McDonald's is rolling out self-service kiosks. Adios, cashiers ?

It's been happening since we created the wheel. But as tasks migrate from innovation to fully automated, people want more.

And the ones who want more, aren't going to get it without making a contribution of their own. When the farmer needed less people to pick his crops, the people who were no longer needed on the farm didn't get a free meal. They moved on to solving other problems, found other ways to contribute and earn.





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Indeed - but they contributed by finding another task that is not yet automated.
Look at every job/task. Is there a possibility of automating it in the future? If so, strike it off. As each job is taken away, there are less jobs available. Eventually only those that cannot be "automated" are left - generally creation style jobs (inventing, programming). I say generally as there will be a few others left such as maintenance.

What happens if you didn't need to earn, because machines provided you with what you need?

If ALL McDonald's cashiers are replaced, and, for arguments sake, all the cooks are also replaced with machines.... and then this technology rolls out to all fast food chains.... that's a lot of displaced people in a low wage jobs. And it doesn't stop at fast food, nor the food industry. Where do you move on to? Is it another job that is potentially automated?

 

We're certainly headed that way. I guess it depends what you mean by food production, but things like making salads, hamburgers, burritos... robotic ovens are making that type of production fully automated.

There are a lot of advantages to this approach. It's more sanitary, requires less space, adheres more exactly to recipes, better coordination of dishes, can use fresher ingredients ...

You get things like tomatoes sliced to an exact thickness immediately before being added to a salad or burger, exact cooking times and temperatures, every part of the meal coming off the grill at the same time, faster service, less human error ... it produces a better meal.


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That list isn't finite. Most jobs we have today, didn't exist 200 years ago. As long as there are problems needing to be solved, jobs will be added to that list.

As for programming, you should look at the papers that came out in 2008 about self assembling code. The same strategies that have made newspaper article writing and contract writing almost fully automated are being applied to letting code write itself.

The only people who have everything provided for them are idiots and children. Everyone else is expected to pitch in and solve some of the problems we share. And there will always be problems.




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Completely true of course. Automated software and hardware are always going to be cheaper than a human worker in the long run. OSHA, for example, doesn't care if your robot gets burned or is around harmful fumes or chemicals. There's no workers comp, unemployment, health insurance, or sick days/child leave/(*)(*)(*)(*)ty employee concerns either.

Let the sillies blame the robots on the poor folks. They blame everything else on them, why not this too.

 

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.





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Automation cannot take the place of unskilled workers, young white college drop outs, poor minorities, recovering and present drug users, ex convicts, and illegal immigrants, all need a place to survive and make a living.

How could you support this Un American endeavor by the rich capitalists, where is your patriotism my fellow countryman?

If welfare is taken away, and minimum wage jobs are replaced by robots, what does Donald Trump expect to do with them?

 

I disagree with the assumption that the only thing that man can do is mine and the suggestion that, should he want to mine, someone else is responsible for providing him with a pick.





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I work with cutting edge technology and this is something that is happening like it or not. I understand how this stuff works and will probably always be in demand. While I am working I may need someone to cut my lawn and clean my house. I expect to hire young people and probably will not pay them much at all because they will be competing with illegal aliens who will do the work for peanuts.

Welcome to the future created by Liberals.

 

Yes.

If he didn't provide his own tools and mine, he isn't producing ore -- whether someone loans him a pick or not. He can make a similar contribution to the process that does produce the ore in other ways, ways that don't require him to be given a pick.





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with all respect, there is no automation for picking fruit or cleaning toilets, it is a job someone has to do.

someone (rich entitled capitalist/donald trump) is responsible for providing them a living wage.

 

Sure. Most jobs didn't exist 200 years ago, but that doesn't mean that these jobs, or any new jobs, can't be automated.
There will always be problems, but can those problems be solved through machines?

 

^ oops I realized I put an edit in your quote. Too late to edit now.

 

It doesn't. And when those problems are so fully understood and responded to they probably will be automated. It will be someone's job to do that.

And when those problems are solved and even automated, there will be other problems to solve.




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Entitlement is the expectation that someone else is inherently responsible for providing for you.​

[video=youtube;S9vaqsd1iP4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9vaqsd1iP4[/video]


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You're right. The problem is I can't remember a time I was served at a fast food restaurant by a human with a friendly smile. I'd rather be served by a machine then an bored teenager who needs multiple explanations to get my order right.

 

Great. Finally I'll get what I ordered.

 

no he doesn't.... I can't make a living wage on mowing lawns or on a paper route..... if that's my only skillset I have to offer the world, I'm only entitled to what that skillset is worth.


I am a teacher that refs on the side. I make about 3-4k a year reffing just that sport for 4 months (the season). Even if I reffed all year (multiple sports) multiply that by 3 (to get afull year of reffing for about 12-16000)

I don't want to live off of that amount of money. So I teach. That's the thing. Whether or not I choose to try and live off the ref portion of my income is not the head ref's responsibility.

Since I have another skillset, my ref boss is off the hook for providing me a "livable wage" (whatever subjective that is), but if I had no other skills, and only reffed, he WOULD be entitled to pay me more?

Is it his fault I didn't get my degree or other trainings to get a career type job?

What happens if my association picks up a college kid, and a professional..... does he have to pay us both more because the college kid has no other skills currently?


Here's an idea.... if you want higher wages for your work.... provide better skills

 

if you replace all the jobs of the consumers with robots, who will the producers sell their deliciously cheap but evil burgers too?

entitlement goes both ways, the rich expect laborers have a responsibility to provide for them while working for peanuts.

 

Just because you own a fast food joint, doesn't make you rich.