McJobs Gone? No Loss

Drudge has some great news about the impending reduction in, well, drudgery:

Building robot McDonald's staff 'cheaper' than hiring workers on minimum wage

A former McDonald's CEO is warning that robots will take over jobs at the huge enterprise - because it's cheaper than employing humans.

He said that buying highly skilled robotics is cheaper than employing people at the fast food restaurant.

The worrying forecast comes as he warns huge job losses are imminent, and that it's 'common sense' to replace humans in the workplace.

First, contra the notion that there are no small parts, only small players, Democrats have derided "McJobs" going back at least to Walter Mondale. Presumably the loss of opportunities for low-skilled workers who might pick up some useful, employable skills such as showing up on time rested, ready to go, willing to take directions and show initiative as needed will trouble our minimum-wage raising friends on the left not at all.

Secondly, this tide has been coming in for centuries. Just for example, horses, mules and oxen displaced human pulling-power in agriculture and transport, and were themselves eventually displaced (in the developed world) by engines.

Ditch diggers have lost jobs to modestly trained, well paid earth mover operators. Container shipping and a few guys with cool cranes have (again, in ports of the developed world) displaced swarms of dock workers. The displacement of labor by capital is not new and it does not have to be bad - the key is finding new, hopefully more engaging work for those displaced workers. A former coal worker who has to give up his opportunity to slog in a mine and get black lung disease and instead operate a high-tech control panel at a modern power plant may not consider himself worse off. On the other hand, if he loses the mining job and is stuck on welfare, that will be a loss to society as well as the worker in question.

Well. I sometimes indulge the theory that if I type long enough I will say something original. Hasn't been true this morning but the day is young!

Comments

[Gentlejim]

If my teenagers can figure out that minimum wage jobs are not living wage jobs why can't Dems? Stupid question, I know. Let's just call it rhetorical.

[henry]

Robots. Check.
Flying Cars. Hey!!!

[Beasts of England]

Buggywhip makers hardest hit.

[Porchlight]

Democrats have derided "McJobs" going back at least to Walter Mondale.

Only in years when Republicans are in the White House.

[henry]

Well. I sometimes indulge the theory that if I type long enough I will say something original. Hasn't been true this morning but the day is young!

the proverbial million monkeys are way ahead of us -- and they are due to be replaced by typing-bots.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Secondly, this tide has been coming in for centuries.--

We have in the space of 3,000 years gone from "there is nothing new under the sun" to an apparent belief that "it is different this time" even though it never is.
It's a perfect illustration of why collectivism/central planning never work.
As individuals we have no conception of what innovation is coming nor what those displaced by it will do instead.
The billions of individuals working in their own self interest nevertheless innovate what is coming next and adjust when they have to.
Thousands of bureaucrats at the most basic level working to maintain stasis, which their security depends on, do everything they can to thwart innovation and independence. There are occasional exceptions that result from throwing vast amounts of money at basic research but by and large they would have occurred anyway.

[Jack is Back!]

And the cherry on top is that these new robotic flippers are the courtesy of those Silly-con Valley progressives who continue to be the biggest donors to the Democrat party.

They make that Venn diagram more like Zen.

[DrJ]

You (almost!) daily Wretchard:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2016/05/25/half-the-puzzle/

[Threadkiller]

Are robots gender neutral?

[Threadkiller]

Will they get their own restroom or can they change their oil wherever they want?

#RobotNon-livesMatter

[matt]

Actually the top robotics manufacturers are Japanese and German with the Italians and Koreans thrown in. Once again, the United States missed the boat. A line of precision designed and applied robots will probably deliver that McMuffin with a side of hash brown substitute and synthetic OJ more consistently and efficiently than a crew of $15/hr illegal aliens.

[Miss Marple 2]

I don't think displacing coal miners is the same as replacing minimum wage workers at McDonald's.

1. Miners are operating complicated, heavy equipment underground. It is not a low-skill job. You have to know how to set roof bolts, operate continuous miners or long-wall miners, and generally know what you're doing, or people can get killed.

2. Incidences of new black lung cases have dropped quite a bit since 1969, due to federal requirements for dust monitoring, testing of miners for exposure, and the use of respirators when dust is very high.

3. There are few "control panels at a power plant" jobs as opposed to the number of miners who might be trained for those jobs.

4. Who is going to buy the homes of the miners who have to relocate for these swell new jobs? Or are they just supposed to head off and abandon their homes? Go into foreclosure? What?

5. A lot of miners LIKE mining. A lot of them. I know this is hard for people to understand who haven't been around coal mining, but they view it differently than those outside the mining community.

6. What about the rest of the people in the coal mining towns? Close the mine and the grocers, hardware store, drugstore, bars, etc. also are hit. Where are those people to go?

There are a lot of problems involved in this coal mine closing, and all you have to do is look at how Appalachia voted in the primaries.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Good point JiB.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Coal mines closing is largely a result of overregulation making it uncompetitive.
But it is also a result of the fracking explosion.

How many millions of high skilled jobs have been destroyed and replaced by machines since 1900 and yet somehow the average person is vastly more wealthy than those high skilled workers 116 years ago.

Productivity growth = wealth creation.

The economic doldrums and declining middle class we have experienced the past couple of decades is the result of bad fiscal policy and growth of government, worse immigration policy and worser monetary policy.

[Jack is Back!]

matt,

That may be true for manufacturing and auto assembly but the robots being used by McDonalds and Burger King are by Momentum Machines from SoMA in San Francisco. Close enough to the boyz in Ahterton and Palo Alto where the angels provide the funding.

[squaredance]

They never cared about the McJobs. A great many union contracts have pay across the board tied to minimum wage-when they raise it everyone gets a raise. This sort of thing of course does not come up in McDolnaldland because these are franchises and essentially small to medium businesses.

Remember that everything they do revolves around 1) maintaining their fake jobs in the Noemenklatura, and 2) buying votes.

When they hurt others that do not effect those objectives, well, that is just the gravy, so to speak.

[Threadkiller]

McMilitary...

HR 4909 – National Defense Authorization Act of 2017: No.  National defense is the federal government’s most fundamental responsibility, but this is not an excuse for waste and mismanagement within the defense establishment.  I especially object to provisions that prohibit BRAC review of obsolete or dysfunctional military bases and that increase ongoing manpower levels at a time we should be rebuilding our arsenals.  I object to provisions that use Overseas Contingency Operations as a Pentagon slush fund in a manner that assures additional supplemental funding will be needed later this year. Finally, I take particular exception to the suppression of an amendment offered by Mr. Gosar of Arizona that would forbid employment of illegal aliens in the American armed forces.

 https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/vote-notes/hr-4909-national-defense-authorization-act-of-2017-no

How is it that this Trump fellow is winning?

Nice House you have there Mr. Ryan...

[Threadkiller]

More from the the JOM quiters club:

At 1 pm, the Unión del Barrio is organizing a rally at Chicano Park in Barrio Logan. Their facebook event page has 77 signed up, but their organizational home page has over 1,500 likes.

Unión del Barrio organizers are expecting hundreds, if not thousands, at their rally. It’s anticipated that they will march over to the Convention Center. Their participants will include families, people with strollers, grandparents, undocumented people 

http://sandiegofreepress.org/2016/05/friday-is-going-to-be-one-crazy-anti-trump-day-in-san-diego/

#ThanksTrump

[sbw]

Why is it that the arc of change is not gracefully accepted? Why is it twisted by opportunists for personal political advantage?

From 1875-1925 our country changed from 75 percent agrarian to 75 percent retail/manufacturing to earn dollars for households.

From 1975-2025 our country is changing from 75 percent retail/manufacturing to another way to bring dollars into households.

Normal change is no calamity and certainly no reason for totalitarians and mob rule to overtake civil society.

[Miss Marple 2]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/APFN_US_CLINTON_EMAILS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

State Dept report faults Clinton on emails although it drags in other SOS too.

I am a bit mistrustful of the AP story.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Lions lick condensation off a camper's tent netting...with the camper in side.

[GUS]

sbw. Mob rule is how Democrats roll. Did you see Albuquerque last night. To quote Karen Carpenter. "We've only just begun".

A WAR is coming.

[henry]

sbw, the buggy whip makers guild disagrees. They were immune to opportunity in 1875, and are proud to remain immune today. Same with their replacement SEIU /AFL-CIO. St. Ludd be praised.

[maryrose]

Capt:
Ryan is not responsible for other people jumping the gun.

[maryrose]

I am sure many demonstrators are Dems hired by Hillary Inc.

[Miss Marple 2]

sbw,

Perhaps it is because so much of the change isn't a natural evolution, but one promoted by the government's messing with things like health insurance, minimum wage laws, environmental regulations, etc.

I don't recall any laws which forced farmers to go to the cities and work. The rise of mechanized farming equipment made agricultural workers obsolete, so those workers left the fields farm by farm and moved to cities to find work.

No one came to farms, forced them to buy tractors and told the field hands to hit the road.

Also, what is the new way we are going to bring dollars into households? If you know, please tell me. I would like to be on the cutting edge!

[GUS]

Wow, the "auditor" said the Corona Rodham didn't comply with the FEDERAL RECORDS ACT.

In related NEWS, fish are wet.

[buccaneer morgan]

Btw, according to bezos, Carlos slim and co, McDonald didn't make that statement.

[henry]

narciso, it does say "former McDonalds CEO" in the quote.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"Perhaps it is because so much of the change isn't a natural evolution, but one promoted by the government's messing with things like health insurance, minimum wage laws, environmental regulations, etc."

Precisely. Just because technology marches on, it still is likely more efficient to have teens at $7/hr than robots, and a bad idea to price those teens out of the market and replace them with robots. Even more so considering the valuable experience teens get.

Next step for the left: Ban robots.

[sbw]

Also, what is the new way we are going to bring dollars into households? If you know, please tell me.

MM, if I were in a joking mood I’d say, “Accupuncture”.

Really, it is about anticipating what people need and want for improved quality of life.

We lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in Rome. I think there are opportunities to build individual skill sets. Creating expertise is always good.

-> One town in our county has expertise in training service dogs. Let’s train people to train service dogs.

-> Turning Stone Casino has become a destination. Let’s offer classes in the neighborhood for people who want to learn hobbies, sports, art.

The point is that in times of change, opportunity is everywhere except staying the same.

[sbw]

New thread.

[cheerleader]

There's a social aspect that a robot cannot replace. It's hard to flirt with a robot.

[Old Lurker]

You don't need to have an MBA to do the math on the break point where machines are cheaper than humans. Since one of the two key variables is the cost of having a worker, doubling the minimum wage and requiring bathrooms for all seven sexes moves one of the two lines real fast. Add free health care as soon as you grow out of Mom&Pop size, throw in months off for taking pets to vets and add the risk of getting sued for having employment documents the wrong shade of green, and one line quickly surpasses the other.

And that is before even looking at the curve which traces the cost, reliability and flexibility of robots and POOF.

Easy peazy.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Free market = change.
Socialism = stasis.
Change hurts.
Stasis kills.

[Marlene]

Good Morning! I saw the former McD's CEO on Maria's show yesterday morning and he talked about the robots. His name is Ed Rensi.

In New England political news,former Red Sox pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee is running for governor of Vermont. He is running as a member of the Liberty Union Party on a platform of legalizing marijuana,single-payer health care and paid family leave
Bernie's first (unsuccessful) attempt at elective office in VT was as a member of the Liberty Union Party.

[henry]

cheerleader hasn't seen the new "companion bots" from Japan.

[Old Lurker]

" It's hard to flirt with a robot."

Where Cheerleader reveals a lack of awareness of the many changes in the field of sex robotics.

(I just know from my reading...)

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

We see your Spaceman and raise you one Moonbeam.

[Old Lurker]

Henry reads the same things I do, obviously.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

If these robots are only brought in because of a $15 minimum wage, they have about as much to do with the free market as Teslas, solar panels, and windmills.

[buccaneer morgan]

The for p & g CEO.

[Old Lurker]

Jimmy, that's why my 10:52 list included more than just the min wage. And that list is far from complete and does not take the trajectory of those things into account.

[henry]

OL, they were in the WSJ at one point.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Cheerleader

https://youtu.be/yLPObMbkNMA

Alan Sherman's "Automation" (1963)

There's an RCA 503
Standing next to me there where you used to be, dear
Doesn't have your smile
Doesn't have your shape
All it has is punchcards and light bulbs and tape, dear

Etc.

To the tune of "Fascination"

[cheerleader]

I guess I can't fool Old Lurker into believing that I'm a robotics expert. ;-)

[GUS]

Gus Jr is about to build a computer. YES. For gaming. Where do I buy the parts. He has saved up for this, and he finishes his freshman year in H.S tomorrow.

He has ideas, but I'm Daddy.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or

GREATLY APPRECIATED.

He has a parts list and NEWEGG seems to be a good place to buy, but we have a menagerie of BRAINIACS here, so I'm looking for advice.

[henry]

Gus, I don't know... gaming computers are specialized and I tired of gaming 20 years ago.

[Twitter]

"the proverbial million monkeys are way ahead of us -- and they are due to be replaced by typing-bots."

Working on it.

[DrJ]

Where do I buy the parts.

Newegg, TigerDirect, or Amazon. Micro Center, if you are looking for bricks and mortar, and you have one close by.

Newegg is more expensive than it used to be, but I have found them to have a very good selection and reasonable prices (but check for their specials). They also are very good about notifying you where in the process your order stands.

[cheerleader]

jimmyk, that was funny!!! ty

[Buckeye]

GUS

Corona "Her Highness" Rodham can't be bothered with anything as mundane as the Federal Records Act.

That crap is for the "little people".

[Buckeye]

GUS

Don't overlook EBAY.

I have found lots of parts there at best prices anywhere.

Worth a look, particularly if you know what you want.

[nextcube]

GUS - MicroCenter or Fry's if you're close to one -- it's still fun to go into a store and actually *see* the stuff you're about to buy, and those two stores often have special deals for customers who come to the store in person to buy that aren't available to online customers.

Other than those two choices, yeah, pretty much newegg.

[Man Tran]

GUS,

Raspberry pi is the general purpose starting point. $35 for the board, but <$100 will get you a complete system. It isn't game oriented, but there are games that work on it. The only reason I bring it up is that my code guru has me running one and everything can expand from the basic knowledge that Gus Jr will get from tinkering at this level.

ps. It's tough on an old geezer that only tinkered with Unix stuff 30 yrs ago. Gerp, vi, sudo, yeah right.

[jimmyk]

OL@10:56, we saw this a few weeks back:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3519151/Scarlett-Johansson-fan-creates-working-replica-ROBOT-Hollywood-star-programmed-wink-tells-s-cute.html

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

That was one of the creepier things I've seen in some time, Jimmy.

[Comanche Voter]

Ah unions and the minimum wage. Out here in Los Angeles our City Council--largely at the behest of various service workers unions--hotel maids and such--has decreed that the minimum wage will be $15 an hour. So far so good. But--if an employer has an agreement with the Service Worker's Union, it can pay less than the minimum wage.

Nice little business you have there say the unions--it would be a shame if it was wrecked by you having to pay the minimum wage. So agree to let your business be unionized, and we can save you some money.

It's just another version of the Chicago shakedown hustle.

[jimmyk]

CV, that's an interesting twist on the usual thinking for why unions favor the minimum wage, which is just to eliminate the low-price competition.

[DrJ]

Fry's

I don't care much for Fry's. They never seem to have what I want (I am careful!) in spite of their seeming huge inventory. They are fine for things you need quickly (read that as NOW!), such as a generic Ethernet card.