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McDonald's prepares to fight back


Jeremiah65

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This article is basically about what Mickey Dee's is doing in Europe, but I think the press release is intended as a bit of a warning here in the states.

http://www.economicp...-mcdonalds.html

From the article:

"As government intervention via minimum wage laws and other labor regulations make it more expensive to hire low skilled employees, more and more employers are turning to automation. Automation may occur in some cases even if there weren't the government regulatory restrictions, and that is not a bad thing, but the restrictions expand the number of positions where automation makes sense and results in higher unemployment of the low skilled.

McDonald's appears to be the latest to be testing out advanced automation."

Oh well...it will not surprise me one bit to see this type of route explored by more and more companies.

What will be painful to watch will be when more and more automation and robotics systems completely eliminates the need for cashiers. I doubt they can automate the cooking in restaurants or say the people that stock shelves in retail stores...but...it's not beyond capability.

What will happen then? More and more people on the GOV dole and the bill sent to the newly automated retail, food and manufacturing outlets in the form of ever increasing taxation?

There isn't a clear solution to this and I fear this will not end well for the "common" folks...

thiswillnotendwell_zpsa467d1d2.jpeg

Edited by Jeremiah65
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This is not good. I hope we don't got to worry about robots taking our jobs away, but it seems that it will happen.

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yes HOW DARE governments force corporations to pay their employees a wage that they could actually live on!

They should be happy they're allowed to eat the food scraps that others have dropped on the floor, in MY day you could only have the scraps if they'd been stepped on. And "discounts for employees"? what's that? We had to pay EXTRA for our burgers because it meant while we were eating them, there was less staff to make them AND we had to make them ourselves from the "yesterday" pile of food.

You tell kids that these days and no one would believe you.

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Grocery stores have had these for awhile. People are given a choice of self check or see a cashier, and it seems more still choose the cashier, as they might not want to deal with using the automated system for various reasons.

The automated systems are there to relieve some of the stress off of the normal, human workers, when things get too busy (which they almost always are). In the known grocery store example, they aren't there to take anyone's job, but to help those who already work there. I think a lot of people don't realize this. It seems in most jobs, they can always use a few extra workers than what they have, but it rarely happens because of the price to pay for them. A few auto-Mc-trons could be a smart solution for all.

Edited by _Only
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I can see there being automated "burger dispensories" at the counter for those who just want a Big Mac, but that still requires a drone or two in the back to make the burgers.

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I avoid using a personal cashier when given the option. Home Depot has an automated cashier system here in Victoria. Works great. Saves the company money too. Excellent innovation. Same with the Safeway and Save on Foods grocery stores. Scanning barcodes and accepting currency for product isn't rocket science. Soon, hopefully, fast food is completely automated.

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I avoid using a personal cashier when given the option. Home Depot has an automated cashier system here in Victoria. Works great. Saves the company money too. Excellent innovation. Same with the Safeway and Save on Foods grocery stores. Scanning barcodes and accepting currency for product isn't rocket science. Soon, hopefully, fast food is completely automated.

Since I have trouble getting if there is sarcasm in a text, I sure hope you are not serious.

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It's interesting - and instructive - to read about Germany's history in the decade or so before WWII. Unemployment, massive inflation...people were ripe to find ANYONE who could give them work and the dignity they associated with it.

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Once again, we have to look at the wisdom from The Simpsons. Our duty is clear

the-secret-war-of-lisa-simpson2.png

"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear:; To build and maintain those robots."

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Once again, we have to look at the wisdom from The Simpsons. Our duty is clear

the-secret-war-of-lisa-simpson2.png

"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear:; To build and maintain those robots."

Hey - a job's a job! This move by Maccas is the answer the corporate world has for us. You don't tell US! WE tell you!
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I see robots as a danger to our way of life. How are you supposed to earn an income if you are competing with an object that doesn't need wages? What happens to all the unemployed people?

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This is really frustrating. Those corporate guys need to spend some time in a successful business like Trader Joe's, or a Hy-Vee grocery store, or Costco, or fly on Southwest Airlines. If they want to motivate the employees, then they should START A PROFIT-SHARING PLAN!! People work together so much better when they have a common goal. The company grows, the wages grow, the employees self-discipline themselves with very little input from management....and the customers pick up on it as soon as they walk in the door.

It's a total Win-Win for everybody.

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Sandwich vending machines already exist in many locations. The ones where your hand gets stuck by the trap door once in a while. Maybe it will be similar.

vending_snacks_rotating_big.jpg

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I see robots as a danger to our way of life. How are you supposed to earn an income if you are competing with an object that doesn't need wages? What happens to all the unemployed people?

By being the one to create the robots! I would be lying if I said that creating armies of nanobots wasn't the main aspiration of engineering grads.

Who needs employment when you've got robots, right? And who needs unemployed people, ever? Who cares about other people who don't offer anything? Few to none. Except for govt of course, govt cares! So we'll be on govt programs along with the govt robots and it will be Utopia.

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It is an interesting thing to take this "introductory" solution and then extrapolate it into the future possibilities.

When I was a kid, I dreamed that one day robots would do all the work and people could pursue arts, music, sports, outdoor activities...never realizing that someone had to invent, prototype, develop and pay for those robots...and they are not inclined to share the spoils of those developments. I had this silly Utopian vision straight out of Star Trek....

Ah...the silly dreams of a youthful mind...too naive to know human beings don't really think or act that way...in fact, human beings actually have very little "humanity" left in them...for the most part.

Well, at least I guessed the part of the machines one day doing all the work, I just never expected that humans would become a useless burden...(I am only being half serious there)...to the developers of said technology... who will be taxed to astronomical levels for removing the human equation from the workforce...yeah...humanity will be a worthless burden.

There are those that will applaud the day A.I. becomes self aware...that is till it runs the equations and realizes human beings are no longer required...there are those that will applaud the robots and the gigantic profits being gobbled up while people waste away in poverty and despair...until the robots...the hunter-killers... come looking for them.

I guess the moral of the story is...be careful what you wish for...it might come true...and be nothing at all like you imagined...

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yes HOW DARE governments force corporations to pay their employees a wage that they could actually live on!

They should be happy they're allowed to eat the food scraps that others have dropped on the floor, in MY day you could only have the scraps if they'd been stepped on. And "discounts for employees"? what's that? We had to pay EXTRA for our burgers because it meant while we were eating them, there was less staff to make them AND we had to make them ourselves from the "yesterday" pile of food.

You tell kids that these days and no one would believe you.

You mean with a 40 hour work week? When I was deployed in the Army, we worked between 84 and 100 hours a week. Can't live on your wages at McDonalds? Pick up a shift at the Burger King across the street as well...

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You mean with a 40 hour work week? When I was deployed in the Army, we worked between 84 and 100 hours a week. Can't live on your wages at McDonalds? Pick up a shift at the Burger King across the street as well...

NOPE!...soon there will be no shifts...maybe a maintenance crew to clean, oil and load the machines...then that will eventually become automated as well...

This will do one thing...when discussions of long term unemployment comes up and some smart @ss in the crowd needs to pop off and say "McDonald's is always hiring"...well now they can $tfu

Edited by Jeremiah65
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It is an interesting thing to take this "introductory" solution and then extrapolate it into the future possibilities.

When I was a kid, I dreamed that one day robots would do all the work and people could pursue arts, music, sports, outdoor activities...never realizing that someone had to invent, prototype, develop and pay for those robots...and they are not inclined to share the spoils of those developments. I had this silly Utopian vision straight out of Star Trek....

Ah...the silly dreams of a youthful mind...too naive to know human beings don't really think or act that way...in fact, human beings actually have very little "humanity" left in them...for the most part.

Well, at least I guessed the part of the machines one day doing all the work, I just never expected that humans would become a useless burden...(I am only being half serious there)...to the developers of said technology... who will be taxed to astronomical levels for removing the human equation from the workforce...yeah...humanity will be a worthless burden.

There are those that will applaud the day A.I. becomes self aware...that is till it runs the equations and realizes human beings are no longer required...there are those that will applaud the robots and the gigantic profits being gobbled up while people waste away in poverty and despair...until the robots...the hunter-killers... come looking for them.

I guess the moral of the story is...be careful what you wish for...it might come true...and be nothing at all like you imagined...

I've always held the view that with progress and science we will either transcend the human form or create "children" that will take our place in the universe. "True" humans will get left behind as a relic.

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You mean with a 40 hour work week? When I was deployed in the Army, we worked between 84 and 100 hours a week. Can't live on your wages at McDonalds? Pick up a shift at the Burger King across the street as well...

If you're employed 40 hours a week on a minimum AUSTRALIAN wage you're doing well.

On a minimum AMERICAN wage, you'll probably be fine as well.

Find me a Maccas drone who works 40 hours a week....

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I see robots as a danger to our way of life. How are you supposed to earn an income if you are competing with an object that doesn't need wages? What happens to all the unemployed people?

Hopefully it would spark a new artistic age, and a turn away from money based societies. But maybe that would have to wait until after John Connor saves us.

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You mean with a 40 hour work week? When I was deployed in the Army, we worked between 84 and 100 hours a week. Can't live on your wages at McDonalds? Pick up a shift at the Burger King across the street as well...

You realize that's spending your entire life working, right?

And it's still not enough to live off of. I work 2 jobs at above minimum wage here in California, one job's wage increased by tips, working nearly all my time awake, and still barely make enough to rent the cheapest apartment, using the federal Affordable Housing program. To think if I worked all my time at 2 jobs only paying strictly minimum wage. And people do that!

The only reason I can see of any benefit of that regimen is to brag about to people in an online forum, possible involving aliens and Bigfoot.

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Grocery stores have had these for awhile. People are given a choice of self check or see a cashier, and it seems more still choose the cashier, as they might not want to deal with using the automated system for various reasons.

The automated systems are there to relieve some of the stress off of the normal, human workers, when things get too busy (which they almost always are). In the known grocery store example, they aren't there to take anyone's job, but to help those who already work there. I think a lot of people don't realize this. It seems in most jobs, they can always use a few extra workers than what they have, but it rarely happens because of the price to pay for them. A few auto-Mc-trons could be a smart solution for all.

I choose the cashier if I have more items than can fit on those auto-weight scales. Otherwise it would be auto-checkout all the way for me.

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It will be interesting to see if McDonald's interests, in paying less than minimum wage, prevail.

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I always find it funny and p***es me off at the same time when I see people that are unemployed (unfortunately like me) going to the self check (I don´t!) exit at the supermarket and later complaining that they can´t find a job. Well frack them dumb sheeps!

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