So you think you deserve $15 an hour for shucking fries? No.

Wait...but....I thought only businesses could be greedy. You're suggesting that workers can be greedy, demanding more than they merit, deserve, or can reasonably be paid? This is such a new concept because ordinary people are incapable of greed, aren't they?

 

Creating robot service technician jobs that pay $50/hr.............

 

Automation is coming. Not just to fast food, but to countless other jobs.

What we're facing is an accelerated tech revolution that views labor as an expense to be cut. Wait until 3D printers, "smart" cars, better robots, better AI, etc take off. Many truckers will be out of work, as will much of the retail industry, warehouse workers, manufacturers...the list goes on and on. Hell, we're almost to the point where customer service over the phone can be entirely automated. The new business model is a modest payroll and cutting edge technology, the labor needs of Google are not analogous to a company like GE.

We're looking at massive unemployment in the coming decades, and unlike the industrial revolution, demand for human labor will not increase. The real question is, when there are more people than jobs (hint: we're almost there), what do you think we should do? Let the people who would've been happily employed at an honest blue collar job just a generation prior starve to death?

 

I think there is some merit to that question.

But I don't think the lib answer of a higher min wage is a good idea.

That only accelerates the move to robots.

 

Technology doesn't wait--if it can be done, it will be done. You think McDonalds is doing this because of unrest? No, they're doing it independent of unrest, because once these machines achieve or surpass cost-parity with a human, the humans are out.

Why do you think smart cars and ship automation are advancing so rapidly? Because manufacturers and other industries that rely on trucks and shipping vessels want to cut all the truckers and crews off their payroll.

 

Technology may not wait but it can move faster if you give it a reason too.

Pound fast food companies with an unreasonable min wage and you will only put workers on the street faster.

 

Trucking is booming. They aren't going anywhere.

 

Give it a few decades.

If you're young and not in a creative or otherwise un-automatable field, i'd be worried.

 

Until the transporter is invented........truckers are safe

 

No, just driverless cars. There is a story in the Boston Globe today estimating they're only 5-10 years from coming to the market.

We live in accelerated times, just look at how much the world has changed in the past 5 years thanks to smart phone technology.

 

By the way, if you're interested in reading more about this topic and just how close automation really is, I highly recommend The Second Machine Age.

 

We disagree.

 

Well engineers are in the process of developing automated trucks, and Google is about to bring the first driver-less car to the market. You can disagree all you want, but automation is inevitable if technology keeps accelerating at the pace it is today.

 

It's a convenient excuse. These strikes are little more than a PR nuisance, the amount of workers walking out have little to no effect on the bottom line. The nature of 21st century corporatism values profits above all else, and labor is the biggest expense. You're kidding yourself if you think they aren't constantly thinking of ways to mitigate that cost.

 

The car may drive itself, but how does it fuel itself, secure its own load, fix its own flat tires?

The automated driving just takes human error out of the equation. Someone will still have to sit in the other seat

 

Of course they are......you said it yourself.....it's their largest expense. It makes prudent business sense to mitigate these costs. If you don't, you won't be in business long.

The sooner people realize that businesses exist to make money, not hire employees, the better off they will be.

 

I'm not sure what your point is.

Are you telling us the workers are doomed anyway so we might as well put them out of work sooner rather than later?

 

You really think that engineers can't figure that out? Trust me, all those ancillary concerns are part of the equation. A human sitting in the other seat is little more than a depreciating asset, and a less valuable one at that.

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I'm telling you that McDonalds is not making billion dollar investing decisions based on these actions. They would be investing in the technology regardless, and were investing long before the first strikes took place.

 

I'm pretty sure McD does respond to little things like an insane minimum wage.

And so do the independent owners of the franchise stores.

 

People who think the wages should depend on the market only, they are just asking for their own enslavement. If it was up to the free market, they could pay you 3$ an hour for what they care about you and if you don't agree then goodbye and next.

 

What "insane" minimum wage? Congress isn't doing jack (*)(*)(*)(*).

Also, the franchise owners aren't exactly independent. They have to pay the company huge sums in fees and often rent, in addition to all the products they are forced to purchase and re-sell per their franchise agreement. McDonald's corporate sets a de facto wage policy, just as most other franchisee/franchisor relationships.

 

They aren't independent but McD is not going to make such a big change overnight.

They will try it out in the corporate stores first.

Maybe in Iceland or Japan.

 

If that is the case, there is nothing to stop them from trying to automate now.

A good reason for any employee to find a job that either CANNOT be automated, or that the people prefer NOT to be automated.

Did you know that despite my company having a really good web site, there are still millions of customer that would prefer to speak to someone over the phone?

 

Oh I have no doubt you can have vehicles drive themselves. But when you have a load going 3,000 miles through all kinds of traffic highway and local, you will need a driver. In a perfect world you'll be just fine. That is why airplanes can virtually fly themselves. Chart a course, get airborne and let her go. No traffic and off you go. Not so much with the trucking industry though.

 

Agreed. Anyone who thinks a computer can replace a truck driver has no idea what's involved in driving a truck and the judgment calls that can only be made by humans. Can a computer negotiate a road covered in ice patches? Can it shift gears in anticipation of a grade? Can it see an accident 2 miles ahead and take appropriate measures? Can it supervise loading and unloading? Truck drivers aren't going to be replaced any time soon.