The rise of McDonald's robot workers has served up super-sized share prices

[katzgar]

Increased minimum wage, and government mandates... causes lost jobs.

Not to tough to figure out... you tell a business to do something that impacts their bottom line and they will work to avoid it.

ObamaKare caused a lot of people to be put on less than full time work.

Stupid minimum wage hikes... the same.

Demokrats... end up screwing those they claim to help.

You are making Mexico great again.

 

[sear]

Wide-scale automation is a serious and fast approaching problem for our labor-force.

It started slow:
computers instead of human telephone operators
self-serve elevators instead of an elevator operator in dapper uniform

then ATM's instead of human bank tellers

Now it's robots on automobile assembly lines
robots in warehouses

and with AI developing as fast as it is,
production may reach all time high economic efficiency, with not enough wage-earners to sustain the economy.

Henry Ford paid his assembly line workers $5.oo / day, which was enough for them to buy the very cars they were producing.

Who will buy the Big Macs that robots produce, when robots outnumber humans in those slots?

 

[Mr. Invisible]

If someone has a four year education and can only find part time minimum wage work that's because they messed up something. I only have a two year degree (and I only got that after I started working) and I make north of 20 per hour

Yeah, I find that hard to believe as I know someone who has a Masters in the STEM field and she can barely find anything. Hell, I know someone in STEM who regularly sees people with such degrees that are finding it difficult to attain jobs in their field.

 

[katzgar]

Wide-scale automation is a serious and fast approaching problem for our labor-force.

It started slow:
computers instead of human telephone operators
self-serve elevators instead of an elevator operator in dapper uniform

then ATM's instead of human bank tellers

Now it's robots on automobile assembly lines
robots in warehouses

and with AI developing as fast as it is,
production may reach all time high economic efficiency, with not enough wage-earners to sustain the economy.

Henry Ford paid his assembly line workers $5.oo / day, which was enough for them to buy the very cars they were producing.

Who will buy the Big Macs that robots produce, when robots outnumber humans in those slots?

There was a time when there were vast rooms full of architectural drafts people and there were vast rooms full of bookkeepers they're all gone now.

 

[Visbek]

Increased minimum wage, and government mandates... causes lost jobs.

Or, not.

Wake up. Employers have spent decades automating jobs into non-existence. They aren't waiting around for sporadic minimum wage hikes to automate the ordering process. They're developing the technology as fast as they can.

Even if every single minimum wage law in the US was repealed today, McDonald's would still automate every possible task they can.

ObamaKare caused a lot of people to be put on less than full time work.

No, it didn't. Stop repeating this lie.

 

[TobyOne]

Kudos to Mickey Ds. US companies need to innovate and this is another example of the market reacting to dumb government policies.

 

[TobyOne]

Sure, but maybe not as quickly. Its a big change and needed prioritization which it probably got.

Rmeinds me of the grocery clerk strike in so cal a few years back. It wasn't soon after that automatic checkers started showing up. No one likes them, but you don't have to put their kids through college and worry about them going on strike.

Or, not.

Wake up. Employers have spent decades automating jobs into non-existence. They aren't waiting around for sporadic minimum wage hikes to automate the ordering process. They're developing the technology as fast as they can.

Even if every single minimum wage law in the US was repealed today, McDonald's would still automate every possible task they can.



No, it didn't. Stop repeating this lie.

 

[Visbek]

Sure, but maybe not as quickly.

I don't see any reason for them to delay at all.

Labor is a much higher portion of costs for fast food businesses than most other types of businesses. The incentives and pressures for McDonald's to automate are tremendous, no matter how much or how little they pay their cooks and cashiers.

 

[sear]

"There was a time when there were vast rooms full of architectural drafts people and there were vast rooms full of bookkeepers they're all gone now." kg #79

Yes.
The buggy-whip example comes to mind.

But these dodges mask the underlying reality that I'm addressing here.

Any nation including the U.S. with over 300 million in human population not only has an economy, but a labor-force that fuels it.

We've seen this show before. We already know what happens to a nation's economy when unemployment reaches 25%.

"Wake up. Employers have spent decades automating jobs into non-existence. They aren't waiting around for sporadic minimum wage hikes to automate the ordering process. They're developing the technology as fast as they can.
Even if every single minimum wage law in the US was repealed today, McDonald's would still automate every possible task they can." Vb #80

We may not know to the minute what, how, & when the automation change-over will reach the obvious milestones; 50% for obvious example.
But the trend is unmistakable.
And it would be an error to presume it would be a linear progression.

"270 prominent scientists say within 40 years robots will be doing most of the jobs we do not want to do. Especially illegal robots from Mexico." Jay Leno

 

[EMNofSeattle]

Yeah, I find that hard to believe as I know someone who has a Masters in the STEM field and she can barely find anything. Hell, I know someone in STEM who regularly sees people with such degrees that are finding it difficult to attain jobs in their field.

Then it's time for a new field.

Or to move to where jobs are. Or find out why no one in the field is hiring him.