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So Much For The McDonalds Jobs Renaissance: Burger Maker To "Hire" Computers Going Forward
If nothing else, last month's 62,000 minimum wage, part time-job expansion program by McDonalds generated lots of commentary on whether it should or should not be counted in the April NFP number. While paying a bunch of janitors (sub) minimum wage will have precisely 0.00% impact on GDP, the possibility that America could convert even more full-time into part-time jobs, generating a few more press opportunities for the teleprompter was certainly bullish, sure generated a lot of contradictory blog posts. Alas, even paying minimum wage appears to be too much of a chore for the world's largest burger chain. Enter computers. From Fox Biz: "McDonald's is jumping on the technology bandwagon with a new system that will soon change the way European customers order food -- picture computers instead of humans asking whether customers prefer fries and supersizes. The fast-food restaurant, known for its golden arches, Big Mac burgers and Happy Meals, will replace cashiers with touch-screen terminals and swipe cards at its 7,000 chain restaurants in Europe, according to the Financial Times. That would mean, in part, the end of cash payments." Also picture no more millions of job applicants for something, anything at the Golden Arches. And like that another several million of America's lower class are about to become outsourced to robots.
From Fox:
In addition to the digital screens, McDonald's will stay open longer, modernize its stores and introduce new menus in an effort to attract tech-dependent, spend-wary and health-conscious consumers. McDonalds will be able to better track customer order trends and hone in on the most popular foods while cutting back on millions in staff costs.
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company has been growing in Europe despite many of its rivals’ sluggishness, posting a 6% improvement in year-over-year sales at its more established stores in April and booking stronger growth in the region than it did in the U.S.
McDonalds has been implementing several global initiatives in an effort to keep sales high, introducing oatmeal, fruit and coffee options on U.S. menus in an effort to attract health-conscious customers and those looking for an affordable breakfast, while modernizing its facilities around the world and adding free Wi-Fi services for the modern laptop and tablet user.
In an interview with the London-based publication, McDonald’s president of Europe, Steve Easterbrook, said the new process would change a traditional system that has been in place for 30 to 40 years.
The changes, he said, would improve efficiency and smooth the ordering process for customers by making average transactions three to four seconds shorter than traditional methods.
And just like reprofiling is now a pretty word (even if it means very ugly things), so "efficiency" is and continues to be the good ole' "synergies" also known as mass layoffs.
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Subway already does this. Funny because that was what Subway used to be known for. (Interacting with your sandwich "Artist")
Their food sucks now. Not surprisingly.
Mmmmmmm.....Fiat Food.
Have you guys ever been to an international McDonalds? Incredibly different experience, not just for a tourist like me but for all of the local people too. I was trying to party in Morocco one time and the most popular damn place was the McDonalds! There was a live band in the back, everyone was on their laptops for the free WiFi, it was well lit, exceptionally clean, and offered a nice respite from 24/7 Moroccan food (plus the golden arch fez on the cashier was just adorable). However, had to go to an underground place to secure myself a nice G&T.
Much different experience in America though.
It's true here in India. In fact some of the fancier ones (McD's) have doormen! i near fell flat on my face when I saw that. And some of their Indianised food is supposedly tasty even.
BUt it's all machine food now. With electronic cashiers, more so than ever.
We're becoming borgs in ways we don't even realize.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/population-control-vectors/
it's funny to watch the 'indian shining upper middle class crowd' pay top INR for white trash dining...Pizza Hut, Subway , Dominoes, KFC etc...
Too true. People actually dress up to for "dinner" to these places.
ORI
Well, Indian food is good and all, but try eating it 24/7 and you, too, would enjoy the typical American "slumming" experience. If they only knew, though...
Well, Indian food is good and all, but try eating it 24/7 and you, too, would enjoy the typical American "slumming" experience. If they only knew, though...
Unfortunately the I have not left the Amerikant prison except for Canada eh. America, Canada's Mexico.
It's funny (to me anyway) that McDonalds is trying to become the Starbucks of fast food. People tell me their coffee is good too.
I love diarrhea as much as the next guy, but I find it hard to eat their garbage since Ronald put his hands out to the taxpayer as well.
Think about how much better the world would be without the taxpayer propping up the undesirables of this world.
Just thinking about this gave me a chubby.
+1
I generally make a conscious decision to never eat the infectious waste that is served at this particular establishment, however I did order a meal from MD while visiting Rotterdam back in '87. I only knew a few words of Dutch, so the ordering process was a bit confusing. I think I still have the receipt in a souvenir box somewhere. I'm not sure exactly why I decided to keep it.
Has anyone noticed that Timothy "Eraser Head" Geithner looks considerably like the creepy original McDonald's Hamburgler?
Roflmao!!
So the much touted McHiring was nothing more than an act. Hypocrisy.
Speaking of hypocrisy, the Governator, who used any and all oportunnities to attack illegal mexican aliens has just admitted that he has a half mexican son:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/05/17/report-schwarzenegger-fa...
Donald Trump no go in 2012.
Terminator no go in 2012.
Arnold can't be president. He wasn't born in Kenya.
I knew he was a Keynesian!!!
I knew he was a Keynesian!!
Now? Their food was always terrible.
agree....if you could eat a picture of the burger you're supposed to get maybe it would taste better.
Copper slang for a burger and fries is gut bomb and a sack of snakes. They are major consumers.
Sooo, now they will fire those 50,000 people they just hired last month? or was it last week. These Corp boys need a PR Road Map
In most major America cities, a good chunk of the population is illiterate (47% illiteracy in Detoilet). Those people are the customer base for McDonalds. Dumbed down food for a dumbed down population
It was inevitable with the advent of both Asimo and Watson. They will merge those together and make them cheap in about 10 years and then first 10% then 20% then 50% of the labor force will become unemployable within another decade or so. Fun times are coming!
Luddite.
There are always potential jobs available for everyone. Legal liability and regulatory barriers cause unemployment.
Yeah, because people who make $7/hour are living like kings. Let's cut it in half so we can magically claim unemployment is lower. Damn those OSHA requirements for a safe work environment. Just faggy liberal red tape that makes good, white businessmen cry into their pillows at night.
Those blue-eyed devils always keepin the brothas down.
Heh, I have been working for years on the forefront of making people absolete. I am saying that a new societal order will be required because there will be virtually 0 humans employed in services/manufacturing fields. Most clerical and even a lot of white color jobs will not be outsourced, but permanently replacedwith machines as well. I would say you will start seeing it in the next 10 years culminating in about 20-30 years from now.
Oh we're already seeing it. The fact is that we only need a small fraction of the populace to produce everything anyone might need or want. The vast majority of people today are doing make-work jobs, even now. Pushing paper selling paper- corporate and government bureaucrats. The trend will continue. In the end, once we find a way to adjust to this reality, it could be a good thing. But we are living in the past, and there will be great pain until we change the nature of our hierarchies.
In the middle ages, it took the peasantry about 10 hours of labor a week to provide for themselves and their masters. Something to think about.
The homeless will purchase the millions of cars and electronic gadgets produced by the machines and robots.
In reality, there are a few jobs that robots and computers can't do. Construction, maintenance and repairs on machinery, medical field, fine dining, farming, etc.
Farming... now there's a thought. Why don't we all become farmers before the rush?
I guess farming is beneath the elites like you. How about construction? Electrician? Plumbing? There will still be jobs, but not enough for 6 billion people.
For a long time the advent of robots was supposed to free all humanity to a life of leisure. Perhaps the actual has something to do w/ concentration of wealth and of ownership of capital ?
Who needs robots if you have a cell phone and a vending machine?
Without people, who videos the transgender beatdowns?
I'm reminded of the Nutrimatic™ Drink Machine from the Sirius Cybernetics® Corp...
Good luck with that, people are too stupid to know The Benbernank is killing them, you think they can order a happy meal on their own? Where's the NO PICKLES button? Ha.
This is what I was thinking. Half the customers don't know what they want after waiting on line for 10 minutes, don't see a self-order line helping that.
On the other hand, it could eliminate the half-hour delays that always result from someone being handed their bag and saying, "Hey! I ordered pies, not fries!"
It's right next to the 'Any' key...
Already happening at Home Depots, too, with self-checkout.
Walmart has self-checkout and many other places.
Soon to be replaced:
Gas station attendants
Wouldn't surprise me if the BLS adds jobs done by computers to the labor statistics to put some really rosey lipstick on this pig.
Gas station attendants have already gone the way of the dodo bird unless you live in NJ. Or are you talking about the person inside the convenience store that sells gas to get you to buy the coffee and muffins?
If you add a cash feature at the pump to accompany the credit/debit feature and replace the convenience store attendant with a vending machine type machine then you have eliminated those jobs right there.
You might need a guy to come by periodically to facilitate restocking/refueling.
That is tremendously capital intensive. Raise the minimum wage a few more time and that might happen. Further, the likelihood of vandalism destroying said capital would be too high for most convenience store owners to handle. Further, beer and wine sales would be difficult or impossible without human judgement.
Capital Intensive?
In the first year you would be saving $15,080 in a state with a minimum wage of $7.25 p/h. A state where it is higher, let's say where min wage is $8 p/h you are saving $16,000. This assumes 1 employee working a typical 40 hour week.
Over the course of 10 years you will save (with the conservative $7.25 p/h) roughly (not taking into account future min wage increases over a 10 year period) $150,000. And that is PER employee, which many stations have several employees on the pay roll and stay open 24/7. Like I said that $150,000 is for 1 employee working a standard 40 hour work week.
What is more captial intensive?
==> In the first year you would be saving $15,080
You'd be saving quite a bit more than that. Employer share of SS and Medicare, worker's comp, unemployment, and all the various other expenses, on top of the $15 KiloBucks in salary.
Have you ever been inside of a convenience store? We're not talking about one or two vending machines here, but DOZENS. You would need machines for coffee, machines for doughnuts, machines for candy (easy), drinks (easy), bread, milk, plates, plastic cutlery, motor oil, window washing fluid, etc, etc, etc. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars would that number of vending machines cost?
And again, how many are going to be destroyed each year by vandals?
If it was cheap and easy to do, it would have been done already. Automated checkout works in grocery stores and fast food restaurants because there are other employees there. In a convenience store, the attendant does everything from providing security, to cleaning the bathrooms to making change to restocking. Might be able to get away with cutting down on the number of people at larger convenience stores, but you are going to need SOMEONE there, for security if nothing else.
Make the entrance/exit an armored airlock mechanism, and keep the customers under surveillance. When the system detects vandalism, just seal the perpetrator in the airlock as he leaves, gas him into unconsciousness, and send a security-bot by to scoop him up and drop him into an onboard wood-chipper.
Sure maybe it's capital-intensive, but it would be efficient. And anyway, they can just print more money or something.
Where's a RoboCop® when ya need one? :>D
It won't happen. The majority of convenience store profits come from alcohol and tobacco sales. You can't sell those from a vending machine.
In Europe (france, mostly) it already has, Esso have about 50% of their operations as pump only, and have removed the store section.
Walmart wine vending machines:
http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/wal-mart-seeks-to-install-wine
tsmosley - waivers aside, what do you think the medical insurance premium is on a machine?
What is the medical insurance premium on a part time worker?
How much is the maintenance contract for the two dozen vending machines you have to instal to replace a single worker?
What will be the cost in lost tobacco and alcohol sales since it is illegal to sell those products from vending machines?
technology will evolve to read drivers license and facial recognition.
and laws will be changed when this technology becomes available.
Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district was the hands-down winner in the latest set of health care law waivers announced by the Obama administration.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/17/restaurants-cafes-pelosis-district-eat-health-care-law-waivers/
Went to a Fresh n' Sleazy the other day. All self-checkout. Only needed human intervention to ID me because of the beer.
Motorists also stop at gas stations to use the restrooms. Gotta have someone on unclog duty.
France had automated public pay toilets by the early-mid 80s, mostly removed now, if I recall because they were subject to vandalism. 25 yrs on, I imagine that problem can be resolved with additional technologies.
You still need one person on site to report spills and fires and theft. Nobody is going to insure a business selling flammables with nobody on site.
there will be video surveillance and security contracted out to a security firm where a guard will watch monitors over 20 such gas stations/convenience stores.
Oregon too.
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.
I thought NJ was alone in their "save the endangered professional gas pumper" program. :>)
Airline counters, trains, subways, etc.
Get ready for Johnnie Cab...
It's not a tumah.....It is an illegitimate child with the house help.
Automation, bitchez!
This will lead us all to a life of leisure, remember?
The original lie!
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/an-older-piece-pertinent/
Holy shite, I got junked...I'll remember the </sarc> next time...sheesh
Crazy movie.
His job is using a jackhammer, but they have Johnnie cabs.
Oh pretty much every single place has self-checkouts. It makes way way too much sense not to have them.
In a not so "downer look" at everything, one upside is that usually 1 person manages all of that. Thats at least something to put on a resume if you know how to spin it. "Managed multiple checkout terminals." That is a hell of a lot better than a single cashier might be able to say. Its not even really a big spin either. If i was working some place I would much rather higher somebody who has had experience managing multiple automated machines than a person who had only been a cashier.
Oh boy.
First, you would "hire" someone, not "higher" someone.
Multiple terminals versus a cashier?
You mean they let a computer do most of the work and know how to go push a button versus do what the computer was doing?
Wow, utopia is so great, and so "talented".
Brave new world.
Yes, it takes great intelligence to point out trivial "spelling" mistakes. I'm sure you never make them. I must be a village idiot right? I'm glad you add so much value with your posts.
Apparently you've either never used a self checkout or pay no observation of what a person managing it does. Do you really think that a cashier is better skilled than a person who maintains terminals, since it has been proven that ANY joe blow can be their own cashier with no training? You have to maintain the dollar amounts, fix mistakes, make adjustments, and monitor the flow of not just ONE register.
Who said anything about utopia? I guess you'd rather have people working for the sake of work then right?
I'll wave to you sitting on the wall as I leave town, don't fall.
Race to the top !
We already have these at Sheetz.
OT: bumping between 50MA and 50VWAP, some algos might be breaking a sweat as to what direction to take.
This is bound to bring eugenics back at some point - otherwise the state will have to care for tens of millions of people that would not be able to find a job! Liberals will come out swinging in full force at that idea of course. Lol. Of course, maybe they will figure out a pill to make Mcd employees smarter - you never know. Darpa is working on that for the soldiers right now.
Oh you mean planned parenthood?
RINOS are cutting funding for them - bad idea! Should double their funding instead. That said I think it will require a fundamental rethink of the society because the day of reckoning is coming - and robots will permanently replace a very large group of people within our lifetime.
There will always be plenty of jobs if government allows it.
Efficiency is good, you Luddite.
Eh i disagree with this assumption. Its been said for decades. Yes technology has replaced a hell of a lot of jobs, but that can only go so far.
Where are all of these materials going to come from to build this? Who is going to build these robots? Who can PAY to build these robots? With less and less jobs, comes less and less ability to buy things, like robots. Hell which companies even have money to INVEST in this kind of technology with barely any margins or fake profit margins at best?
I have been pondering this question for some time. If technology gets rid of alot of jobs, and globalization makes products cheaper (because there are plenty of people willing and able to do a job for less), what then happens to countries like our own? Either they work for less, OR they have to get jobs that can't be turned into "robots." Neither one of those are going to happen particularly anytime soon. The most realistic is the first.
Just wait until the robots are the builders of the robots.
Are you Sarah Connor?
Robots will replace as many people as it makes sense in terms of efficiency - if one firms does not do it for some sentimental reasons the other competing firm will. So the replacement is inevitable, but what I am saying is the society will have to change to accommodate for that. Possibly go back to the slave ownership like structure where people own robots that do work for them, and certainly the government will have to control reproduction to a higher degree. These new robots, btw, will both build and repair and harvest new resources by themselves. We will still need designers for some time, but not too long - a few more decades at most.
You've been reading/watching too much science fiction. The more you know about technology (I'm an aerospace engineer), the more you realize its limitations and its fragility. I think we're already reaching diminishing returns with technology and the pace of technological innovation is slowing down. In my opinion, the future will be the exact opposite of what you propose - that people will move away from their keyboards and do more hands-on work.
There is an app for that.
Hahahahaha - I work on the forefront of making people absolete and let me break it down for you. You are wrong in a way I have not seen people being wrong for a long time! Just something to think about.
So, are you hiring?
I guess you've also made spelling "obsolete" hah, i'm just messing with you. I just had to do it because somebody did it to me above, like a tool.
As long as their is the ability to innovate (which will always be the case) more meanial jobs will be removed. But that doesn't mean that its practical, efficient, or reasonable enough to be profitable. If that was the case why is there such an illegal immigrant problem in the US? Seems like alot of people are willing to work jobs for cheaper than it would be to innovate and automate those jobs.
Yep, i am a Word slave. Still, thanks for pointing it out. The illegal immigration can be solved in part by the robotics - probably again, about 2 generations from today or ~10 years from now. I think that robots will be priced at around 10-20K and will work tirelessly and without much need for human intervention just like the PCs of today. Current robots cost 300K a pop - not a threat to anyone, but at the aforementioned price it will be a direct threat to any minimum wage job. Imagine a time charge (lease) of 20K and then get work done 23/7 for 3 years straight. That is a bargain by any standard.
[quote]
RICH Economy step 1:
Offer a prize of $50,000/year to any worker that designs a
machine/software/process that will replace him/her.
Offer an additional prize of $30,000/year to ALL OTHER WORKERS that get replaced.
Answering conservative objections:
1. A machine works 24/7, thereby tripling output immediately.
2. Machines do not take sick leave.
3. Machines are never late for work.
4. Machines do not form unions and constantly ask for higher wages and more fringe benefits.
5. Machines do not take vacations.
6. Machines do not harbor grudges and foul up production in sneaky, undetectable ways.
7. Cybernation was advancing every decade anyway, despite the opposition of Unions, government, and other Alpha males; it was better to have huge populations celebrating the reward of $30K to $50K/year for group cleverness than huge populations suffering the humiliation of welfare.
8. With production rising due to Cybernation, consumers were needed and a society on welfare was a society of very meager consumers.
The majority of the unemployed, living comfortably on $30k/year, spent most of their time drinking, smoking, engaging in primate sexual acrobatics and watching TV.
When Moralists complained that this was a subhuman existence, Hubbard answered, "And what kind of existence did they have doing idiot jobs that machines do better?"
[/quote] -- R.A. Wilson
I don't know what being "on the forefront" means, but anyone who believes in the limitlessness of technology doesn't understand that the laws of physics and thermodynamics place limits on how far a given techology can advance. I suspect that your vision of a robot-dominated future is just talking your book and used as part of the marketing plan of your robot company.
One of the side-affects of Physical Education courtesy of WiiFit seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding about how the really real physical world works. They read about things like entropy and gravity in a book once.
Maybe they can found new churches and we'll have a bunch more wacky new religions that fear science and mathematics and don't have to pay any property taxes.
I agree completely.
Bulk consumption I think is coming to an end, and with that the need for "extremely efficient" high overhead systems that require intense amounts of power and bulk distrobution to keep profit margins.
People have been saying robots taking over for a long time. The japanese are the "furthest" with the technology and from what I've seen its not coming to a home near you ANY time soon.
Alot of science fiction doesn't really capture my attention or make me take it very seriously beyond about 5% of the technology advertised.
Most people don't understand what technology actually is. A shovel is about as far as we ever should have gone down the tech road. The "technology will save us" meme is alive and well today. However, this only works if we have cheap and abundand energy. Oil fit the bill for a hundred-fifty years. Now that it has peaked, we will begin to see peak technology too.
I was getting ready to reply above stating this very same thing.
Everyone has the "cure" for cheap energy, except they don't.
Everyone seems to be banking on technologies panning out to our wildest hopes and dream.
I laugh everytime anybody mentions cold fusion in particular. I'll just keep holding my breath on that one, while real problems mount, we'll solve them with "tomorrows" technology. Doesn't mean we don't try to, but we can't put all of our chips in that basket.
Sure, then you get sick and it's all "save me, modern medicine, save me!"
Please, return to the 1960's & take Asimov with you.
Robots are useful for highly technical precision work (largely industrial level). Anything else, people are cheaper. Easier to replace, easier to manage, less expensive to repair and a (virtually) infinite resource. Compare that to robots, and the organic always wins.
Unless you're talking biotech. Now biotech has all kinds of gravy attached to it. Hint: http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue...
Yeah, all these dick heads who want to cut funding for planned parenthood also whine about paying for kids on welfare. Save $100 on an abortion to pay $200,000 on welfare for the 'dependent years' of the kid.
#A-DUMBASS-DNA. #WHINING!
That is exactly my outrage as well! Freakonomics confirms exactly that!!!!
A fair number of those dickheads don't want to pay welfare either. They want to make sure there's always a large subpopulation of destitute and toothless illiterates so they have someone left to look down on and jeer at.
It's a coping mechanism to fall back on when your own life makes you miserable.
It will be exposed later that they got 'Government money' to hire, so the employment numbers wouldn't look so bad. If you remember the birth/death numbers added 175K, McDonalds added 62K.......... without those two numbers only 7K jobs were added....... Unemployment rate would have been more than 9%.
I wonder how long before they get the whole greasy process stuffed into a vending machine? Maybe they'll even program it to fuck up every 4th order just to keep the experience "real".
MCD now trading at fresh, new, world record highs as we speak.
Your boy Kaltbaum called the top yesterday.
Get out while you still can.
Which means that it is time to buy some mid-term OTM puts
Which means that it is time to buy some mid-term OTM puts
Delicious Delicious Schadenfreude
If enough people refused to do business with robots, the robots would get tossed. Alas, the crowd will comply. Just like they do now with self-check out.
Smells like a bonus bonanza for Jim Skinner.
Luddite
The embracing of a digital currency will only lead to the enslavement of its users.
Not necessarily. ZH should do a story on this...
http://www.bitcoin.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
http://launch.is/blog/l019-bitcoin-p2p-currency-the-most-dangerous-proje...
what if someone finds a faster algorithm to generate a bitcoin in the future. would that not render the entire bitcoin currency useless?
That's a worse scheme than even the stock market! Aaaaaand it's gone...
I was waiting for someone to point that out.
And the Luddites were right.
Why can't I just order with my iPhone and get Asimo to bring it to my car???
we can only pray the buttons are big enough to avoid fat finger trades
Lololol.
Will there be "broken" or "busted" burger orders?
Maybe GS can create an algo that "slices and dices" the Happy Meal orders (think: onions) and could sell it to some rich clients?
It would be a welcome improvement on the very rare occasions when I drive my children through one of these establishments.
I can't understand a word coming from the speaker except the part about "would you like to be large size and would you like to be an onion ring today at the first window" and I always say back; "If I wanted large or side order I would have bloody well asked for it-woodin eye" ?
They're using the Jedi mind trick on you... "These are not the droids you're looking for" ... "You want to super-size your fries"....
Rude language with fast food workers will earn you the inclusion of random bodily fluids in your food order.
They need more security guards than order takes at McDonalds these days
that's why new employees will have to go through McBootcamp before attending Hamburger University
I honnestly don't think this will work in many European countries (as apprently they intend to implement this idea there). Unless there is a significant price advantage people will rather interact with a human being.
Well, I live in Europe (Belgium) and on april 1st they opened a brandnew McD at my city, with computerterminals. You can order at a counter too, except that it is very small and crowded, and the alternative, a couple of computerterminals with swipe function, is much faster and spacier. That, and they hired retards for the counter ordering, so the choice isn't that hard. Traffic is brisk, maybe because it is the only McD in a 20 kilometre radius.
.....people will rather interact with a human being.'
I would rather, in the case of Mc Donaldsis interact with an 8" colour monitor in my dashboard whereby the menu is displayed and orders are made via blutooth and paid for in credits from my vault.
I agree.
The employees at Mcdonalds have often caused me to lose my appetite.
When you can smell the person serving you over the deepfry, MSG, food, and their nails have enough dirt to fill some holes in my backyard, ones appetite can be lost quite swiftly.
If those are the ones they present to the customers, what kind of people do you think are making your food in the back?
Whole new spin on the car-hop. Asimo will deliver your order in roller skakes and a mini-skirt.
I think the big story here is the method of payment, which apparently does not involve any type of "cash" transaction.
Plastic only is here, bye bye paper, hello plastic, hello trackable and traceable electronic transactions, good bye dealers and drug lords. Only thing missing so far are the barcode tatoo's. That comes next year.
+1
Glad someone is paying attention.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8189868/WikiLeaks-US...
Never forget that credit cards are essentially monopolies, backed by Uncle Sam's muscle. Never.
Don't worry, they'll legalize drugs by then. In fact they might be mandatory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmY1LlBpQOU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7u2vVkKQ7c
Would you like another EXTRA BIGASS FRIES?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NstQnUkU0dw
Actually they are smart to get ahead of the Politicans raising the minimum wage because they can not cut spending...required healthcare..social security..high wages...probably a shorter work week so more people can work a little...day care...free transportation ...all these new and improved(increased) costs to an employeer....and still try to keep the costs down for a fast food restaurant...This will raise prices...transitory inflation..
Only Luddites fear efficiency.
You have pointed out true barriers to employment. I could.hire several more people if the regulatory, health care cost, liability issues, and overall cost structure was more rational and efficient.
Governments create unemployment thru regulatory and cost barriers.
Governments create unemployment thru regulatory and cost barriers.'
Yes they do but why? That's what I would dearly love answered.
.
Barriers to capital and labor flows to protect special interests.
Also a naive altruistic desire to make life better for the people without clearly thinking thru the consequences. Some regulations have of course been helpful. Many are just plain harmful, but inadvertently.
All departments must justify their existence. All managers must justify their promotion. They come up with rules and regulations to do so. The more rules and regulations they must enforce, the more warm bodies they need. The federal budget was $1.9 trillion back in Clinton's last year in office. Ten years later it had ballooned to $3.8 trillion. Did anyone notice a lack of federal government services ten years ago? Even if we remove the $150 billion annual cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we've nearly doubled our spending.
Governments create unemployment thru regulatory and cost barriers.'
Yes they do but why? That's what I would dearly love answered.
Because the more people on the big sagging gov. tit the better. Pretty soon all jobs will be gov. jobs.
Because "Progressives" want/need Govt Jobs! :>D
Governments create unemployment thru regulatory and cost barriers.'
Yes they do but why? That's what I would dearly love answered.
Perhaps if you repeat this mind-numbing, black-and-white mantra another 100 times, it will become reality.
Then please explain how Luddites are right.
Increased productivity in farming, manufacturing and services has led to a modern, comfortable lifestyle.
You are correct, but the question is what to do with the surplus labor. Once all the jobs at McDonalds, manufacturing, etc are computerized, roboticized, there won't be enough jobs for 10 billion people.
People had to build shovels, then tractors to increase productivity. Somebody has to build, install, and maintain those machines. Somebody has to build install and maintain the networks across which they will communicate with the borg hive. Somebody has to spin up the virtual servers in the borg hive that will store the reams of data they produce. Somebody will have to interpret the data, and make business decisions based on that data.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NstQnUkU0dw EXTRA BIG ASS FRIES. NOW WITH MORE MOLECULES
Oops someone beat me to it up there.