealth to increase it.

Please learn something beyond "gimme".

 

[werepossum]

You overestimate the generation that will be replacing you. They spend 80% of their waking life staring at little screens and "communicating" to other humans, apparently, via protracted garbles of words resembling their respective native language. Oh, and cat photos.

Whether or not they care about the entity preparing their food (they don't), they are too distracted by their little screen to be aware of anything happening in front of them. Believe me--they don't want to interact

A buddy's fourteen year old had a sleepover. At one point he walked into the living room (because it was too quiet) and they were all furiously texting on their phones. He asked whom they were texting and his little girl looks up and says "duh, each other." It is literally replacing speech, even when in the same room sitting on the same couches.

 

[Zorkorist]

People need jobs.

The Government keeps giving money away.

Limit Government and increase jobs.

-John

 

[werepossum]

when I'm out and just need a bite to eat and in a hurry is when i hit fast food. At that point i really don't give a shit if it's a screen or person. i just want food.

If i go to a decent sit down restaurant then I want human service. I suspect a good majority will be the same.

Agreed, and those are the jobs that pay better anyway.

My next door neighbor was IT Director of a smaller hospital. It's been failing for decades. At one point they let go his entire staff, preferring to handle IT needs by contract labor. After a couple years they decided that (obviously) they did not need a director level person to pick up the phone and call someone, so they eliminated his position as well. With his actual IT skills decades out of date and thoroughly tired of the boardroom environment, he decided to reinvent himself. He attended community college, got trained and certified as an electrician, and landed a job wiring robotic system control panels. And let me tell you, that field is absolutely booming. They are working tons of overtime and he's being sent all over the nation to install or troubleshoot installations because their normal field people simply cannot handle the load. It's not just minimum wage increases - although that certainly plays its part - it's also our improving economy, which allows workers to demand more money with the knowledge that they can find another job if needed. And while replacing a $15 minimum wage employee is pretty tempting, replacing a $25 skilled worker can be even more profitable.

 

[master_shake_]

That sure explains why the first new car I bought the paint blistered in the first year and the powder coat paint is peeling on my mower deck.
Now consider that a fry bagging robot arm will be a hundred times more complex then a paint gun on a robot arm.

that was also a byproduct of capitalism.

it's called cost cutting.

 

[Zorkorist]

We should all agree that we need the Government to stop spending.

Only then, can we talk about what is right or what is wrong.

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

Let's pass a balanced budget amendment.

-John

 

[Rakehellion]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36376966

Even $2/hr labor can't compete with robots. The argument that if minimum wage was lower, humans would be cheaper than robots is just bunk.

Waaaaaaah! People don't deserve $15 an hour! Pay them less money!

Waaaaaah! Stop shipping jobs overseas to save money!

 

[Zorkorist]

Limit Government Spending and cry-babies like you don't happen.

-John

 

[theeedude]

Let's back up... is this opposite day where you take conservative positions and pretend that each man is an island of wealth and bounty if only he/she worked harder?
The subject is on the basis of labor without value. How are minimum wagers going to afford college now, let alone AFTER a robot puts them out of work?

That is an important question for Congress to consider. But it's not limited to minimum wagers. There is a lot more gravy from eliminating higher paid jobs.

 

[Zorkorist]

Limit Government and Individuals will do better.

-John

 

[zinfamous]

Let's pass a balanced budget amendment.

-John

The United States is not a business.

This is one of your dumber thoughts.

 

[Zorkorist]

The Federal Government is out of control.

They are spending us into a debt that we cannot recover from.

We have to stop them.

-John

 

[Hugo Drax]

Less desirable at first, but ultimately non existent.
And to service those robots? Better have a bachelors in computer science and 5+ years experience. And starting at $10/hr would be grand. :wub:

No need, the robot arms will just have a replacable module. 1 guy making 10 bucks an hour swapping them out is all you need.

And that one guy would service an entire region.

 

[Zorkorist]

Like your mama?

-John

 

[Hugo Drax]

This is why the move to a global basic income with people working\studying as they see fit is the future.
"work" is meaningless when it is used ONLY for production when automation can do it better. Mankind will have to figure out how to stay interested in life and how to better the community while robots do all the hard work.
American society will probably have a hard time adjusting because you seem to view work as something you HAVE to do to mean anything to yourself and to others, instead of a means to an end - a hobby, family, studies, arts...

Lol that will never happen. What will happen is we go back to the feudal era. Where the peasent masses have to fight over scraps and live in huge plantations servicing the kings and queens of the 22nd century, diseases will keep the population of peasents in check.

 

[HeXen]

It wouldn't be a robot arm, he misspoke. More like a typical factory machine line. Food has to be prepped and packaged which requires several machines throughout the assembly process. Which might possibly mean that custom orders would require more complexity but I guess that's mostly software side.
People in general are terrible labor. They call in sick/kids/flat tire..etc. They get tired/emotional/too loud/too weird..etc. There is always drama between co workers. Managers have to be assholes in vain attempts to keep employees in line. They don't or cannot pay attention 100% of the time or have selective hearing. Always taking advantage and then some of anything they can get away with.

I'm sure if everyone here was on 24/7 survellience at work, even they might be shocked at how inefficient they can be throughout any given month.