The destruction of the $15 an hour burger Flipper has arrived.

[Moderate Right]

I have said no such thing. I simply stated that the SS retriement benefit by itself is often not enough to keep a person out of poverty.

The problem is not cheaters - the problem is system designed to give a moron (one not willling to support themselves and their dependes by working) money because they simply exist and have reproduced. It amounts to a large extent as simply being a reward for out of wedlock childbirth.

Poverty and spending over the years - Federal Safety Net

Your own graph shows that while the percentage of people living in poverty has not changed much, spending on them has grown exponentially and it hasn't done one darn thing to change the percentage of those living in poverty. And your solution is to spend even more. Great plan. The problem is we are not spending the money correctly. Instead of just giving it to the poor we should be spending the money on the tools to get them out of poverty and off of government dependency, such as education, job training, and daycare expenses.

 

[blaxshep]

Your own graph shows that while the percentage of people living in poverty has not changed much, spending on them has grown exponentially and it hasn't done one darn thing to change the percentage of those living in poverty. And your solution is to spend even more. Great plan. The problem is we are not spending the money correctly. Instead of just giving it to the poor we should be spending the money on the tools to get them out of poverty and off of government dependency, such as education, job training, and daycare expenses.

First off I know ttwtt enough to know he doesn't want to spend more as a solution, second what you propose will cost us more money. We need to end business taxes and make employers pay a living wage in return. It is insane and incredibly inefficient to tax businesses just to subsidize their labor. Paying less "welfare" to a person that is working only discourages them from working.

 

[Moderate Right]

First off I know ttwtt enough to know he doesn't want to spend more as a solution, second what you propose will cost us more money. We need to end business taxes and make employers pay a living wage in return. It is insane and incredibly inefficient to tax businesses just to subsidize their labor. Paying less "welfare" to a person that is working only discourages them from working.

What are business taxes? I own as S-Corp. The taxes I pay are what we took out of paychecks and our portion of FICA taxes. My profits get forwarded to my personal return where I pay taxes on them. Unless you are talking about decreasing my personal taxes, minimum wage increases hurt the heck out of me.

 

[Glen Contrarian]

First.. they are not starvation wages.. and secondly.. automation is not cheaper than paying wages.. it depends on the wage/price break.

15 dollar an hour wages might have done exactly that.. gone over that wage/price break.

I never said minimum wage was starvation wages - read what I said. I DID say that automation is cheaper than paying starvation wages - which is why even China is automating many of its factories. Is automation cheaper in everything? No (at least not yet), but when it comes to tasks that involve repetitive movement, in the long term even sweatshops can't compete.

 

[Moderate Right]

I never said minimum wage was starvation wages - read what I said. I DID say that automation is cheaper than paying starvation wages - which is why even China is automating many of its factories. Is automation cheaper in everything? No (at least not yet), but when it comes to tasks that involve repetitive movement, in the long term even sweatshops can't compete.

Automation gets a lot of undeserved blame. Back when cars were invented the assembly line was invented. Do we have more or less jobs building cars now than we did when automation was first invented?

 

[Glen Contrarian]

Automation gets a lot of undeserved blame. Back when cars were invented the assembly line was invented. Do we have more or less jobs building cars now than we did when automation was first invented?

But did you hear me "blame" automation? No. Barring worldwide catastrophe, automation's not just here to stay, it's only going to grow. Just like the Serenity Prayer says in so many words, don't worry about something that you really can't change. You can only adapt, and do your best to remain happy, and to do right by others.

 

[coyotedelmar]

Even now, most places have two grill lines. Having two Burgermatic 9000s would simply be an extension of that idea.

Would one be able to handle the work of two though? It would be fairly inefficient to leave one line under utilized or not utilized merely as a back-up.

 

[sanman]

Well, robotics in the fast-food sector could help to bring down costs. Lowering the cost of living can provide its own benefits to the economy.

If your automated equipment is flexible enough, it could be dynamically re-allocated to other duties - like fulfilling home delivery orders, or something like that. Perhaps you could even make your pricing flexible, based on the demand level - just like the way Uber does.

 

[JumpinJack]

Momentum Machines robot-powered restaurant is opening in San Francisco - Tech Insider

The real question is, doe it come with a Fry Hopper?

Someone's going have to run the machine all day. Then it will need maintenance and repairs. There will need to be backup for when it has issues (like any machine does).

Progress is a good thing, though. Our country went through the industrialization era. A lot of people lost work, then settled into NEW sorts of businesses that needed base level workers. The country had NO fast food places in that era.

Maybe the young burger flippers can return to mowing lawns, like they used to do....and replace the illegal immigrants, who took those jobs from Americans.

But I would urge everyone to lay off these fast food places entirely. It's bad news for our health...and it's not really food because it's so pumped with chemicals and slime. For an occasional bad day, they're fine. When I do that, I'm reminded why I don't eat at those places. It's horrible stuff, and so unhealthy, too. Why don't people make burgers at home, any more? It's so easy, and much healthier and MUCH better tasting.

 

[faithful_servant]

Would one be able to handle the work of two though? It would be fairly inefficient to leave one line under utilized or not utilized merely as a back-up.

The goal is to make money, not utilize equipment. If having a second Burgermatic 9000 to handle rushes and downtime makes you money, then you buy two... Basics of modern manufacturing. You should read "The Goal" by Eli Goldrat.

 

[blaxshep]

What are business taxes? I own as S-Corp. The taxes I pay are what we took out of paychecks and our portion of FICA taxes. My profits get forwarded to my personal return where I pay taxes on them. Unless you are talking about decreasing my personal taxes, minimum wage increases hurt the heck out of me.

I'm not a businessman but it seems to me that it would cost us all a lot less to pay more for goods and services so that everyone that works is paid a living wage based on their location (Not a minimum wage) then to tax us all, business / personal whatever, and have a massive inefficient government bureaucracy redistribute the wealth to essentially subside the labor force for employers.

 

[Sherman123]

But you know what? Some of us, probably you as well, prefer locally owned restaurants. Chain restaurants are crap. There's nothing better for breakfast than a local squat and gobble where real cooks cook real food that caters to local tastes.

Lunch is often the same preference. Give me locally owned food vendors with family and extended family working hard to provide good food to their neighbors and friends who have been customers for years.

Screw chain restaurants and screw a bunch of robots. Gimme real food and real restaurants.

Tech world can push all that crap to us all day but in the end I believe patrons are already going back to real food in real restaurants served by real people. The robot food in robot chain restaurants will be a flash in the pan. Pun intended.

I think that is wishful thinking driven by an affection for what one has always known and the natural human inclination to be cautious about change. But time will tell I suppose.

 

[Risky Thicket]

I think that is wishful thinking driven by an affection for what one has always known and the natural human inclination to be cautious about change. But time will tell I suppose.

That and the fact that chain restaurant food is boring, totally predictable and chain restaurants are often tarted up beyond faux cute.

 

[Neomalthusian]

Someone's going have to run the machine all day. Then it will need maintenance and repairs. There will need to be backup for when it has issues (like any machine does).

Still requires a hell of a lot less man hours than the 1970s model of fast food operations.

Progress is a good thing, though. Our country went through the industrialization era. A lot of people lost work, then settled into NEW sorts of businesses that needed base level workers. The country had NO fast food places in that era.

Maybe the young burger flippers can return to mowing lawns, like they used to do....and replace the illegal immigrants, who took those jobs from Americans.

Why would that happen?

But I would urge everyone to lay off these fast food places entirely. It's bad news for our health...and it's not really food because it's so pumped with chemicals and slime. For an occasional bad day, they're fine. When I do that, I'm reminded why I don't eat at those places. It's horrible stuff, and so unhealthy, too. Why don't people make burgers at home, any more? It's so easy, and much healthier and MUCH better tasting.

If you want to make fast food industry go away, then the focus should be on doing that by dissuading people from buying its products, not by using blanket labor regulations that catch every single other business in the country in their crossfire.