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Minimum-Wage Blowback; The De-Humanization Of Fast-Food Has Begun
In January we noted 'Smart Restaurant' - the burger-flipping robot - and just last month we reported on China's robotification of the fast-food business; but, as The Washington Post reports, the greatest enemy to the minimum-wage-demanding fast-food worker has arrived: you can now order your own quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger from a welcoming, non-judging machine. With McDonalds sales the worst in almost a decade, it appears their need to maintain profits has stoked a move towards dehumanization. One wonder how long before this action is also declared 'unpatriotic'.
If you’ve ever felt guilty ordering at McDonald’s, the fast-food mega-chain has just the fix: You can now order your own quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger from a welcoming, non-judging machine.
...
McDonald’s move towards dehumanization, launched as a pilot last winter and expanded across San Diego last week, is part of a larger trend of chain eateries turning tablets into your full-time restaurant buddy: equal parts menu, server and paycheck. Applebee’s, Panera Bread and even airport bars have installed tablets to allow diners to order food or booze without a wait.
Chili’s became the U.S. king of human-less ordering this summer when it installed more than 45,000 tabletop tablets nationwide.
While cost control is one factor, the tablet ordering had another silver-lining...
The move toward tablets is a bet from marketers on a quirk of buyer psychology: that customers will order more food if they can do it on a screen. While ordering from a person might lead you to rein in your appetite, a tablet sits silently and harmlessly, covered in colorful ads. Ordering off a tablet can also lead customers to try something new, which might make them happier and more likely to come back.
With tablet ordering, “you can serve more lunches per hour, and the customers, since so many use their smartphone for just about everything, see it as more convenient."
Of course, in a world of de minimus capital costs (courtesy of an apparently job-creating-mandated Fed), why wouldn't the McDonalds of the world adopt such a strategy. The outcome, as we explained before, is all too obvious...
What happens after that should be clear to everyone: more unemployment, lower wages for the remaining employees, worse worker morale, but even higher profits to holders of capital. And so on. Because in a world in which technology makes the unqualified worker utterely irrelevant, this is what is known as "progress."
* * *
So much for $15 minimum-wage demands... One wonders how long before 'tablets' are also declared 'unpatriotic'.
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You want fries with that, Meat Puppet? (Spits some oil in the fryer)
Could I get mine with extra antibiotics, please?
Watch this video "Humans Need Not Apply"
http://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU
Ned Ludd was right
"I'll have a double quarter pounder with cheese, large fries, large chocolate milkshake and a side order of shame, please."
"Coming right up sir. Will there be anything else?"
"Yes. And five apple pies."
"Coming right up sir. Will there be anything else?"
"Yes. And a Diet Coke."
"Coming right up sir. Will there be anything else?"
Would you care for an after dinner mint? They're wafer thin.
Heck, I'll take a clean, efficient, no lip, no chip on his metal shoulder, non-diverse, polite robot ANYTIME!
I'm so fed up [so to speak] with the crappy, crude, non-service at McDs that I haven't been to one in over a month and hope never to step into or near one again.
As many say on the McDs blogging sites, their present management needs a serious shakeout from the very top down esp their HR division.
This is good news I think. It should bring more babes into prostitution. Deals are already pretty good. I haven't had to pay extra to bareback one in about a year.
Hopefully soccer moms and Co-Eds unable to use their degree will be over load the market and I can start getting two for ones at the same sweet price I'm getting it now with no extra charge for the bareback, of course.
Things are only bad if you look at it as bad.
You pussies need to get getting it before it's allllllll gone. I'll be dead soon so it won't matter to me.
Long live the republic
Sounds like you want a "Gentleman's Latte." With "extra foam."
At least they can still buy their Big-macs with EBT after they are laid off. Consider it a permanent paid vacation.
When robots start to serve soylent green we will have closed the circle so to speak.
Ever see the movie Cloud Atlas?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1bdmaAwj3c
Once again, the tail is wagging the dog. The government has every right to enforce labor laws. Leave it to the blood-thirsty capitalists? You'd be better off living in Bangladesh.
Ugh, can you imagine how nasty these Mc-touch screens will be in short order? Ebola central repository.
You can get a boat-load of made-in-China hand sanitizer for $20. More than an hour's worth, at all but the busiest McTablets.
You bring up an inreseting question.
How can prostitution still be illegal ? We have no morals, there is NO sexual limitations or taboos.
I mean, "two consenting adults", right ?
Fast food robots won't be late, stoned, hungover, rude or unsanitary.
When will these robots hurry up and come to every corner?
Thanks meatbag, but we Robo-Americans don't need to be patronized!
next stop - drone deliveries for your robo-burger
Statist-socialists have this figgered out already.
They'll just unionize the robots, the dues still go to the same place ;-)
I'll be happy to pay them...in BotCoinz! :>D
Yes and bring a bucket
Don't have ask them to hold the buggers any moar
so if there are fewer jobs and many people are unemplyable through not fault of there own, then what jobs are all the ebt/welfare check recipients supposed to get?
but all the star trek technology is great types keep telling me that we won't end up like the horses. we will all sit around doing nothing and get crap for free. and this video says the opposite so the video has to be wrong. even though the horse example is correct.,
in other words, automation brings MORE structural unemplyment and a lower quality of life.
Better yet, watch this if you want to start considering a solution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SuGRgdJA_c
Sure! (Ejaculates into special sauce)
Damn, that doesn't taste like Miracle Whip on my burger.
Oh, it's a Miracle all right, friend. The miracle of Transhumanism!
That happened once @ a fast food restaurant near Chicago back in the 70-80's. The girl that got the "gift" was smart enough to tell the right people and successfully sued. Used to live in the same city , and that part of the city sounded about right for the neighborhood. No, I won't tell you the name of the place, look it up.
"happened once"......
Oh, Blutto. You little scamp.
Bottom line: Machines CAN'T spit in your food! Yeah baby!!!!!!
Says you, an over-confident meat puppet. There's a sim eyeing your job right now.
It's also easier to teach the Bot English.
[quote]
Share and enjoy
Share and enjoy
Journey through life
With a plastic boy,
Or girl by your side
Let your pal be your guide
And when it breaks down
Or starts to annoy
Or grinds when it moves
And gives you no joy
'Cause it's eaten your hat
Or had sex with your cat
Sprayed oil on your floor
Or ripped off your door
You get to the point
You can't stand any more
Bring it to us
We won't give a fig
We'll tell you
Go stick your head in a pig!
[/quote]
I will have a Big Mac, fries and a Coke. Hold the wood pulp and pink slime.
my roomate's sister-in-law makes $72 hourly on the laptop . She has been out of a job for 6 months but last month her payment was $18482 just working on the laptop for a few hours. use this link... www.payvalt.com
At least a robot won't scratch its crotch before building your burger...
Hmmm, that explains why I see Tinea cruris is the most unlikely of places.
Miffed;-)
The fungus among us.
Knew a guy in high school with a real bad fungus infection. I heard he was a real...............fun-gi.
/corny joke
The new "entry level" jobs will be robotic repair.
That won't be an entry level job.
It'll be on par with HVAC techs -- people doing robot repair will make bank until the system wakes up and people start going back to trade schools. Eventually there will be an oversupply of labor skilled enough to do robot repair, but it won't happen in this generation.
There is an over supply engineering workers all ready. We had 600 people apply for an entry level that doesn't pay the tuition bill.
So, the entry level is lower when you're on your back, as opposed to when your on your knees??
What is this "entry level" you speak of?
I can second this, as that is my field. Degreed engineers are having trouble finding jobs that keep the lights on, much less dig them out of tuition debt.
I'm sure there will be bots made to take care of the bots.
That has already happened.
And if you want, you can eat the tablet too...
haha
Will the robot beat Lakesiha with a metal bar if she and her friend starts "wilding?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjqM2UXsnpY
Hopefully the robots will jump in and stop religious cult members from beating you to death while you eat your burger & fries:
"Cult members beat woman to death at McDonald's in China while crowd watches"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJdazQ3UseU
That was awesome.
When all jobs are done by robots, who will have the income to buy the shit they make.
A question that's often overlooked/ignored.
Dont you see??? They will just give us money and it will be utopia!!!1
/sarc
no /sarc required. your answer was exactly right.
The human race becomes something like a huge ant's nest.
Fuck that.
I want to move to Mars.
That's when the 'Bots see us as wastes of resources and begin the SkyNet extermination programme.
no sarc... fer real
If a superior alien civilisation sent us a message saying, "We'll arrive in a few decades," would we just reply, "OK, call us when you get here – we'll leave the lights on"? Probably not – but this is more or less what is happening with AI. - Stephen Hawking
Here's how I think it will go.
A chip based on cellular processes will be developed and offered as an 'upgrade' to humans.
Rather like cell phones, they'll become 'must haves' for those too stupid to see what's going on (AKA the herd).
One day there will be a human/chip hybrid intelligence that is 51% chip that is completely under the control of whoever TPTB are at the time. Slavery on steroids.
It will accelerate from there.
Assuming we don't destroy the place first of course. Not hopeful on that one.
"A Generation Is All They Need" - Kevin Haggerty (originally appeared in the Toronto Star, 2006)
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2006/101206generation.htm
You've both just described the world of "Judge Dredd" comics.
At least the sanitation of the restrooms won't change...most now look like old, desert gas station shitholes.
so your order has a better chance of being correct but it is still prepared by people with bad attitudes in a filthy kitchen?
I wonder if the manager will be able to throw an ass whopping on the robots like they (supposedly) did to this employee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC9YiTiGktA
The kid probably told Ronald McDonald that he wanted to organize a union at his worksite.
McDonalds really is Americana anymore. Totally F'ed up.
This will only drive more traffic to Chik-Fil-A where everyone is courteous. The place is clean and the chicken sandwiches are really good. The only place I get fast food burgers these days is at Five Guys.
Yeah. I have seen this for myself in many parts of the country. McDonalds is empty and Chik Fil A is packed. All over the country. In the Bible belt, Chik just destroys McDonalds.
It is like day and night. The staff, cleanliness, courteous, food quality and price is about the same. McDonalds is a joke but it is from Chicago (suburbs) like our Kenyan.
Listen. You are what you "EAT". In America there are so many opportunities to be beef flavored "CARDBOARD".
That explains all the cottage cheese I see walking around Walmart.
I did not need that.
OK then riddle me this About 15 y/ago getting off the commuter train in GCT (NY, for those from the hinterlands) was a dude in his Big Ass cardboard box (home) at the top of the platform, middle of rush hour, jerking off.
What did he eat to become that spectacle?
Too many hot-dogs?
Hey, you were not supposed to tell anybody!! By the way..they hosed down the box and sent me home.
A homeless person with a home..... Only in bizarro world.
We used to call them mayonnaise pockets.
Imagine that, then burn out yer eyes.
Maybe he had some of the free govt (Dinkins) cheese.
On step closer to robot global domination.
Robots can't take radiation. At some point, the radiation levels will be high enough to stop the robots. They won't be taking over the world, as the engineers will be long gone before that ability is perfected.
What Ebola doesn't kill, Fukushima will.
LOL! Who down voted you? Probably a govt bot at www.gov.
Bwahahahaha! Prepare to die, meatbag!
Looks like we won't rest until we destroy the opportunities of subsequent generations to gain job experience when young and then financially limiting their access to post secondary education.
Dumbing them down asap may be the only way to avoid that WTF moment of inter-generational rebellion.
Nursing Home robots are probably next.
With auto-monitoring and dosing IV pumps and tube-feeding units, along with foley catheters and dignacare tubes, the need for a real nurse is already in question.
Automation will go well until machines become aware and learn how to spit into your food.
But you have to touch the screen? Comeon! I barely want to swipe my credit card.
At the rate jobs are being destroyed in the west, if you're not careful it will be somebody else swiping your credit card.
Listen. Real profitability will be achieved after you get use to the machines. Then they will bring out the "BURGER" vending machines and provide a microwave. Warm it yourself "BITCHEZ".
Next step after that is burger paste injected into your stomach through a low pressure tube.
Eat your burgers America, fries, and a Coke too. Fucking filthy pigs.
"Listen. Real profitability will be achieved after you get use to the machines. Then they will bring out the "BURGER" vending machines and provide a microwave. Warm it yourself "BITCHEZ"."
You are obviously not an engineer. The burger puck could easily be nuked within the vending machine before ejecting it to the happy consumer.
You're welcome.
So wait, how am I going to get some ex-felon that thinks they're entitled to $15 an hour to spit in my burger?
99% of us are workers you worthless stupid fuck. Big clue for you dumb ass, they don't consider you one of THEM the 1%
The solution is easy. Criminalize fast food. Then we can have a war on fast food. Half of the formerly employed imbicels can get a good paying job dealing in illicit fast food, half can get a good paying job incarcerating the new criminal class, and half can get a good paying job building and staffing all the new prisons we'll need. It's a win-win-win.
"war on fast food"
Can you imagine all the SWAT teams?
Full employment.
We don't have to imagine...
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ferguson-swat-team-raids-mcdonalds-arre...
Can I has ISIS burger? A pork one?
Fast food is alienating anyway. And unhealthy.
All good, except that it'll be HIGHER wages for those remaining. Those remaining will be more reliable & able to keep the place running smoothly. Drop 3/4 jobs at $8/hr. Keep one at $15/hr.
Actually been my job to implement such systems. Remaining jobs are better paid, though usually not more fulfilling.
That is true. I try to improve processes and upgrade equipment so we can do more work with the same amount of people, and actually pay them better. My guys make me money. I want to be able to pay them as much as possible. If I can pay them more, it is because they are making more money for me.
You are the enemy. I hope your children go without jobs.
And you are a dipshit. I hope my kids go without jobs too, but only because they are fabulously wealthy. Then they can pay your idiot unskilled kids to wash their exotic car collection.
I wash my own fucking car. And clean my own toilet.
I wash my own car, too. Most people work hard to give their kids opportunities they themselves did not have. I suppose you want your kids to be too poor to afford transportation.
I want my kids to enjoy their lives on their own terms.
I think that's the big opportunity schooling never goes near. Not good for the corporate monster.
What are these 'opportunities' of which you speak?
The chance to be a wage slave?
The opportunity to be in debt?
I do not mean that I want them to make more money. I'd like them to have more options; to avoid being a wage slave. I like the expression find something you love and you'll never work a day in your life.
Me too. I wash my cars too. And I run my own business.
I know of a guy who cleaned out his own portapotty...latex gloves, shovel and a bucket.
TNT & NY
No, you're the greedy dipshits. I hope you get some glow-in-the-dark crotch fungus and your willie falls off...
Every time EVERY TIME staff reductions end up mostly in the pockets of the executives and investors.
I predict you will soon squat to pee...
You obviously did not read my original reply. I try to invest in more modern equipment to make things easier for my guys, so they can share in the increased productivity through higher wages and a better, safer work environment. Same number of people, better output, more profit, better pay and benefits. It would be much easier to have them work harder and longer on dilapidated equipment risking accident and injury and keep all the money to myself. I am a small businessman. There are no executives nor investors. You, obviously, are totally clueless.
Arrgghh.....
an overdose of corporate-speak.
I need to lie down.
Well, maybe, but the CNC equipment is more productive, more accurate, and safer so some of that language is unavoidable as it is apropos.
Damn you Logicalman, you made me spew my coffee. UDABES! ;-D
In all fairness, in some small percentage of cases, the employees actually do benefit from these kinds of improvements. Overwhelmingly though, the thieving executives and investors steal most of the benefit.
I stand by my words...
I think Landrew has been drinking tonight.
You are not of the body....
Yes... Landrew-GO TO YOUR ROOM! Wednesday bible study is coming up soon.
Minimum wage this much or minimum wage that much? More robots and less jobs or fewer robots and more jobs?
People tend to argue about one side of one small aspect of these macro economic changes. But, in the big picture, we somehow have to build a functional, harmonious society that serves the needs of the general citizenry.
Not sure how. With the elites working furiously to build complex webs of contrivance that rake off the majority of the nation's wealth and using the captured media to pump out endless streams of propaganda and misdirection it's hard to see how positive change could ever be accomplished.
You won't be able to complain and roll your eyes when the Not says "only one more step left for me to complete your order : on a Wednesday afternoon, do you prefer a) an egg McMuffin with had browns or b) a McBJ with your super sized beef burger?"
I just spit well masticated nectarine all over.....
People can blame wage desires all they want. It's a red herring.
The simple fact is, no matter the wage, and even in China, this was always in the cards.
30 cents and hour or 15 dollars and hour is all more then what a robot earns.
Not true. A robot, or machine of any kind, has a cost associated with it. When the cost of the human worker exceeds the cost of the robot/machine, a business will entertain the idea of replacing the human component after examining all the costs associated with doing so. Not all costs are monetary. Minimum wage proponents seem to always ignore this inconvenient truth. But then again minimum wage laws are passed by idiots who can't understand this concept.
.
When I order a pizza from China it shows up 3 weeks later and it's cold.
How much is right tip?
WD 40?
there's a reason why most people in casinos prefer slot machines. the employees often have crappy attitudes at the other games so there you go. here's a dollar for your (bad) attitude, now get lost.
Seems like old tech no? Wouldn't most people prefer to bring up the menu on their car dash screen as they are driving toward Mc'Ds, then speak the order, hit send, and have it ready when they get there? Even have the charge okayed on the screen. Or, if walking bring it up on their I-Phone, and again, it is ready when they arrive.
Just thinking...
Have you ever been to McDonalds.
I have, they are frigging nursing homes with central american staff.
You can't run a tech environment that might require user intervention in a place that won't have workers with a clue.
The fucking coffee machine is way beyond anyone but management...
All that tech stuff is coming, as soon as you can get the people out of there..
They'll troublehoot the burger-bot from a L3 NOC somewhere near herndon, VA if you need help.
I remember seeing some poster on here on while back talking about the automated restraunt...
He was right when he claimed that they will eventually get us to the point that we just walk up to the building and it deploys a teet/snorkle that scans your chip and pumps your "burger" out a tube while you suck greedly at the thing.
Its coming.
Fuck, I should open one now.
You young tech geeks are morons.
Do you understand that the business has tricked you into performing their labour for them, free of charge to you? That's where the increased profits come from, idiots like you who do their employees jobs for them.
Genius, getting the customers to become the employees for no pay.
Self-checkout lines at stores/grocery stores are a perfect example of this.
What you once paid someone to do for you (ring up your purchases and bag them), you now pay someone for while you do it for yourself.
I refuse to travel just to rent a kitchen.
Fast food production is already a mechanized process. It comes off the conveyor belt and passes though another set of machines before reaching the customer. Tasks performend by low wage employees are superficial, simple and repetitive. Knowing the complexity of machines involved in processing and handling of merchandize I find it surprising that every worker associated with food service and retail hasn't been replaced by a machine already. Machines are cheap and considering the fact that they are already doing all the actual jobs, all that is left is the removal of operator console. Perhaps the firms are simply wating for the old generation of hardware to exhaust itself, to then swap it for an identical gizmo without an interface.
A bad thing? Maybe. But only in a world where the banks control the money supply and the parasitic government holds a monopoly on the means of production (land). In a normal world 2 people minus a robot would have lower standard of living than 2 people plus a robot. Machines doing things instead of people is only a bad thing in our backwards reality where the total amount of interest bearing debt is greater than all the money in circulation and therefore all the assets in existence, serving as collateral have no option but to eventually end up as repossessions.
Every bit of progress, every technological advantage is already owed to the bank 10 times over. Instead of producers and inventors of new technologies solving world's problems, benefitting producers and encouraging more production, we have banks on every corner, sucking the light out of the day, building a dystopian future where one who is not able to serve others won't even be allowed to serve himself.
Fast food machines? Oh, thank you for inventing them! Unfortunately, they belong to the bank and the government, along with the factory loan, the land lease and the Monsanto farm where the green sludge comes from.
I am going to put a screw in my burger and sue for meeelions!!!
Just break a cockroach in half and shove it in between bites. Easier on the teeth!
The good news is that we will stop off shoring our production. The bad news is? We don't require your services. Well done!
The fast food workers are idiots if they let that fly, all the cooks have to do is urinate on all the buns and fries in protest and MCD's will rush to hire and hike wages in a mad dash to maintain "quality" control.
Even though their food is shit and everyone knows its shit.
If you are eating MCD'S you are essentially eating food flavored plastic and carcinogens ^^ . . .
Best thing for McD's to do is go back to basic, close down 20% of its chains and make quality food (real food real buns real meat real potatoes) and offer some more tea alternatives to soda.
If I eat fast food (rarely) I treat myself to a Baconator from Wendys (sure I know its probably not much better than McD's) but it tastes the hell of a lot better, there just isnt really even a comparison between the quality of Wendy's with McD's Wendys blows McDs out of the ballpark and thats even with 90% of the staff not even trying or giving a shit about their job.
Honestly, I think the only people still eating McD's are the people somehow addicted to the chemical concoctions in their food.
http://www.delish.com/cm/delish/images/sally-davies-180-day-hamburger.jpg
http://friendseat-images.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/09/french-fries-300x178.jpg
Its not "real" food its like 50% formaldehyde or something nothing natural resists decay that well.
I think the food loses all moisture and simply petrifies.
I doubt the sandwich is still soft and creamy.
One wonders how long before 'tablets' are also declared 'unpatriotic'.
Never. Tablets are great for hedonic adjustments and therefore for CPI and GDP, just ask Dudley.
Another example of much too little much too late, this corner-cutting will buy them a few more years, then full automation with 1 human maintenance tech per shift driving from store to store every day will buy them a few more. Fast food will probably be able to hold out longer, as even though it's a ridiculously energy inefficient way to feed people (ignoring the obvious issues with dignifying it by calling it "food"), people will indeed sacrifice other forms of consumption first.
robots will be a thing of the past when war robots become de rigueur --just a matter of time--and already in the works------total desolation with hunter gatherer jobs available for all thats left.
"total desolation"
Hell yea!
Japan is building an army nuclear powered, self destructing drones.
Sheesh.
They already have nuclear-powered self-destructing cities, why downgrade to just drone-size?
This gadget has just reduced the barrier to entry on fast food.
Now all one needs is a frugal formula and marketing plan…. And flashy laser shows on the side of the kiosk.
My grandpa use to take extra ketchup packets from McDonalds and squeeze them into his ketchup bottle at home. This was back in the 80s...he lived through the depression.
"What happens after that should be clear to everyone: more unemployment, lower wages for the remaining employees, worse worker morale, but even higher profits to holders of capital. And so on. Because in a world in which technology makes the unqualified worker utterely irrelevant, this is what is known as "progress."
this is what is known as progress.................... to those that are still employed that is. Soon it will be your turn,,, remember,,, progress cannot be stopped. Enjoy!
If ever I eat a burger, I buy my own USDA-certified organic beef from the local supermarket and cook it at home on the grill. Very expensive, but tastes a whole lot better and is healthier.
the new version of the lunchomatic. americans may order more food but they will also beat up more machines but it might work elsewhere.
Why hasn't minimum wage gone up with everything else? In 1964 we made 20 dollars and hr minimum wage adjusted. 1.25= 5 silver quarters, 5 silver quarters are about 20 dollars. Who do you think your going to get at 725 an hr or 1/3 the pay of 1964? We are getting Taxed More and More and getting less and less. Let the robots run MC Donald's the Government can now pay me to chill and you can carry me on your back- enjoy that burger!!! Let's look at prices in 1964-
Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.28%
Yearly Inflation Rate UK 3.5%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 874 Average Cost of new house $13,050.00 Average Income per year $6,000.00 Gas per Gallon 30 cents Average Cost of a new car $3,500.00 Loaf of bread 21 cents United States Postage Stamp 5 cents Average Monthly Rent $115.00 Ticket to the movies $1.25
Below are some Prices for UK guides in Pounds Sterling
Average House Price 3,360 From Our 1964 Toys Selection of 250 Sixties Toys Price: From $1.88
Because the 1960's were an aboration (compared to today), when America was at its peak of prosperity and industrial manufacturing might, with much of the rest of the industrialized world still rebuilding in the aftermath of WW2. Also, the US was the #1 creditor nation on the planet (not the #1 debter nation), our currency was strong and in demand worldwide to buy the burgoning output of US production. US companies were strong, not debt riddled ponzi schemes run by short term profit-taking schmucks and con men. American men had good full time jobs that paid enough to support a family, education was affordable, health insurance didn't exist (medical care was paid for in cash), and the interstate highway system and suburbia were in full build-out mode. Food was plentiful, wholesome, and cheap, credit was hard to get (no pulling demand forward or creating inflation), savings rates were high, the US was also the number #1 energy exporter on the planet, #1 in oil. All this would change, and it has been downhill ever since. The Chicago School of Business happiness index peaked in 1969 and has been in decline ever since, as has the US.
You can't compare Rome in 181A.D. to Rome in 386A.D.
Labour supply excess: made too many babies a generation ago.
1
I say this at automated checkouts in grocers and such:
Why should I pay the same price, when I am doing one of the jobs of your business?
So I insist on the human, or I don't go.
Get someone else to think it is ""cool"" to do your job for you. Idiots
"I say this at automated checkouts in grocers and such:"
In the hood sometimes they forget to scan it. You get more for your money that way.
Shorter line? When I run in to grab a few specific things then leave quickly for the bus I find sometimes the wait to finish is shorter & then I don't miss my bus.
Since I'm a man I always go with a list, never just browse 'n' buy. In and out in under 10 minutes.
The store's bottom line is profit, my bottom line includes my time as well.
i can't believe that anyone eats that bone infested, sawdust filled, fat saturated crap. it should be outlawed like lead is.
you deserve a crap today at crapdonald's.
Anything that is fried, browned, burned, caramelized, contains excessive sugars, calories, carbs, or AGEs, or oxidized PUFAs and other fats, is bad for you. That doesn't even include the long list of carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens that Mother Nature piles into the food we eat - food that was designed with some other use in mind, not you eating it.
So basically, almost all food is bad for you.
Has it struck anybody else as strange that so much technological sophistication is here being expended on so vulgar an end, viz. the distribution of fast food? I mean, a robot is a pretty Rube Goldberg way of producing a cheeseburger when you think about the whole process from the bottom up. If all you wanted to do was make a burger, you probably would not begin the process by fashioning a robot. It is only the gigantic scale of the fast food industry that makes such an idea even remotely non-laughable let alone plausible; and it is only the presence of these restaurant chains as preexistent pieces of cultural furniture that allows us to think that their existence will be maintained in spite of everything, even if it requires such an over-the-top expedient as replacing human workers with mustard-pumping droids.
This is the epitome of what Nietzsche referred to derisively as Wagnerianism: technical sophistication in the service of barbaric ends. Is the continued existence of McDonalds really worth such a step? Of course not. This whole idea is just plain stupid when you look at it objectively. It is the cultural equivalent of an aneurism: an arterial distension of slack-blood within which the pressure steadily builds until the artery bursts. I actually prefer the (physically related) metaphor of the oxbow lake. Commissioning robots to flip burgers is a technological meander of absurdity that will grow more and more pronounced, creeping out into the flood plain in an ever-widening radius of nonsense until the main flow cuts it off and bypasses the whole pointless loop.