Posted on 05/27/2016 7:34:53 PM PDT by huckfillary
A predictable consequence of the move to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour will be the hastened transition from human to a more robotic work-force. A photo that went viral this week showed a robot "manning" the take-out window at McDonald's. You can expect to see more of this. Employers will, of course, be pilloried by the usual cast of economically-challenged Marxists in the political and chattering classes as heartless, sexist, homophobic racists, etc., who put profits before people. But the non-economically challenged among us realize that the increased use of robots is a completely rational response of the market to government-imposed wage and benefit mandates that push the cost of labor above that which the consumer is willing to pay.
For the heck of it, I started brainstorming and prepared a list of reasons why robots, for economic and non-economic reasons, are preferable to humans as employees.
1 - they don't need health-care insurance, paid time-off, or workmen's comp;
2 - they don't call in sick; they're never late;
3 - they follow orders with no back-talk or sassing. They don't complain or "cop an attitude;"
4 - they don't get bored with repetitive tasks;
5 - they don't gossip or get involved in interoffice politics;
6 - they don't require maternity leave;
7 - they are not subject to onerous OSHA health and safety regulations;
8 - they don't file grievances or sue for civil rights violations
9 - they don't require a lengthy and expensive training process;
10 - they don't take smoke breaks, bathroom breaks, or lunch breaks
11- they don't need transgender bathrooms;
12 - they don't lobby for increases in the minimum wage;
13 - they don't stage sit-ins over working conditions;
14 - they don't celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus requiring time off from work;
15 - they're not afraid to get their "hands dirty;"
16 - their cars never break down on the way to work;
17 - they don't require drug testing;
18 - their kids don't get sick or need day-care;
19 - they never argue with the customers;
20 - they never give the wrong change; they never steal from the company;
21 - citizenship is not an issue nor do they need security clearances;
22 - there are no language barriers; they don't have to attend ESL classes;
23 - they don't need permission to wear a burka;
24 - they can be completely illiterate and still perform their jobs flawlessly. Public education is not an issue and doesn't affect their job performance;
25 - they're never at risk for engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior.
This list is by no means exhaustive. In fact, I could go on and on. They don't need to fill out a W-2, etc., etc.... You are encouraged to submit additions to the list. My next piece on robots will be a list of positions which I believe could reasonably be filled by robots. Again, a completely rational response of the market to the increased cost of human labor largely as the result of government actions. Stay tuned and have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. And to those clamoring for the $15 minimum wage--be careful what you wish for.
Correction on 3. The female robots will talk back when in snark mode. Which you cant turn off.
They don’t adulterate your food deliberately.
Other things about robots.
1. They don’t earn a paycheck and spend it elsewhere in the economy.
2. They don’t marry and have children and purchase or rent homes, and buy all the usual needs of a family or individual consumer.
The list could be very long, but I wouldn’t get too excited about the wonders of a world where economies have no need for the labor of a large part of the population.
Will lead to a massive central, redistributionist government.
Ping.
They don’t need.... managers.
Not to mention far, far too many yutes with nothing to do but cause mayhem.
They’ll just get free money from Bernie’s stash and chillax all day
Yep, I think people who believe that job elimination is something to be celebrated are in for the proverbial rude awakening. Well, at least those who live long enough to see a world where a large part of populations are not needed in the economies of nations where they live.
Much better if most working age folks have something productive to do to occupy their time.
It's what a small portion of the population might do. People are kidding themselves when they pretend that large numbers of people with marginal education and few job skills are going to find productive work in a highly automated world where even the labor intensive work still available is exported to the cheapest labor that can be found around the world.
You’re living in a fantasy world if you think what you describe is going to result in productive work for an large portion of a nation’s population. There is always a limited number of self-starters and truly innovative people in a given population.
“As you hear from these stories, this is a liberation,” Pelosi said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “This is what our founders had in mind--ever expanding opportunity for people. You want to be a photographer or a writer or a musician, whatever -- an artist, you want to be self-employed, if you want to start a business, you want to change jobs, you no longer are prohibited from doing that because you can’t have access to health care, especially because you do not want to put your family at risk."
Robots do not sue and/or shut down your business because you hired or promoted a deserving and competent robot of a different paint color or plumbing setup.
Open source equipment will be more cost effective and efficient than patented equipment. I do agree with your previous comments. Automation equipment purchased by government-backed entities for large production operations will help to end the regime of recirculating debt. Their former employees won’t be able to buy their products. Neither will their unemployed regulators in the very near future (see debt, default process). Small, open source operations will continue to grow and replicate.
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