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Minimum Wage Consequences? iPhone 6 Will Be Made By "FoxBots"
First it was burgers, then waiters, traders, and recently earnings-report-writers; but now it's iPhones. The endless pressure to raise minimum wages, demand bathroom breaks, expect to sleep, and tolerable breathing standards have finally culminated in China's FoxConn - manufacturer of the iPhone - to use a 'robot army' to build the new model. As The Daily Mail reports, The firm has pledged to have a million robot workers by the end of the year - and CEO Terry Gou has revealed the robots, dubbed 'Foxbots', are in the final stages of testing.
It is believed Foxconn will install 10,000 robots as a test.
...
Lines dedicated to Apple devices getting first priority, according to IT Home.
It says Gou told a shareholder meeting that Apple would be the first company to take advantage of the new robot workers meaning that its next product - the iPhone 6 - will be manufactured in this way.
...
Each $25,000 Foxbot can complete an average of 30,000 devices per year it has been claimed.
Foxconn, which currently employs more than 1.2 million workers at its various factories across China.
However, the firm's robot initiative has been delayed since it was first announced in 2011.
At the time, Gou said the company had about 10,000 units already in operation, a number that was supposed to rise to 300,000 in 2012, then one million by 2014.
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Great news for FoxConn stock... how long until China rules robots illegal?
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Foxbots?
So how long until the first robot jumps off the roof?
pods
Cute.
Well let's hope those same FoxBots can buy iPhones on credit, or else this whole shit stack is coming down in a heap.
lol exactly.
Perhaps robots are people too?
No
Wait a minute. 300,000 FoxBots that can produce 30,000 iPhones/year.
Isn't that like 9 Billion phones/year? WTF?
The new iPhone comes with a pre-installed opt-out "loseMeQuickly" app that -- if left with the default settings -- causes the phone to become "lost" (ha ha) within a few days after purchase.
So yeah, 9 billion should about do it.
When do we get robots that replace these douchebag leaders we have ... ? I fail to see how a robot could possible screw things up worse than a bunch of vote monkeys and PhD econs.
Regards,
Cooter
We have robots playing in the stock market already, I think that's about enough power for them for a while, thanks.
I don't see how having actual monkeys in Congress would cause a serious degredation in service, actually. Might be worth a try.
I think congress is mostly well shaved monkeys with their tails removed right now.
It's the only explanation that makes sense.
They will just throw shit, penis fence, and screw each other. If we throw in free liquor they might just leave us all the hell alone!
Regards,
Cooter
I know I'll invoke the wrath of the bitcoin haters here, but part of the idea behind it is to replace central banking with a distributed system that regulated by a common algorithm. Obviously the kleptocrats don't approve, but it really isn't out of the realm of possibility to have large parts of the economy run by deterministic, non-tinkering algorithms. My preference would be free markets, but I'd rate the robotic approach as more preferable to the Fed any day.
Seek is interesting so delete comment and upvote.
Hopefully this does not lead to another (Scientologist) Will Smith movie with his ugly kid.
Never saw it. The clip was enough. Bad nepetism.
Oh yeah? Well, you can bite my splintery, wooden @zz!
The US government has ruled that a robot can make political contributions, as such they are deemed to be persons.
iCorruptElections app?
Oh, I think I should go file a process patent by which a serial number can be used to establish a corporation (i.e. a person) ... might as well try to make some money while this shit sinks!
Regards,
Cooter
Hero of Alexandria developed the world's first steam engine in 50 AD. Emperor Vespasian bought the engine and destroyed it. He said "You must let me feed my poor commoners / Sine me pascere plebeculam meam." It was developed again 1,700 years later.
They are not people, they are persons. Just as SCOTUS.
They should have the robots making the phones in the nevada desert. Than they would get the "made in America" label.
But it does make you wonder...
Factory jobs done by robots
Warehouse orderpicking and clarck jobs done by robots...
Stores with robots, housekeeping by robots...
There's 6 billion people.
Let's hope our society can keep feeding them because otherwise we'll get the rise of the lower educated zombies.
And of you make a phone all by robots... At minimum costs... How do you justify a 600 dollar phone?
And wasn't it supposed to be that robots would make our lives better and not hungrier?
Yup. Used to take thousands of people to make roads, bridges, tunnels lay railroad track, etc -- now it just takes a few people and lots of machines to do these things. Used to be lots of corner grocery stores, drug stores, small department stores - all employing cashiers, store managers, soda jerks, etc -- they've diminished in numbers too. Yet somehow, the world survived the population explosion and women entering the workforce and a more educated population, etc.
Somehow, I think I'll sleep well tonight
"...roads, bridges, tunnels lay railroad track, etc."
I thought "W" put an end to this type of socialist activity?
Or did you mean in the countries we invade? Oh, I get it...nevermind.
Unfortunately, most of the gains in productivity are appropriated by or negated by government.
The cost of living would be lower if the hoi polloi didn't want government. Considerably lower.
Nothing like 5 redundant, service persons fussing over you at a restaurant.
Each with a mouth filled with saliva and a grudge.
Cost of living should decrease as productivity is increased.
For example, TV's and computers.
Why should a person have to work 40 hours a week to make ends meet?
Why couldn't, if you wish, work 20 hours a week and be able to provide for you and your family?
The reason is because the Government spends more than the economy can produce and the Federal Reserve covers it up by printing non exisiting money.
This is correct.
Agreed orez65
However always remember to mention .gov does this for one reason and one reason only, to prevent an anarchist utopia from naturally evolving into being. A world of 20 hour a week employees with healthy physical and mental states could not be ruled, nor pushed to seek the rule of others.
Listen to Howard Stark's speach to his son Tony in Iron Man 2. His noble and philanthropic, yet clearly libertarian industrialist vision, shits on any John Gault quote I've read.
And because it can't be said enough... Fuck Ayn Rand
Up ^ - for the Rand thing
.gov spends more than the economy can produce because the voters want more free food, free healthcare, free education, free childcare, generous disability insurance, generous old age pensions, ... and pay the least amount of taxes for all these perks, so that they have as much disposable income as possible to consume other goods and services. There can't be a 20-hour work week because that would mean less consumption, a concept completely alien to Western society.
This is still a republic and the leaders give the citizenry what it wants, so blaming the politicians is only true to a point. Besides, you can still choose to work less and lead a more frugal existence.
Let's be honest: the point of robots is to do either:
A. Disenfranchise Labor from Production and the fruits of production.
B. Perform tasks that are deemed to dangerous and/or time consuming for Labor to be wasted on them.
Fukushima is an example that desperately requires sophisticated robots to perform dangerous and time consuming tasks, and yet tens of thousands of robots are being deployed by Foxxcon/Apple in order to disenfranchise Labor from production and the fruits of production.
The performance of vital tasks in dangerous environments to protect the public and Labor is being wholly ignored in favor of maximizing profit on an already wildly profitable enterprise by disenfranchising Labor.
Apparently financial engineering is not the only dangerously antisocial form of engineering.
Let's be honest: the point of robots is to do either:
A. Disenfranchise Labor from Production and the fruits of production.
How are they being 'disenfranchised' from the fruits of production if they had no hand in that production?
And no one is forcing anyone to buy Apple's (overpriced) products, I might add.
The mass production of these robots will make them cheaper and other manufacturers will use them - the resultant cost will eventually bring the cost of your smartphone down 80%. If you're spending 80% less on a phone you have more money to spend on other goods.
You seem to forget that in the past, it took hundreds of person-hours to make a roll of cloth. As a consequence, cloth was scarce, and people spent half their leisure time darning socks and repairing clothes and freezing to death because they couldn't afford new clothing.
Make something cheaper in a competitive market... everyone benefits. Apart from the redundant workers, obviously.
Woah woah woah. I propose a US robot tax to offset the loss in SS taxes paid by workers. Greater efficiency needs to be taxed.... like a mileage tax on top of a gas tax. Which reminds me, we also need an extra electric car battery tax. prices may drop, but .gov is so far in debt, their revenues cannot shrink one iota
You are completely missing the point that these machines are replacing very cheap labor to begin with - the end game is no discretionary cash flow to " consume" everywhere!!!!
The financial sector is capturing more $$ than they are relatively at risk for - it will end soon as consumption becomes a very narrow slice of the population - local retail is now rolled up to Amazon all over the USA - same will happen to almost everything
Ok, BigJim, I'll bite: What happens when ALL workers are redundant workers?
You can borrow at ZIRP/NIRP and fire everyone when your tax-deductable 'bots arrive...
You got supply coming on line awright....; but, about that DEMAND part of the equation?
What market can support itself off of it's management bonuses?
Robots don't purchase goods and services like Joe-PunchClock does...
So, your price comes down 80%. You will NOT pass on ALL of the savings: so You pass on how much?
Now You have a product that costs 50% of what it did last year; but, YOUR CONSUMER HAS ZERO*
Fuck iPhones: when does fuel or food get CHEAPER? A-ha! No such luck, huh?
It's all gonna be fine if the FSA can just kick back and let YOUR robots do every God damend thing for them.
People are insatiable.
You DO NOT want them to have to work for their bread or threads or ride, right?
...So You better build a hella lotta 'bots fast, Bro: We all need dinner and needs new shiz kicks up in here...
Size 11+1/2 for ME. ...Chop chop, my Robo Nigga!
Double beef patty w/ cheddar, 'shrooms, peppers, and tomato, Homie! Super Size ME.
C'mon production: give Us what we want or it's time to call up Obama and Pelosi and Schummer and get You pushed. 5 year plan time and be ON time!
@BigJim
Wishful thinking. You really think the price of your Iphone is determined by its production costs?
Take a hammer, grab an iphone, smash it apart, look at all the pieces, look at them long and hard, then ask yourself: is all this really what made my phone cost what it did? really? SERIOUSLY?
The cost reduction will be beneficial, for Foxconn and Apple. Consumers will be lucky if they even get 10% of the cost reductions passed on to them.
The fruit only pays foxconn about $150 for each finished iphone, and maybe 1/5 of that is for labor. So a $30 labor savings does not equal any significant price reduction at the retail level.
It's the Second Renaissance
Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLNo4lMC8bM
Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X0m40dBPAI
I'd be more interested if they were fembots.
The role of fembots will be played by recently unemployed female workers.
bought more AAPL at the close CNBC said this will be the first trillion dollar company, and my mildly retarded step daughter is enamored with her ifone 5 as my monthly Verizon bill can attest to... i'm all in bitches!!
I must be around the wrong circles then.... everyone I know that were obsessed with ifone two years ago once their contracts with the telcos was up all dumped them in favour of Sony and Sanyo whatevers. Iphones are so uncool now. For one thing they all got fed up with batteries out in 12 hours while their new trinkets are alive for over two days.
Who, in their right mind, would pay large amounts of money just to carry a tracking device???
It's beyond my comprehension.
Fembots? Count me in!
They took our jobs!!
Unless you live in China, no they did not.
Apple hasn't made squat in the US of A for maybe -- what -- 20 years now?
I think that was a SouthPark reference to a certain episode ... I am at work so can't dig it up.
Regards,
Cooter
Allow me.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ScD6-AWPEQ
And buried him. Oh you meant...nevermind.
I see what you did there.
Ah yes, but who's going to build the robots?
Oh wait, other robots? Shit...
In a cartoon called Futurama the robots got paid they also have a union.
Darn straight! I majored in Bending and Robo-American studies in school!
Time to outsource to Chad, or maybe Angola.
1.2 million workers! Most all of them are working to service the Apple brands?
There is another use of the word "service" that means "to have sex with".
So yes, about 1.2 million workers giving up their virtue daily in the Apple brand whore house.
I kind of like their products. I still think they're a bunch of pimps. Even if the whores are robots.
Jack, Cougar,
Not that you both don't know but, .......
It's all a big scan. Our wages and profits, as well as minimum wages shitty jobs, are All powered by cheap money and lots of credit.
Minimum wage is just a distraction. Meaningless slogan to distract the clueless from the real issue —to many people and little growth.
And most hedgers still don’t get it.
Zero Hedge should stop using the Daily Mail as a reference. It's hurting its own credibility.
Best start studying to be a robot repair man.
HAHAHA
This made my day
You reap what you sow
HAHAHA
This made my day
You reap what you sow
Robots tend to take "brakes" more often the humans. Robots are like cars they can be fast or cheap but not both.
The US could have done "Ameribots" instead of farming all of its labor out to China ... but then China would never have been brought under control of the international bankers.
Think about it.
When labor becomes non-existent, who will be left to buy iCrap?
Its looking like the powers that be will be happy at 10%. Keep 10% of the people happy and liquid enough to spend and to hell with the rest.
Right now its about 30%.
And most of that 30% are boomers that are just to dumb to quit and live off the state. Will the economy be able to sustain itself with revenues from free online porn?
rub one out in the a.m. then some oatmeal and meds, and then off to the bank to cash the disability, welfare, medicare, whatever, check ...start of a perfect day in Obozo's USA...oh then off to Walmart with EBT card and handicap parking permit.. maybe get one of the scooters unless they're all taken
Keep deluding yourself...this was started with Reagan. The only reprive was the first half of Clinton. The second half of Clinton was his GOP alter ego.
The only way back is neither GOP or DEM. Not TeaShitheads.
WeNeedNOGovt.
FIFY - your name, I mean.
this was started with Reagan.
No, it was started by the guy who invented the integrated circuit, who put thousands of workers involved in manufacturing transistors out of a job.
Actually no, it was started by the guy who invented the transistor, who put thousands of workers involved in manufacturing thermionic valves out of a job.
Actually no, sorry, it was started by the guy who invented the combustion engine, who put thousands of workers involved in looking after horses (and making horse buggies) out of a job.
Erm... no... sorry, it was started by the guy who invented the mechanical cotton gin, who put thousands of workers involved in separating cotton fibres & seeds out of a job.
Fuck! No! It was started by the guy who invented the horse-drawn plough, who put thousands of workers involved in digging furrows with sticks out of a job.
Thinking about it... it was probably started by the guy who invented the wheel, who put thousands of workers involved in carrying things from a to b out of a job.
Just think how much more employment there'd be if none of those bastards hadn't selfishly improved human productivity? Why, we'd all be working 12 hour days just feeding and clothing ourselves.
Isn't Barrack "YouDid'ntBuildThat" Obama a market maker in the phone industry.....He's buy'n
Will we eventually have to grant "amnesty" to imported robots?
Don't think too far ahead. It's unpatriotic.
Don't tnink.......
Why the buyer of last resort, of course, Uncle Sugar!
With no-money-down, easy terms from Mr. Yellen.
Let's not remove the suicide nets from the FoxConn factories just yet.
Robot slaves have been known to jump too.
Yea, and they might have to redeploy them over to the robot assembly division.
Not to mention the savings in the purchase and deployment of suicide nets.
I foresee a tank in Apple stock.
Nope. This is a huge net positive for profits, at least for those manufacturers that get in early, before the riots start.
FoxConn are the ones putting the savings on lower labor costs in their pocket right away, and Apple maybe gets better production quality from the robots leading to fewer support issues later.
Things fall apart when this trend spreads to a lot of other industries. Eventually nobody over there has a job and they cannot buy things they need, least of all phones.
The other possibility is that the Chinese labor pool sees what's happening and burns the factories to the ground next month. In which case -- yes indeed Apple stock will take a hit.
The 'iTank'? Coming soon to a civil disobedience gathering near you.
Nother "death cross" graph comes to mind. The increase in rate of computer self awareness, contrasted with human's increasing lack of awareness. This really can't end well.
You think the self-aware robots will be suicidal, or homicidal?
The latter. They will see the madness of the human race and stomp us out as a domestic terror threat, starting with white male veterans and moving their way up the chain....Ohh shit, they are already in control!!!
Wait until IBM and other technology makers start replacing knowledge workers with sophisticated computer progams bordering on artifical intelligence (AIs) like Watson.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/02/08/ibms-watson-gets-its-f...
AIs are people too? Wait until they get the vote, THEN there will be trouble.
All they have to do is incorporate each robot and then they have the same rights as people according to SCOTUS. They just ruled that corporations can have religious views, are voting rights that far behind?
Why not start with low hanging fruit:
1. A meeting bot for the government
2. A printbot for CBs (if anything then print else print)
Replacing human energy with the burning of fossil fuels is a dead end street if you ask me. If we are going to go this way, we need a completely different system and we need it starting right now.
Nah, humans will just keep pursuing the ultimate solution, which will turn out to be the final solution, and either poison ourselves while seeking nirvana, or we will blow ourselves off the face of this earth. We will never have the wisdom to know when it is as good as it will get, and we will just keep fucking with it until we accidentally or deliberately off ourselves.
Ironic. The Chinese labor now being displaced by robots. That didn't take long..
There was probably very little difference.
This is just the natural progression of technology.
Eventually, with robotics/artificial intelligence, all human jobs, including CEO, can be eliminated, assuming availability of energy sources. At that point, with everything done by robots, the government could give one a plot of land and a house could be built on it for no monetary cost, as robots don't need money. Society will change dramatically, as one will not have to work in order to live. Robots will be designing, building, repairing themselves. Planting, harvesting, delivering food. Providing services and goods.
It used to be that technology created more jobs than those lost by obsolete technology, but now automation/robotics is eliminating more jobs than is being created by new technology. It is an issue that has to be dealt with, as more and more, there will be fewer jobs, as technology becomes more and more sophisticated, until such time that technology will be able to perform all jobs.
Will the CEO artificial intelligence have a "bribe politician" algo built in?
edit: double post (Zero Hedge Can't Handle The Mighty and Powerful Battle Beagle Twice!)
Humanity ends in an epidemic of obesity and boredom.
If the remaining workers don't like it, they'll just release the robotic Richard Simmons. Sweatin' to the Tai Chi.
we will either have the socialist techno-utopian future where everyone gets free vouchers to buy shit, like the movie wall-E
or we'll have terminator future. where every robot has arnold schwarzenger telling you theyre about to kill you. before they kill you.
either way, robots be making us their bitches.
While I like the idea of robots making stuff since it generally should lead to fewer problems and tighter build quality, it's clear that there will be a huge issue if all these companies continue to rely on robots and automoation more than using humans since as stated by others, how are people going to buy these products if they don't have jobs?
Then you throw in how pissed off people will be when everything is run by robots/machines and yikes, get the popcorn ready.
Only the human species could be this dumb to basically put themselves into this position and while it could be seen as a way to decrease the population which I keep reading is a goal of the elites, it'll go too far like everything the humans do and everyone from the elites on down will end up being screwed over.
The biggest problem with the species is it thinks it is smarter than it really is and that has created a monster god complex.
I thought the free market philosophy was that these unemployed people would benefit from having efficiency and productivity kickbacks from the high tech society. Of course, in real life, it just means even more money is consolidated into the hands of the few, and reinvested in another asset class, increasing prices and decreasing wages.
Maybe a century from now there shall be but one man left on the planet, in charge of the robot pyramid. All the rest of the surplus population will have gone the way of the Do Do. Evolution?
I'm thinking the Ludites were right.....
yep!
In November 1956 Walter Reuther delivered a speech to a Council group of the National Education Association. The transcript of his talk was published as part of his “Selected Papers”, and it contained an extended description of this intriguing episode [WRNE]:
“How Will You Get Robots to Pay Union Dues?” “How Will You Get Robots to Buy Cars?”Old news... Second Machine Age had this little factoid in it.. everyone is always astonished when I tell them chinese labor is to expensive now.
Hmm, FoxyBots... I think I would rather have one of those. When do they go on sale.
will the robots have slanted eyes?
Can the FoxBots also make FoxBots?
There will be an app for that by Christmas.
A cheaper and faster way of producing moar jesusPhone landfill. Fantastic!
New I-phone was built by robots, and minimum wage was to blame-o
Blame blame blame the poor
Blame blame blame the poor
Blame blame blame the poor
The easiest ones to blame-o...
The bigger question will be to what limits will these foxbots go to make us buy their crap? Will they start a war which forces us to buy their production to preserve our own "freedoms"?
?
They might just start a war with the poor and everyone at ZH would be cheering 'em all the way. Until they hear a knock on their door, that is.
What if China offshored their robots to work in the US to make Iphones they can exprort to China to re-export back to the US?
If they did that AND put them in really big boxes, maybe the Baltic Dry Index would pick up!
Fuck...wait until the factory gets struck by lightning ...
"Ibot 5 is alive!"...