Posted on 08/01/2015 8:00:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
"I believe that anyone who has a job and works full time, they should be able to pay the things that sustain life: food, shelter and clothing. I can't even do that."
That rather depressing quote is from 61-year old Rebecca Cornick. She’s a grandmother and a 9-year Wendy’s veteran who spoke to CBS News. Rebecca makes $9 an hour and her plight is representative of fast food workers across the country who are campaigning for higher pay.
The fast food worker pay debate is part of a larger discussion as "states and cities across the country [wrestle] with the idea of raising the minimum wage," CBS notes, adding that "right now, 29 states have minimums above the federal $7.25 an hour [and] four cities, including Los Angeles, have doubled their minimum to $15."
Proponents of raising the pay floor argue that it’s simply not possible to live on minimum wage and indeed, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that they’re right. Opponents say forcing employers to pay more will simply mean that companies will fire people or stop hiring and indeed, as we highlighted on Friday, it looks as though WalMart’s move to implement an across-the-board pay raise for its low-paid workers may have contributed to a decision to layoff around 1,000 people at its home office in Bentonville.
"The reality is that most business are not going to pay $15 dollars an hour and keep their doors open," one Burger King franchisee told CBS. "It just won't happen. The economics don't work in this industry. There is a limit to what you're going to pay for a hamburger."
Yes, there’s only so much people will pay for a hamburger which is why Ronald McDonald has made an executive decision to hire more efficient employees at some locations:
With all of that in mind, consider the following from TechRepublic who tells the story of Changying Precision Technology Company, which has replaced almost all of its human employees with robots to great success:
In Dongguan City, located in the central Guangdong province of China, a technology company has set up a factory run almost exclusively by robots, and the results are fascinating.
The Changying Precision Technology Company factory in Dongguan has automated production lines that use robotic arms to produce parts for cell phones.
The factory also has automated machining equipment, autonomous transport trucks, and other automated equipment in the warehouse.
There are still people working at the factory, though. Three workers check and monitor each production line and there are other employees who monitor a computer control system. Previously, there were 650 employees at the factory. With the new robots, there's now only 60. Luo Weiqiang, general manager of the company, told the People's Daily that the number of employees could drop to 20 in the future.
The robots have produced almost three times as many pieces as were produced before. According to the People's Daily, production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That's a 162.5% increase.
The increased production rate hasn't come at the cost of quality either. In fact, quality has improved. Before the robots, the product defect rate was 25%, now it is below 5%.
So to anyone planning on picketing the local McDonald’s in an attempt to secure a 70% wage hike, be careful, because this "guy" is ready to work, doesn’t need breaks, and never makes a mistake:
Let’s just hope he doesn’t become self aware.
Liberals forget that.
/johnny
What’s the difference? China treats human beings like robots anyway.
(Just like the good, compassionate socialists that they are.)
The real minimum wage is “gibs me dat.”
(C)onsider the following from TechRepublic who tells the story of Changying Precision Technology Company, which has replaced almost all of its human employees with robots to great success …So are they going to distribute the products for free according to “need”, like in an idealized communist society? After all, Marx advised in the Manifesto that the goal was “to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible”, resulting in “an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all”—his only description of communist society, which we can see is vapid, vague and devoid of any detail.
China has a BILLION people, the vast majority are pretty sadly off and they are turning to robots...
Well I guess there is always a shovel for digging wells...
Wait until the leftists start attacking scabbots...
Food, clothing, and shelter can be had in this country for free. If you want to be independent then $9/hr could do it. People forget just how basic the basics can be.
Central planning (socialism/communism/marxism) can never work. Liberals especially the media reporters think it can but they are dead wrong.
In-N-Out Burger has found a way to pay more than others for starting off, then increasing the pay very soon for employees.
Perhaps, BK just has a different model.
I wonder what brand of cellphone they make there
Wasn’t there car manufacturing in California that started using robots and there was a massive Union uproar about it....don’t know if the plant shut its doors or if its still there...I think this was maybe early 70’s?????
This is why you have bad service at minimum wage jobs like McDonald's but not at in and out burger
Let's say i could hire employees at $5 per hour but I would quickly give raises to those that work hard and or do well. then soon I'd have the top ones making $15 per hour and they'd be likely to stay and the ones $5 would quit soon. but if i had to pay all at $15 then I couldn't afford to raise to $25 for the good ones. See ?
It works almost like the free market. you are willing to pay more for better quality or higher value products but if you introduce price controls that ruins the market.
government interference like wage controls, price controls, minimum wage ,affirmative action and the many other burdensome regulations interfere and ruin many businesses. this is why you have lower quality service and product in some fast food joints.
This robot revolution is not in the best interest of society. What is a man if he can't work?
The robots have produced almost three times as many pieces as were produced before. According to the People's Daily, production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That's a 162.5% increase.
Words fail me here. They produce 2.63 time more now than with the former 650 employees. So the present 60 employees are producing three times more? Shouldn't it be 21,000/8,000*650/60 = 28.4 times more per person? Or, are they implying the robots are equal to 650 - 60 = 590 employees?
Gov regulations and high taxes do cause a loss of jobs. This is why there are less adults now working as percentage of the population than at any time as many are on welfare , disability etc. This thanks also to the marxist Obama not automation or machines.
Robot on Drugs
Any questions ?
If we hadn’t imported millions of cheap labor illegals, our robotic industry would have been far more advanced than it is now. We would have a huge demand for people with technical skills to make an automated industry operate. We would have dealt sweat shops a death blow. Poverty would have shrunk. Instead, our political elite have taken us in the opposite direction.
Physicist Michio Kaku says we are 50 years away from the technology you’re talking about.
They just ran a contest worldwide to build a rescue/firefighting robot, and not only could they not think, they all fell over.
He said this in response to all those scientist last week calling for a ban on autonomous weapons.
He says we are a couple of generations away from having to worry about that.
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