Posted on 07/29/2013 11:03:49 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If Seattle fast workers demanding a big raise in the minimum wage get their way, they'll soon be replaced by robots says KIRO Radio's John Curley, who points to growing automation as a warning to those who want $15 an hour or more to flip burgers.
A group of local fast food workers recently staged a one-day walkout and are calling on the Seattle City Council to increase the minimum wage from $9.19 per hour - the highest in the country - to $15 an hour.
"We're asking for $15 because in order to support one person in a one bedroom apartment you need to make $14.88. We don't make anywhere near that and we're all on food stamps," 23-year-old Amanda Larson told KIRO Radio's Linda Thomas recently as she worked the counter at a Seattle Arby's.
But restaurant owners argue they simply can't afford it. With technology continuing to allow restaurants around the world to replace people with robots and computers, Curley says look no farther than several examples in Japan and Europe as a sign of what's to come if the Seattle workers get their way.
A noted Japanese sushi-chain has robots making food while customers order on a touch screen. A conveyer belt delivers their food and a computer tracks customer purchases and automates their bill payment at the end.
"There are no managers in this restaurant," Curley says. "The managers are all in a centrally located place that are just simply watching video screens. So they've been able to cut out almost all the help."
Several years ago, McDonald's installed thousands of touch-screen kiosks at stores across Europe, replacing cashiers entirely. The company has reportedly also tried out automated burger flippers to further cut back on employees.
It's not far fetched. A Chinese restaurateur has developed a robotic chef now found in a number of noodle bars, further eliminating the need for humans. With the robot chefs costing just $1,500, they're far cheaper than employees and don't demand raises or breaks.
Curley says the workers here demanding higher wages for a job that should be entry-level should think twice before raising too much of a fuss - before they find themselves completely obsolete.
"The saddest thing for this story, if you follow it, is robots will replace human beings in these McDonald's and fast food restaurants and low skill workers will have really no place to go."
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
This author probably watches that Sam & Cat show...their fave restaurant is a place called Bots .....servers are all robots
They called those "automats" in the U.S. back in the 1920s.
And robots can’t spit in your food for being too White...
I worked in a hospital for many years and there were quite a few jobs that didn’t require degrees. People worked in housekeeping, transport, central supply, and in the kitchen and cafeteria. These people were usually well respected members of the hospital’s work family and a few of them became Employee of the Year.
Well, Mandy, you should have paid attention in high school, so you could have qualified for a college major that would lead to an actual job.
+100
Well, you are... 
technically--
More or less... 
correct--
We have a couple of the big expensive grocery stores here in my area; Jewel Foods and Dominicks Foods. Both are union, and their prices are ridiculously high. They have way too many people standing around, especially baggers who will put your canned goods on your bread.
They push you into the self-check out, but offer no discount for this.
In any event, the stores are becoming ghost towns during the weekdays when it comes to customers. The veggies and fruit are not-so-fresh anymore.
Most of the people in line are Latino, and it is not uncommon to wait behind one of these folks who will produce 3+ “debit” cards, on which to pay for their groceries. I’m guessing they are welfare debit cards of some kind.
Anyways, we also have an Aldi. You bag your own, food is half the price of the other grocery stores, and the people are super polite. Oh, they are also non-union and pay their people $3-$8 MORE than the union stores, WHILE keeping their cost down. The turn-around is very low.
A manager I spoke to at ours “Tom” said they can do this because no one has a specific job. If the shelves need stocking, they get stocked, by whoever. If they need an extra cashier, one goes over and works cashier. Everyone mops floors and they all (including himself) cleans the bathrooms. He said it cuts down on the number of employees, they can get rid of the loafers if need be, and everyone gets paid more to work a bit harder. Imagine that!
LOL. Good luck on that one.
Costco is the same way. They pay their people decent wages and benefits, and in return they attract a higher quality of employee which allows them to operate their stores with smaller staffs and with less turnover thus saving on those expenses. I'm not sure the same thing would be possible in a fast-food restaurant though.
The world has gone through a persiod that was very labor-intensive as the economy and global population exploded. Now, we're in the age of technology, and getting less labor-dependent every day. That means that the global elite don't need the billions of people on earth to support their lifestyles and needs. We're an inconvenience and a threat to the global environment.
Do you really think that the globalist puppet-masters care if the world population collapses? I feel confident they're still acquiring wealth, power, and possessions as life becomes closer to impossible for 90% of the world population.
If the economy was allowed to work as it should, education would be more than affordable for anyone to learn professional skills.
I agree with you that is part of the answer. But not the whole one, unfortunately. And part of the de-educating thing for me is to stay away from most of the colleges, NOT all of them mind you. What they teach in so many colleges now-a-days is PC crap, what is needed in my own opinion is more of a grounding in logical thought not “I feel” stuff.
But what is the whole answer? I don’t have it, I wish that I did though.
“Eventually they got past the mechanics of cooking, cleaning and serving, and began to get the basics of RUNNING a fast food joint.”
The wealthiest man in my neighborhood started at McDonalds when he was 16 and went to work for the company full time when he was 18. He now owns several local franchises as well as interests in other local businesses. He is less than 50 years old. He is also happens to be an African American.
It can be done and it can be done without a college education.
Yeah, I think that's what the Dutch call them too. They seem to like the concept. I spent some time in Groningen, and that automat place was always busy.
WHAT BARRIERS!? There are FREE online universities now, for Christ’s sake, and the last time I checked, public libraries were free.
I’m all for robots fixing my food at a restaurant primarily for sanitary reasons.
I can think of several times when the laxative effect was so great I could not make it home, had to stop at a convenience store to relieve myself.
I knew a low life that worked at a fast food place as a kid and bragged about hawking up oysters and spitting them on hamburgers.
At a favorite restaurant once I noticed the cook having snot running from both nostrils and dripping on to the grille.
I’m not making this stuff up, it’s disgusting.
“as automation increases (and I’m an engineer contributing to that), I see fewer and fewer jobs for those who are not highly skilled professionals. What is to happen to those who cannot do the highly skilled jobs?”
They’ll be on welfare. Fed, clothed and entertained by machines while living in housing projects. Their population will be controlled or reduced.
Eventually machines will do everything and the humans remaining won’t do a second of actual work. We’ll have full AI machines that are smarter/faster than humans for most everyday tasks. Only a few elite humans will be able to beat machines with creativity.
After a while humans will become dumbed down to the point that machines may see us as a useless hindrance. The machines will then either kill us or imprison us in an invisible digital police state with a veneer of freedom. Most humans will gladly give more power to the machines for bread/circuses.
After humans, a “civilization” of AI machines is not out of the question. The machines will learn and replicate on their own. Perhaps to the point of colonizing entire galaxies. Wouldn’t that be something...
I going to sell pencils on a New York City street corner and since I’m not interested in no minimum wage, no living wage or any of that stuff, I’m going for the “Living Well” wage.
Therefore my pencils will be priced and sold at $100 each and I will sell at least 12 per very short day. I know that sounds like a lot but this is New York City where a guy picking up garbage starts at about 70 grand a year and you need half a million dollars to own a cab.
But why would anyone pay a hundred bucks for a ten cent pencil? New York City will pass a law demanding the first 12 people I approach buy a pencil or face discrimination charges and fines. Cheaper to buy the pencil, cash or credit card. After all, when the fast food joints are put out of business people like me will have to fend for ourselves.
Now don’t think you’re going to brush by me like you didn’t notice me, I got a hidden camera and a hungry lawyer. You will buy.
Who loves ya, baby!
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