Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Minimum Wage and the Rise of the Machines: The robot future is coming
National Review ^ | 12/06/2013 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 12/06/2013 8:54:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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 machines 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 seven out of ten people still did backbreaking 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.

— Jonah Goldberg is the author of The Tyranny of Clichés, now on sale in paperback. Y


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: automation; economy; minimumwage; robots
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-98 next last

1 posted on 12/06/2013 8:54:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Robots - You can’t get any more ‘minimum wage’ than that.............


2 posted on 12/06/2013 8:55:09 AM PST by Red Badger (Proud member of the Zeta Omicron Tau Fraternity since 2004...................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

We’re gonna need robots to fix the robots too.


3 posted on 12/06/2013 8:57:22 AM PST by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
The robot future is coming no matter what, and it will require some truly creative responses by policymakers.

Because policymakers always do such a bang up job in responding to the effects of creative destruction.

4 posted on 12/06/2013 9:01:57 AM PST by vbmoneyspender
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I've used the pads at Chilis a few times. They are convenient to pay as you don't really have to wait around for the waitress to bring back your card, sign, etc. You just swipe and go. But, I don't think I'd like it to order. When you order you want to speak with a human being who can comprehend special or different requests than presented by a mere menu.
5 posted on 12/06/2013 9:03:33 AM PST by Obadiah (I Like Ted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Of the 203,000 jobs created last month,
41% or 83,200 jobs are in government!

Every government job is overhead on private sector.
More people in government to suck blood of hard working
people who must be productive enough to make a profit
just to stay in business.

The enemy is not robots, it is the bureaucracy and
regulations from the government.


6 posted on 12/06/2013 9:04:07 AM PST by entropy12 (Zero thanks to all who stayed home and helped elect Acorn lawyer Zero.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

In Boise, ID on the corner of Overland and Five Mile, there is now a motorized sign waving device that mimics a person waving around a sandwich board sign. Robots are even replacing the guys that wear foam pizza costumes and stand outside on street corners. Also, there are now automatic sky writing devices which make perfect messages. All you need is a drone to fly it. I hope the blue skies don’t get littered with ads...


7 posted on 12/06/2013 9:04:54 AM PST by jimmygrace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vbmoneyspender
and it will require some truly creative responses by policymakers.

Increase SNAP, extend unemployment benefits, and tax the robots to pay for it.


8 posted on 12/06/2013 9:05:04 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I don’t think it’s a problem right now - but this has always raised a question in my mind about the future.

Given that technology always advances and it does more and more of those chores and duties for us - at some point in the future, it’s conceivable that robots could do every bit of “work” required in society. Perhaps it wouldn’t be 100% of the total “work” available, but the overwhelming majority - anyway (with a very few people to “manage” certain situations).

I wonder WHAT EXACTLY is the majority of human beings on this planet going to do in order to “earn income”.

Is this going to completely change the entire economic structure to be something completely unrecognizable to us today. It seems it would have to be something completely different - because the majority of people could not “work” to earn income - no matter what.


9 posted on 12/06/2013 9:06:01 AM PST by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
So we can blame Skynet on the minimum wage?
10 posted on 12/06/2013 9:06:06 AM PST by Sybeck1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Obadiah

Oh, I can see this at McDee’s...

tap tap tap
two cheeseburgers, medium fries, diet coke, swipe, ding!


11 posted on 12/06/2013 9:08:06 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: headstamp 2
We’re gonna need robots to fix the robots too.

Wellllll.....

$15 / hour is about what I'd expect for a low-end tech to receive for keeping the fast food robots running. Not high-end work, mind you, but low-end, keep things on track and running, type-stuff. However - it would be more skilled than punching buttons with pictures on them, and asking "Would you like fries, too?"

It would be ridiculously easy to replace many of the behind-the-counter staff with automation. A couple of $15/hour people to keep the automation in line would be what I'd expect, and dump many - if not most - of the rest.

Dems and FF workers should be careful what they wish for.

12 posted on 12/06/2013 9:09:47 AM PST by wbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: jimmygrace
In Boise, ID on the corner of Overland and Five Mile, there is now a motorized sign waving device that mimics a person waving around a sandwich board sign. Robots are even replacing the guys that wear foam pizza costumes and stand outside on street corners.

It's too cold today for a human sign waver, anyway. (Currently 19 degrees, 8 with the wind chill)

13 posted on 12/06/2013 9:11:20 AM PST by Disambiguator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: headstamp 2

14 posted on 12/06/2013 9:11:44 AM PST by Malone LaVeigh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Will the off shored manufactures use Cantonese speaking robots?


15 posted on 12/06/2013 9:12:16 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The service industry in our society has grown leaps and bounds. People don’t wipe their own butts, anymore. All while manufacturing jobs have decreased.

Automation, robots might reverse that a little. Where service jobs are replaced, manufacturing and engineering jobs will be created to design, assemble, program and maintain automated systems. They will require higher skills, they will be fewer but they will pay better.


16 posted on 12/06/2013 9:13:23 AM PST by ryan71 (The Partisans)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: entropy12

Thank you Winston please report for reeducation. Peace is war.


17 posted on 12/06/2013 9:14:19 AM PST by WilliamRobert (Rafael Cruz is an American hero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Big deal. In the 60’s and 70’s the burger chain called King’s had phones at every booth.

You just picked your menu items and picked up the phone to give your order.

Somebody still has to bring it out to your table.

This is the exact some thing but updated for modern times.

When thye actually have androids coming around to your table, I’ll begin to worry.


18 posted on 12/06/2013 9:15:59 AM PST by SolidRedState (I used to think bizarro world was a fiction.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MrB

I think that is only a matter of time. Further, I think the mechinization of fast food places is very near.

Tap, tap your order onto a screen then the computerized fry basket automatically drops into the fryer, and the cheesburger conveyer process starts and the drink machine automatically dispenses. Done. A total of 3 or so workers max at each fast food location.


19 posted on 12/06/2013 9:17:30 AM PST by Obadiah (I Like Ted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Star Traveler

“I wonder WHAT EXACTLY is the majority of human beings on this planet going to do in order to “earn income”.”

I dunno. If what I hear about “Agenda 21” is correct, most of them won’t be around to worry about.


20 posted on 12/06/2013 9:19:42 AM PST by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-98 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson