Robots will replace fast-food workers

[squarecut1]

Something like this is years in the making and has little if anything to do with the minimum wage movement. It is not as if they won't have done this kind of automation if there was no minimum wage movement.

Tying this to min wage is lazy or agenda based journalism - which of course is 98% of the media.

 

[Imp]

Good lord, I just don't think unskilled labor should pay as much as an entry level information based job. If they are really unhappy with their jobs and pay, they really need to become educated or relocate, simple as that. The people who are "stuck" in fast food or retail are not applying themselves. Protesting in an industry that is not unionized is a recipe for disaster.

From what I've heard, firms are now outsourcing "information based jobs" or "semi-skilled" jobs like I.T., basic lawyer/legal jobs, and engineering technology to India and China. Guess that means I.T., legal, and lower level engineering is unskilled...

Kids have been told to go to college and all their dreams will come true for decades. Even the ones going into STEM are having to take "lowly unskilled labor" jobs to avoid joining the ranks of the unemployed. Guess they should get another degree...

 

[BoberFett]

I'm pretty sure we already had this retarded thread a few months back, though I can't find it right now.

In any case, this is a good thing. Jobs like this should be automated so people can be free to do other jobs that actually matter and contribute to lives that are worth living. Not that any of that matters for the purposes of this thread. We'll have a full on socio-political circlejerk by the time this hits 100 posts.

The people working in fast food are incapable of doing any more meaningful job. Do you really think every burger flipper is a master artist or musician just waiting to be freed from the shackles of the grill?

 

[PliotronX]

From what I've heard, firms are now outsourcing "information based jobs" or "semi-skilled" jobs like I.T., basic lawyer/legal jobs, and engineering technology to India and China. Guess that means I.T., legal, and lower level engineering is unskilled...

Kids have been told to go to college and all their dreams will come true for decades. Even the ones going into STEM are having to take "lowly unskilled labor" jobs to avoid joining the ranks of the unemployed. Guess they should get another degree...

Nice jump into outsourcing when the subject was payrates. You don't see information based workers protesting for unrealistic pay.

Also, education is the basis for getting anywhere unless you're the self motivated type in which case education is an inhibition. It is the connections you make and bonds in the school system that make it worth the while. If you go in with expectations as unrealistic as managerial pay for flipping burgers, you will be disappointed with the debt incurred. Otherwise, it is a necessity.

 

[Ruptga]

The people working in fast food are incapable of doing any more meaningful job. Do you really think every burger flipper is a master artist or musician just waiting to be freed from the shackles of the grill?

Protip: read the damn thread before posting idiotic strawman attacks. Someone else already politely brought up that point, and six posts after the one you quoted I replied to what they said.

 

[Imp]

Nice jump into outsourcing when the subject was payrates. You don't see information based workers protesting for unrealistic pay.

Also, education is the basis for getting anywhere unless you're the self motivated type in which case education is an inhibition. It is the connections you make and bonds in the school system that make it worth the while. If you go in with expectations as unrealistic as managerial pay for flipping burgers, you will be disappointed with the debt incurred. Otherwise, it is a necessity.

Outsourcing = zero pay. Your job gets outsourced, you get paid nothing. Apparently, this is true despite being an "information based worker".

And what is "unrealistic" pay? The common stereotypical ones are "CEOs get paid too much" and "fast food workers get paid too little"... Oh wait, no, it depends on who you're talking to.

Education is one part of a big puzzle. It can open doors and close doors, just like anything else.

You are way way wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy oversimplifying everything, which is my main point.

 

[PliotronX]

Outsourcing = zero pay. Your job gets outsourced, you get paid nothing. Apparently, this is true despite being an "information based worker".

And what is "unrealistic" pay? The common stereotypical ones are "CEOs get paid too much" and "fast food workers get paid too little"... Oh wait, no, it depends on who you're talking to.

Education is one part of a big puzzle. It can open doors and close doors, just like anything else.

You are way way wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy oversimplifying everything, which is my main point.

You are making wide leaps in logic, it is as simple as if one is unhappy with a job or pay, they look for a new one that is more suitable. This requires research, networking, and patience. All three of these are aspects that a lot of people lack in certain industries. Education closing doors, that's a new one. What irks me is whiny people like these when folks like my parents and bazillions of others find ways to make it and never ask for public assistance or whine to anybody.

 

[BoberFett]

I've seen ideas for medication dispensers to replace pharmacists. That's a pretty high qualification job. Guess you would still need them there in case there were questions but a busy pharmacy could reduce the staff to 1 pharmacist and 1 tech.

I've seen a prescription vending machine in a local walk-in urgent care center.

 

[SlitheryDee]

The people working in fast food are incapable of doing any more meaningful job. Do you really think every burger flipper is a master artist or musician just waiting to be freed from the shackles of the grill?

There are a lot more choices in life than master whatever or burger flipper. I'm realistic about what people can do. Some of them really aren't capable enough to do anything else, but I believe those people to be a small percentage of fast food workers. A lot of people will settle in to a job and just stay there even though they're capable of much more. Hell I'm one of those people. The first long-term job I had was in a dry cleaner, which was every bit as monotonous and robotic as working in fast food. I remember standing for hours on end in a 90 degree room working steam-powered presses that took so little brain power to operate that I could daydream the whole time and still not miss a beat. Nevertheless I settled right in to that job and probably would have stayed there for years if the place hadn't closed down a year after I started working there.

Since then I haven't been ambitious at all. I haven't sought out greater responsibility or made a concerted effort to further myself, yet starting with losing the job at the dry-cleaner's, I've somehow had greater and greater responsibility foisted upon me. Guess what? It was good for me. With each new challenge I found out that I could do more than I previously thought. Now I run my own business, which is something dry-cleaner me would never have thought possible. It's because I was forced into new situations that required me to develop new skills that I became a better, more capable person instead of stagnating in the first minimum wage job I landed. I believe a lot of people are like me. The prospect of losing the shit job they have and being cast out in the world with no safety net scares them, but it's the very thing they probably need the most. People need to be stressed to perform.

 

[BoberFett]

I wonder if there was this much angst about jobs that were automated during the 20th century?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

 

[BoberFett]

Something like this is years in the making and has little if anything to do with the minimum wage movement. It is not as if they won't have done this kind of automation if there was no minimum wage movement.

Tying this to min wage is lazy or agenda based journalism - which of course is 98% of the media.

That's just stupid. Of course it has to do with minimum wage. If the cost of labor is greater than the cost of buying a machine to do it, then the labor will be replaced. Only a moron would think the cost of labor is not a part of the equation.

 

[BoberFett]

Protip: read the damn thread before posting idiotic strawman attacks. Someone else already politely brought up that point, and six posts after the one you quoted I replied to what they said.

Meh, my point stands. We won't suddenly have millions of new scientists because fast food workers all get the heave ho.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Meh, my point stands. We won't suddenly have millions of new scientists because fast food workers all get the heave ho.

They don't have to become scientists. I'd take a few extra skilled welders, masons, carpenters, machinists, etc. too.

 

[Imp]

You are making wide leaps in logic, it is as simple as if one is unhappy with a job or pay, they look for a new one that is more suitable. This requires research, networking, and patience. All three of these are aspects that a lot of people lack in certain industries. Education closing doors, that's a new one. What irks me is whiny people like these when folks like my parents and bazillions of others find ways to make it and never ask for public assistance or whine to anybody.

You're generalizing and oversimplifying everything into black & white arguments, but I'm the one making wide leaps in logic? Okie doke. But you're right, if one is unhappy with a job or pay, they can try to find a new one. Hopefully, they saved enough for tuition or can get someone to loan it to them, then hopefully they pick a good field that isn't saturated, find a company that gives them an opportunity, not run into any bad coworkers or management, avoid nepotism or become a sycophant, not get laid off, not have the economy or market for their field turn sour, etc.

Never heard of being "overqualified" for a job (i.e. employer thinks you'll skip town so they will pass you over)? Not to mention the regular shitting on people everyone seems to do if you didn't do a "mighty" STEM degree.

Well, as long as we know your sample size: your parents. Bazillions of people, huh? Good to know that you've spoken to the ~6 billion people on the planet and their imaginary friends -- and managed to gain their confidence so that they would all open up and "whine" to someone who's so judgmental.

But yes, "bazillions" do find a way to "make it". That's why they're still alive. How great their existence is, I guess that doesn't matter.

 

[Ns1]

Never heard of being "overqualified" for a job (i.e. employer thinks you'll skip town so they will pass you over)? Not to mention the regular shitting on people everyone seems to do if you didn't do a "mighty" STEM degree.

Overqualified people will quickly become dissatisfied with a job and are more likely to leave when they have the opportunity.

I can't believe you've never heard of being overqualified for a job.

 

[Imp]

Overqualified people will quickly become dissatisfied with a job and are more likely to leave when they have the opportunity.

I can't believe you've never heard of being overqualified for a job.

Not if they're masochists like me.

 

[Jeff7]

Overqualified people will quickly become dissatisfied with a job and are more likely to leave when they have the opportunity.

I can't believe you've never heard of being overqualified for a job.

Not if they're masochists like me.

So I'm guessing that it's a moist-pants day when you have a poor annual review that also lacks a pay increase?

 

[irishScott]

I wouldn't mind a robotic drive through. Means Wendy's would actually get my burger right more than 50% of the time.

 

[ImpulsE69]

If full service restaurants do this, they will go under. People go out for the experience, not the food. If they really do this, they will have to cut prices to be just over those of Burger King.

Actually..people go for the food. The experience is second. Going to a restaurant for the "experience" doesn't sound right at all.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Actually..people go for the food. The experience is second. Going to a restaurant for the "experience" doesn't sound right at all.

Well...

I'm not taking you out to dinner.

 

[Ns1]

Actually..people go for the food. The experience is second. Going to a restaurant for the "experience" doesn't sound right at all.

depends entirely on the restaurant and how much you're paying.

 

[Ruptga]

They don't have to become scientists. I'd take a few extra skilled welders, masons, carpenters, machinists, etc. too.

Or painters, plumbers, HVAC, handymen, etc. Practically every other job is better for both workers and society/economy than fast food is.

And it looks like my earlier prediction was, for the most part, wrong. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Right now trades is probably the most secure job actually. No matter what, there will always be a need for physical skilled labor. I suppose at some point they may be able to automate that too (basically a giant 3D printer assembly that literally 3D prints buildings) but I think we are far from that and even then you would need lot of people to run that machine such as feed it building materials and what not, and there would always be a need for building maintenance.

 

[ImpulsE69]

depends entirely on the restaurant and how much you're paying.

Know many people who say I went to such and such last night and the food was terrible, but the waiter was great. We're going back tomorrow! ?

 

[Ns1]

Know many people who say I went to such and such last night and the food was terrible, but the waiter was great. We're going back tomorrow! ?

That's pretty extreme. I know a lot of restaurants that get a TON of business because they offer great service/environment/experience with only marginally better than average food. Hell sometimes the service isn't good either ^_^

ref: most places with a view and restaurants that are more lounge than restaurant