Posted on 02/03/2014 2:15:40 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Ten years ago it might have seemed far-fetched that a customer could order food in a restaurant without speaking to anyone. But it's a reality now as service employers across the country—including Chili's, Chevys Fresh Mex and California Pizza Kitchen—introduce tabletop ordering devices. A few clicks on an iPad-like device and the food is on its way.
Technology has made these changes possible, but that's not what's driving their implementation. Steady federal and state increases to the minimum wage have forced employers in retail and service industries to rely on technology as the government makes entry-level labor more expensive. Now Democrats are pushing to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25 at the behest of President Obama, who argued in his State of the Union address that the increase would "help families." Lawmakers should consider the technology trend a warning.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made the connection in a recent interview on MSNBC. Asked if he supported a higher minimum wage, Mr. Gates urged caution and said the policy would create an incentive for employers to "buy machines and automate things."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Again, I note that this was back when we were economically capable of making the transition and making sure that Americans who had spend their lives learning one trade could still support themselves while they transitioned to a new trade.
It's not a matter of our not being economically capable of fixing such problems. It's about being politically capable. The fact is, fixing the underclass is against Democrat interests. They need an underclass (and victim classes in general) to justify their existence. That's why they consistently block efforts to promote economic growth.
But there were also plenty of available jobs you could do while making the transition from one trade to another. Now, if someone had to switch from one job to learning an entirely new trade for a different job, those types of jobs they can do in the meantime are all gone and we don’t have the economic capabilities to bring those jobs back. So now, those who would have to learn a new trade would have zero means of income while they made the transition. Until we can deal with this issue properly, at this point even rapid expansions of technology should not be celebrated. Because with our economy in the shambles it is, and given what we are as a nation not prepared to do, it will lead to millions more Americans being burdens on the economy at least temporarily.
Sounds like an industry ripe for disruption.
I recently read a very interesting article on the subject here: economist.com.
My job can never be obsoleted and I’ve tried to make it so many times.
My husband was a program manager on one of the largest vehicle component programs in the US. He hated working with the unions so much that whenever he could switch out a union member job for a robotic process he did. Some of his robots took over the jobs of 6-7 employees in one fail swoop. The upfront investment was huge but the payoff was well worth it. To think that companies won’t make this investment for the long-term payoff is ridiculous. They absolutely will.
Have you even looked at it? Access is easy - just sign up. There isn't yet a comprehensive degree level program with it as it is rather new, having only been created less than 2 years ago.
As for classroom teaching, they're still working out the kinks. San Jose State did a test of the Intro to EE course and found that having the students get together and go over the materials in groups let to more of them passing the classes.
That said, the elite schools - MIT, Harvard, Penn State, Cal Tech, et al. will still be around 20 years from now. The high cost private schools and lower tier publics are in for a world of adjustment.
Did that study prove that classroom teaching was completely unnecessary? I would be interested to know exactly where you found it and whether or not it also found that having professors lecturing was necessary or not. The thing is, high schools and colleges are loaded with incapable teachers, so it is no surprise that some sill inevitably look to this to replace some of them. But as i said before, if an automated system could actually replace a high school or college teacher who truly does his or her job properly and effectively, then there are huge numbers of other jobs that system could just as easily replace and thereby become obsolete.
That said, it does seem like it will at least take a rather long time before an automated computer system of any kind can replace effective classroom teachers. Of course, they could be used to finally put some serious pressure on schools from K-1 through the grad level to actually have teachers who do the job correctly.
You will never get that across to a liberal or a minimum wage worker. I just had this discussion with a opinionated liberal who refused to accept that my 22 years of managing fast food and minimum wage hikes had any worth or reality. She and others like her are unable to accept the repercussions which are for the employee, less hours, increased work load, higher taxes, increased cost of goods and a very small take home increase.
Only two entities ever prosper from a minimum wage increase, union employees whose wage is tied to the minimum and THE TAXMAN!
Minimum wages destroy the marginal product of your labor that measures between zero and the minimum wage. Unless that product exceeds the minimum wage, plus the sundry burdens employers get with employment (potential suits, taxes which must be forwarded despite cash flows, profits, etc.) you will not be hired.
This is creating poverty. Isn’t a welfare recipient better off working? If yes, then a penny less than minimum wage is always better than not working and that goes all the way down until you hit zero.
We have to become a pro-work society. Nobody should get welfare for free, even those with disabilities can be useful in work.
Let’s not blame the free market for this. It’s government intervention compounded again and again that creates shortfalls. In this case a shortfall in jobs.
Isn’t government schooling that tells us learning ends upon graduation? Isn’t it government schooling that has mislead more than one generation on what an education is? Toss in all kinds of crony capitalist laws and minimum wage is just one more straw on an already broken back.
The Microsoft example isn’t appropriate. If you’ve ever upgraded their software it appears they left a monkey, a kitten and an aggressive toddler to hit “cut and paste” way too many times.
There are millions of jobs that go unfilled because the blue collar skill set hasn’t been taught to this generation. The top vocational schools in Chicago have all become college prep. More misallocation by central planners. At some point we have to wake up to the fact that though planning works for individuals it only works so well. No plan survives contact with reality. Central planning can never work.
Instead of teaching about global warming and rainforest preservation kids should have been reading Hayek. We’d be there already if they did.
If you follow the long 20th century train of progressivism it’s unintended consequences all the way. Read the Forgotten Man. The created laws to fix previous fixes that were then creating new harms and a need for new laws and so on until Obama.
You sound like a farmer circa 1911. Net, net we’re all better off. We’re going through a transition period made worse by a Great Wall of Regulation that blocks job seekers from the skills needed in today’s jobs. The market will solve these problems. Faster if government gets out of the way, slower if it is status quo.
High prices cure themselves.
Didn’t A&W Rootbeer have this in the 1950’s. Superdawg’s in Chicago had this too. You would phone or radio your order in from your car. This is old tech applied to new.
....Wait until the first virus comes out, and it should be interesting. SARC.
Education will eventually go fully online except for things like laboratory work and physical research, etc.
So will management, sales, etc.
You need to study this subject in depth and you would not be so worried about what is coming.
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