The Minimum Wage and Hourly Rates Thread

[LogGrad98]

Well California and a few other states are at or above the $15 minimum wage now. No big slam to businesses so far. My companies have been more profitable than ever, even during the pandemic. Yeah, my individual buildings had to have their finances modified, and frankly I think this partly contributed to inflation raising prices as business will just pass it along to the consumer. Look at places like Wendy's that are now one of the most expensive fast food places where they used to be known for being more reasonable. and they were one of the first to get to the $15 minimum among fast food companies in Cali. Is there a connection? I kind of think so. The days of a cheap meal for the kids at a place like McDonald's are fading fast, if not gone already.



Also, this could be a thread to discuss UBI as was brought up in another thread, since that has been part of this conversation already.

Although maybe we need a new one with a new poll. thoughts?

 

[Gameface]

I do wonder if there might be a tipping point where we don't need enough people in the labor force to the point where there aren't enough people making money and therefore not enough people to buy all the things robots, automation and AI can produce at a massive scale. As you mentioned, the 40hr workweek is so ingrained in our culture and anyone "only" willing to do 40hrs a week is a lazy, non-team player, not invested in the company, etc... The impact of people trying to hold onto a full-time 40hr/week job might mean a big spike in unemployment at some point in the future.

 

[gandalfe]

I do wonder if there might be a tipping point where we don't need enough people in the labor force to the point where there aren't enough people making money and therefore not enough people to buy all the things robots, automation and AI can produce at a massive scale. As you mentioned, the 40hr workweek is so ingrained in our culture and anyone "only" willing to do 40hrs a week is a lazy, non-team player, not invested in the company, etc... The impact of people trying to hold onto a full-time 40hr/week job might mean a big spike in unemployment at some point in the future.

One problem is that the stock market demands GROWTH. It's not enough to be selling a ton of widgets, you must sell 10% more of them than last year, or else you're a failure. EXPANSION is the shareholder's god, and, as such, it needs to consume everything, including most especially the workers, because you can always hire someone new, who only knows the NEW goals, not the old ones.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

McDonald's unveiled an automated store. Some consumers aren't loving it.

McDonald's says Fort Worth, Texas-area restaurant has conveyer belt to deliver drive-thru orders, rather than human workers.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Al-O-Meter]

Boston Dynamics: Making LogGrad98 obsolete


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGH6Vk8nY8

 

[LogGrad98]

Boston Dynamics: Making LogGrad98 obsolete


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGH6Vk8nY8

Not me, just a lot of my employees.

In one of my buildings we implemented robots for part of the picking operation and ended up replacing about 35 people. We didn't lay anyone off or anything, moved them to other areas, and let natural attrition take care of it, but yeah now we employ 35 fewer people in that part of the operation. Even larger impact at peak, saves us maybe 70 people at peak. And we are way money ahead for the cost of the robots compared to the cost of the employees. Labor is a warehouse's single biggest cost, even more than rent usually, so saving there is paramount.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

Boston Dynamics: Making LogGrad98 obsolete


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGH6Vk8nY8

I toured an Anheuser-Busch factory a long time ago and it was completely automated. It was really crazy to walk around a huge factory and not see any humans. We passed one or two maintenance techs, and then there were about 5 people in a control room. I'm not sure about unloading, but all of the other warehousing and loading were all done by robots.

That was the moment I was grateful for my education and my ability to get jobs that robots can't do (at least for now).

 

[LogGrad98]

I

McDonald's unveiled an automated store. Some consumers aren't loving it.

McDonald's says Fort Worth, Texas-area restaurant has conveyer belt to deliver drive-thru orders, rather than human workers.

www.cbsnews.com

I see no reason why these kinds of things cannot be automated in the future. They will get better. They will still need people to oversee it and make sure it doesn't break down and such but this is a pretty basic job, and assembly like this is what robots excel at.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

McDonald's unveiled an automated store. Some consumers aren't loving it.

McDonald's says Fort Worth, Texas-area restaurant has conveyer belt to deliver drive-thru orders, rather than human workers.

www.cbsnews.com

I would absolutely love a restaurant that was fully automated. It sounds like this is just the customer facing jobs at this McDonalds, but I would love to have the cooking automated and have perfect execution every time.

 

[gandalfe]

I would absolutely love a restaurant that was fully automated. It sounds like this is just the customer facing jobs at this McDonalds, but I would love to have the cooking automated and have perfect execution every time.

I wonder if you could train an AI to be a chef? Probably not until you could figure out a way to have a taste input.

 

[LogGrad98]

I toured an Anheuser-Busch factory a long time ago and it was completely automated. It was really crazy to walk around a huge factory and not see any humans. We passed one or two maintenance techs, and then there were about 5 people in a control room. I'm not sure about unloading, but all of the other warehousing and loading were all done by robots.

That was the moment I was grateful for my education and my ability to get jobs that robots can't do (at least for now).

Check out "Humans" I think on Prime. Won't be too long and the sentient robots will replace us all.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

I wonder if you could train an AI to be a chef? Probably not until you could figure out a way to have a taste input.

There are definitely technology available to simulate taste. We are super far away from being able to replicate what a chef does though.

I definitely think you could develop machines/robots to replicate what a fast food/mass produced food cook does though. I would trust a machine/robot to cook things consistently vs a minimum wage employee. I think we are relatively close in to seeing something like that. When that happens, it will be interesting, because in essence the engineer becomes the chef.