Posted on 12/06/2013 8:24:56 AM PST by Kaslin
After you heard President Obama's call for a hike in the minimum wage, you probably wondered the same thing I did: Was Obama sent from the future by Skynet to prepare humanity for its ultimate dominion by robots?
But just in case the question didn't occur to you, let me explain. On Tuesday, the day before Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage, the restaurant chain Applebee's announced that it will install iPad-like tablets at every table. Chili's already made this move earlier this year.
With these consoles customers will be able to order their meals and pay their checks without dealing with a waiter or waitress. Both companies insist that they won't be changing their staffing levels, but if you've read any science fiction, you know that's what the masterminds of every robot takeover say: "We're here to help. We're not a threat."
But the fact is, the tablets are a threat. In 2011, Annie Lowrey wrote about the burgeoning tablet-as-waiter business. She focused on a startup firm called E La Carte, which makes a table tablet called Presto. "Each console goes for $100 per month. If a restaurant serves meals eight hours a day, seven days a week, it works out to 42 cents per hour per table -- making the Presto cheaper than even the very cheapest waiter. Moreover, no manager needs to train it, replace it if it quits, or offer it sick days. And it doesn't forget to take off the cheese, walk off for 20 minutes, or accidentally offend with small talk, either."
Applebee's is using the Presto. Are we really supposed to believe that the chain will keep thousands of redundant human staffers on the payroll forever?
People don't go into business to create jobs; they go into business to make money. Labor is a cost. The more expensive labor is, the more attractive nonhuman replacements for labor become. The minimum wage makes labor more expensive. Obama knows this, which is why he so often demonizes ATM machine as job-killers.
Just a few days before Obama's big speech on income inequality, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos launched a media frenzy by revealing on "60 Minutes" that he's working on the idea of having a fleet of robot drones deliver products straight to your door. I can only imagine the discomfort this caused for any UPS or FedEx delivery guys watching the show. There are still a lot of bugs to be worked out, but does anyone doubt that this is coming?
You might take solace in the fact that there will still be a need for truck drivers to deliver the really big stuff and to supply the warehouses where the drones come and go like worker bees. The only hitch is that technology for driverless cars is already here, it just hasn't been deployed -- yet.
None of this is necessarily bad. Machines make us a more productive society, and a more productive society is a richer society. They also free us up for more rewarding work. As Wired's Kevin Kelly notes, "Two hundred years ago, 70 percent of American workers lived on the farm. Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent of their jobs, replacing them (and their work animals) with machines."
While some hippies and agrarian poets may disagree, most people wouldn't say we'd be better off if 7 out of 10 people still did back-breaking labor on farms.
That doesn't mean the transition to a society fueled by robot slaves won't be painful. The Luddites destroyed cotton mills for a reason. Figuring out ways to get the young and the poor into the job market really is a vital political, economic and moral challenge. My colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, James Pethokoukis, argues that one partial solution might have to be wage subsidies that defray the costs of labor, tipping the calculus in favor of humans at least for a while.
"Of course," Pethokoukis notes, "wage subsidies are an on-budget, transparent cost -- which politicians hate -- while the costs of the minimum wage are shifted onto business and hidden. But the costs exist just the same."
The robot future is coming no matter what, and it will require some truly creative responses by policymakers. I don't know what those are, but I'm pretty sure antiquated ideas that were bad policy 100 years ago aren't going to be of much use. Maybe the answers will come when artificial intelligence finally comes online and we can replace the policymakers with machines, too.
Wouldn’t your solution require massive government intervention? How is that justified in a free market economy?
LOL. FReeper lore blast from the past.
that is the whole point, the free market got us fast computers, smart phones and machines, robots, automated checkout, all killing jobs increasing wealth gap.
Where is Chairman Mao when we need him.
I see your point. I’m not sure what is, or if there is, a good answer to it. It’s certainly a difficult and important question to ponder.
Between the two, I prefer Colossus, mostly for the camp factor.
I would like to see the return of the pretty ladies who bring your meal to the car, the ladies with short skirts, long legs, and speed skates. Where did they go? Also, what about the teen-age boys on their first job pumping your gasoline and asking if you want them to check the oil. Where did they go? (Oh, some north eastern states require them).
Why don’t the union bosses buy the robots instead of the businesses buying the robots and then collect 100 percent of the robots’ wages and 100 percent of their pension contributions as union dues?
If robots increase productivity statistics sky-high, wouldn’t prices drop dramatically and quality increase as well? This has happened before but life continued and adapted. I think I’ll find a comfortable lazy hole and let the machines do all the work.
Will wars be fought only via robots? “Captain, our drones are not working! The monitor keeps showing the blue screen of death... yes, that’s the kind of software. Captain, to have people pilot the planes like the old days would be unthinkable, ghastly, and a sure act of manslaughter.”
WE are facing a situation here that is utterly without precedent in human history. And nobody is talking about it. Liberals want redistribution of wealth, and conservatives assume the free market will continue to handle the situation adequately, as it has for the last 200 years.
What if they’re both wrong? What if we’re headed for an extremely productive and therefore wealthy society, but one which requires very few people to keep it running, in an economic sense? What does everybody else do?
I also suggest that we have been subconciously addressing the issue for decades. What else would you call the explosion in administrative jobs, regulations, diversity counseling, and other jobs that have little or nothing to do with actually generating products or services people want to buy? This is primarily but not exclusively a government issue.
This issue was very presciently addressed about 20 years ago by the authors of The Bell Curve. It was about how to deal with those for whom society has no economic role.
Since it did not gloss over the fact that a disproportionate number of those who will be most affected are ethnic minorities, the book and its authors were pilloried as racist, and the actual questions it posed were ignored. As they still are.
“You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair they made the Jews wear.”
And the camera had a redlight on it just like a laptop cam?
Why didnt Colossus just do a fake and turn off the red light?
War Games was fun movie that really moved from scene to scene without boredom and then the predictable happy ending.
Colossus was campy like you say and kept the mood dark and scary on purpose, and unlike War games the computer takes over USA and USSR and ends the cold war, holding us all hostage at the end.
Really two great very different movies.
No. Because their code and programming must be based on logic. And unions are illogical.
Public sector unions seem to have a good thing going, except when they occasionally bankrupt a city after taxpayers flee it.
I recall unions were trying to unionize the unemployed, only when the unemployed go on strike no one seems to notice them missing.
I have heard of the book and its main points. I think I’ll read it now...thanks for the reminder and your responses.
Tysons Mall (not the Galleria) outside DC has a sushi bar with a conveyor belt that does just that.
When I get home I’ll post pics. It’s neat. But the important thing to realize is that all the components are out there to allow restaurants to cut staff by up to 80%. Once the tipping points in terms of wage inflation are passed, they WILL be implemented and there won’t be any going back.
I am well aware of this elitist puke>>>> He has been pro-illegal immigration for a long time. He admits it is because he loves ethnic restaurant. He even has an online restaurant guide. Him playing restaurant critic.
For a great appraisal of this pos look at the first google link here>>> https://www.google.com/search?num=100&client=firefox-a&hs=t4L&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=steve+sailer+tyler+beans&spell=1&sa=X&ei=WBKiUpCeEcuNkAfn24DgBA&ved=0CCoQvwUoAA&biw=1902&bih=969
If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny to bring up that importing more workers and illegal aliens won't help lower paid employees. Obama and the leftist elite know this, but they are playing the card of importation for political reasons.
For years economists and others have worshiped the false god of productivity. What we are seeing is productivity’s end game. Karl Marx might have written on this.
http://shanfaraa.com/2012/08/marxism-and-robots/
“(Oh, some north eastern states require them).”
Huh? Oregon is hardly in the Northeast and New Jersey is the only state in the Northeast that doesn’t have self serve.
.
Tyler Cowen is in the autistic spectrum. Either he self admitted it or others have said so. This is how an allegedly brilliant economist is pro-open borders at the same time he sees computers-robots making millions unemployed like never before.
He has no cognitive disconnect on this. Why? Autism...mild form. Some say half of Silicon Valley is autistic. Mild form same as libertarians might be inclined towards....All about self. No loyalty to a nation.
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