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Chinese Company Replaces Humans With Robots, Production Skyrockets, Mistakes Disappear
"I believe that anyone who has a job and works full time, they should be able to pay the things that sustain life: food, shelter and clothing. I can't even do that."
That rather depressing quote is from 61-year old Rebecca Cornick. She’s a grandmother and a 9-year Wendy’s veteran who spoke to CBS News. Rebecca makes $9 an hour and her plight is representative of fast food workers across the country who are campaigning for higher pay.
The fast food worker pay debate is part of a larger discussion as "states and cities across the country [wrestle] with the idea of raising the minimum wage," CBS notes, adding that "right now, 29 states have minimums above the federal $7.25 an hour [and] four cities, including Los Angeles, have doubled their minimum to $15."
Proponents of raising the pay floor argue that it’s simply not possible to live on minimum wage and indeed, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that they’re right. Opponents say forcing employers to pay more will simply mean that companies will fire people or stop hiring and indeed, as we highlighted on Friday, it looks as though WalMart’s move to implement an across-the-board pay raise for its low-paid workers may have contributed to a decision to layoff around 1,000 people at its home office in Bentonville.
"The reality is that most business are not going to pay $15 dollars an hour and keep their doors open," one Burger King franchisee told CBS. "It just won't happen. The economics don't work in this industry. There is a limit to what you're going to pay for a hamburger."
Yes, there’s only so much people will pay for a hamburger which is why Ronald McDonald has made an executive decision to hire more efficient employees at some locations:
With all of that in mind, consider the following from TechRepublic who tells the story of Changying Precision Technology Company, which has replaced almost all of its human employees with robots to great success:
In Dongguan City, located in the central Guangdong province of China, a technology company has set up a factory run almost exclusively by robots, and the results are fascinating.
The Changying Precision Technology Company factory in Dongguan has automated production lines that use robotic arms to produce parts for cell phones.
The factory also has automated machining equipment, autonomous transport trucks, and other automated equipment in the warehouse.
There are still people working at the factory, though. Three workers check and monitor each production line and there are other employees who monitor a computer control system. Previously, there were 650 employees at the factory. With the new robots, there's now only 60. Luo Weiqiang, general manager of the company, told the People's Daily that the number of employees could drop to 20 in the future.
The robots have produced almost three times as many pieces as were produced before. According to the People's Daily, production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That's a 162.5% increase.
The increased production rate hasn't come at the cost of quality either. In fact, quality has improved. Before the robots, the product defect rate was 25%, now it is below 5%.
So to anyone planning on picketing the local McDonald’s in an attempt to secure a 70% wage hike, be careful, because this "guy" is ready to work, doesn’t need breaks, and never makes a mistake:
Let’s just hope he doesn’t become self aware.
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On the flip side, why do we need to continue to import illiterate, non-assimilating, criminal rapists, murders, drug dealers, child molesting immigrants if the robots can do all the jobs?
We wouldn't be if the drug war was ended. Making the drugs (I'm talking about the plant 'drugs', not the man-made 'drugs') illegal forces them to the black market. That allows these criminal types to have a monopoly on the supply chain from the south (the US support of certain drung gangs in Mexico, ensures th monopoly).
End the war of drugs and that southern border becomes much more safe. The dangerous immigrants would also have no business reasons to travel up here.
Yeah, no reason to travel up here at all, except for that quality of life thingy.
Yeah, America enjoys the best quality of life for immigrants!
Picking produce all day in 100 degrees. Crammig 12 people into a single family home. Go America!
Let the people that want to come here and work and live peacficully come. I know we shipped most of the work overseas, but one day we will need to produce our own stuff again. We will need people who are willing to work and make an honest living.
Remember 100% of us here today would not be living here today if our ancestors did not immigrate here at some point (yes even the so-called 'natives').
95% of agricultural work can be done mechanically. Big-Agri just doesn't want to go that route.
Cotton used to be planted and harvested and the seeds removed by humans. Today they use tractors to plant the cotton, harvesters to pick the cotton, and machines to pull the seeds from the fibers.
In Florida, migrants used to pick tomatos from the fields, no longer, its all done mechanically.
Why don't we just go back to the good ole days and have the darkies do all the work again?
Just not economically feasible anymore.
The US is not a jobs program for Mexico's and Central America's poor. We have more than enough illiterate worthless assholes occupying our largest cities. We don't need to import more of the world's poor to come here and live off of welfare.
Again, ask yourself why they come here.
Is it for freedom and the 'American Dream'. We all know that is a bunch of bull. Do they come because the work is awesome. Obviously not. They come to tap into the wlefare state.
End the all the handouts and we will see who is really coming to be prosporuos!
They're only taking the jobs of 58 million aborted Americans.
Ok, but the robots must be programmed to vote in all the parasitic psychopathic politicians. Then they will gladly stop illegal immigration.
Miffed
For the votes, silly.
Well, it's China, so at some point if this trend catches on there will be riots and robot peices scattered around once productive factories. Taking the peasants' farmland then taking their jobs will not be a popular trend in China.
The Luddites were textile workers in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire, skilled artisans whose trade and communities were threatened by a combination of machines and other practices that had been unilaterally imposed by the aggressive new class of manufacturers that drove the Industrial Revolution.
In Nottinghamshire, where the Luddite attacks began in November 1811, the ‘framework-knitters’ or ‘stockingers’ who produced hosiery using stocking frames had a number of grievances, including wage-cutting, the use of unapprenticed youths for the same purpose, and the use of the new ‘wide frames’, which produced cheap, inferior quality goods. The fact that the stockingers objected to the latter because they were destroying the reputation of their trade illustrates the conflict between skilled artisans and the free-market/industrial mindset. The undermining of wages and the use of unskilled labour clashed with the existing ‘social contract’ between workers and masters that prescribed ‘customary’ wages that had been maintained by tradition over many decades. Many of the smaller master hosiers supported the stockingers’ demands and some are thought even to have refused to name to the authorities men they knew were involved in the Luddite attacks.
In Yorkshire, the Luddites were led by the croppers, highly skilled finishers of woolen cloth who commanded much higher wages that other workers, and were highly organised. For the past decade they had petitioned Parliament to enforce obsolescent legislation enforcing apprenticeship, and against ‘gig mills’, machines invented in the 16th century which could do part of the croppers’ job. But the greatest threat to them was a more recent invention, the hated shearing frame which eventually almost entirely displaced them over the next ten years. In 1809, under pressure from the manufacturers, Parliament repealed all the old legislation, thus removing the artisans’ last hope of redress for their grievances by legal and democratic means.
And that's why Great -Great Grandpappy became a millwright. Adapt or die.
1960s video of an axe forge, one of the last in Oakland, Maine. You can see there are only a few workers remaining and the story tells of one of the men moving south to push a broom for twice the pay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr4VTCwEfko
Just think how many times this happened to people and how little society values skill. The Luddites were right, low-skill ethics and machines can only hollow out a society. Marxism demands a society of low-skill workers, and capitalism demands a society of low-skill consumers. That is the binary choice of modernity.
One of the greatest myths of our time is that great technology makes our lives easier, we work less and have more leisure. Nothing could be further from the truth. We live longer than societies based on slave agriculture, but we also work much more, participate in meaningless rituals, and generally are made to be stupid slaves of the mind. Instead of nasty, brutish, and short, life has become nasty, borish, and long.
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html
What these hours clearly don't take into account are the extended trips to buy goods for the home which has essentially become its own industry, the doubling of labour time in which women share or take men's jobs and battle politically for more equality, the increased time in sharing childcare and household chores, increased commute times. That men were forced to share work with women is one of the greatest inflationary tricks in history, and perhaps the least talked about. Essentially it has doubled work hours while keeping pay rates the same and deepening societal divisions.
Absolutely true but once unleashed, unstoppable.
I would have gladly stayed home to raise our kids and live simply to do so but with inflation and taxation, my husband's wage was eroded. I had to return part time or we would have gone into debt. This was devastating to me. Looking back on it we made the wrong choice to buy an older house. Instead we should have bought a few acres,placed a trailer home on it and lived in our budget. We both could have concentrated on our personal strengths instead of both of us becoming wage and tax slaves. We learned a hard lesson.
Miffed
hey general:
What's this 'we' white man? Work much more? Compared to subsistance living? Meaningless rituals? That might be an alternative statement of the human condition, and has been forever.
But "are made"? Maybe you are made to do that shit. Always looking for the source of the influence, the (wo)man behind the curtain, when one uses passive voice.
So, who "makes" a human to be stupid? Let alone a "slave" (although we do know of certain cultures that are slavers).
'splain yourself, and a reddie on ya.
- Ned
Don't let um take your joy, then you know the end is near.
Good? Bad? Ugly?
It is a slippery slope....because we've always ended up taking the wrong road, wrong for us, good for machines...
The mobile phone is the ultimate disconnecter, de-humanizer I've ever met...
https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/the-age-of-machines/
The computer is the foundation for it all.
It is.
A binary existence in a trinary space...
The Unabomber said it all 20 years ago.
I think he was a brilliant patsy and they WANTED us to know what was in his tome.
Same with the report from Iron Mountian....
The guy killed 3-4 people and gets placed in the worst prison in America, a federal super-max in the west while war criminals who killed millions are free!
Millions upon millions of Lol-cats disagree. The computer has given them an inordinate amount of power over humans.
Great news is that unemployment in the land of the free is only 5.3% and constantly falling.
It's only bad news for Southern European countries which have double digit unemployment and nearly 50% unemployment for young people.
Greece's unemployment rate is 25.6%.
All hail Obama the Savior.
Greek unemployment is so high only because gov there hasn't learned how to lie convincingly.
REAL US unemployment - calculated using 1980's methodology - is over 20%, worse when you take into account all the underemployment at minimum wage and part time hours. But after decades of manipulating numbers we in the US can say unemployment is just over 5% and the compliant media will trumpet the good news far and wide. Both political parties learned after Carter that it's far easier to lie about things than improve them.
I'm going to posit that lying was pretty stylish in Govt. circles well before Carter.
True, but the Boskin commission that Clinton organized took lying to a whole new level. These folks came up with the hedonic adjustments that really allowed gov't to continually make up new ways to lie about costs so that SS and other gov't obligations could be contained to a COLA that was well below actual monetary debasement (AKA inflation).
We've had the same results .... with Israel loathing, socialist, Muslim troll-bots .... they work tirelessly .... at booring, repetitive tasks !
where do all the "useless" people go?
Chicago, NY, LA, PR, Baltimore, Miami, [insert leftist controlled city here]...
nice jobs today btw
https://youtu.be/0FsHC52a6x4?t=327
https://youtu.be/0FsHC52a6x4?t=263
They join the welfare state and get bailed out by our government. "Useless" is no longer a politically correct term and should be avoided. Remember, in todays society, there is no such thing as failure.
Nope, nobody did anything wrong, but if they did no wrong don't ya know they also did'nt do anything right, so now they only have to pay the consequences for not doing anything right, which is different from paying the consequences for doing something wrong, making sense now??
No. Not at all, since you asked. :)
They're going to be killed in the coming WWIII. See Georgia Guidestones.
...making all them robots obsolete.
Exactly. I saw the same ten years ago at T. 400 people down to 35 in a few years. "Productivity increases" (computerised records keeping and computer system monitoring).
The real question, that you stated, is what happens to the people? The corporations get all the profit from "productivity increases", and law changes that allow them to not pay the few remaining employees healthcare and pensions, and tax breaks for everything under the sun, even to the point of not only not paying taxes, but actually RECIEVING tax dollars.
"Productivity increases" are gonna be the death of us all. Except the corporations, who, as luck would have it, have been declared people, so at least the species will go on.... and the. 0001% who own the corporations. Can't forget about them!
I thought they all went to Washington D.C.
Gvt.
see Georgia Guidestones
US socialists are already in full denial that robots will take low-wage jobs. Once it starts happening, they'll try to ban it.
The same thing could be said for cordless drills and farm tractors. We do not have to worry about automation at all really. The reason being is that when you lay everybody off and then cut off wlefare they will riot and burn down all the robot factories..
Ecosystems self-balance ...
For sure. We'll just let loose that damn dentist in the U.S. And he can go all safari on their robot asses!
In the 1950s, Henry Ford II and CIO President Walter Reuther were touring a new Ford robot factory in the Midwest
Henry Ford II: Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?
Walter Reuther: Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?
Henry Ford didnt sell cars to his workers only.
Bring it on. Robots don't spit in your food.
What's the end game here? Robots don't need food, shelter, clothing. I guess, on a long enough time line the survival rate for everyone DOES drop to zero.
I think the end game is robot maintenance. If TPTB don't maintain the robots (an expense) then eventually they all break down. They will have to hire humans to get them working again and maybe temporarily replace the robots to produce goods (after altering the assembly line for humans).
We know how TPTB love expenses, so you know there will be at least some robot factories in trouble.
It's human maintenance, using robots to do the heavy lifting so to speak.
I'm saying at least some manufacturers will neglect the maintenance of the robots.
Also members of my family have a Keurig 2.0. The thing can't even be counted on to make coffee on a daily basis. It constantly "forgets how to brew coffee." There are long "reheating" (the water) loading screens while the machine basically does nothing. Robots are only as good as the person programming them.
Evidentally Green Mountain Coffee hires shit programmers.
Yep, just like cars, everyone goes to hell unless YOU, make it work.
French press
Pan to boil water on the stove
Hasn't failed me yet.
The game changer is when trucking goes driverless. Daimler Chrysler is already trialing a truck that can drive itself, yet for now must be monitored by a human. However it already has lead to truck fuel efficiency increases up to 7%.
I don't think driverless cares will be going anywhere. All it will take is for a few people to get run over. Look at the cities battling Uber for the sake of their taxi drivers. They will outlaw driverless cars eventually.
People don't get run over now ?
Uber is here to stay - $1M taxi Medallians are what are going away.
When people get run over now there is this thing call "accountability." Who are you going to blame when a machine runs someone over?
Unless they retrofit current truck stops to fill the trucks with fuel robotically they'll at least need a ride-along monkey to pump fuel.
The other option would be to hire muzzies to pump the fuel, like they have in Jersey, until robot mechinization can take over.
Pure Evil Note: Jersey has a law prohibiting drivers from pumping their own gas. And, with over 95% of stations in Jersey staffed by muzzies (seems to fit since they also pump the oil) or Indians pumping the fuel I can only guess it keeps them busy enough to not go out and commit Jihad American Style.
I was riding thru Oregon some twenty years ago and nearly got in a brawl with a dude who attacked me when I tried to fill my tank. Turned out that they have, or had, a law there too... don't know if they still do....
In New Jersey some of them freak out and start lecturing you, while the more lazy ones watch out of state drivers use their credit/debit card to buy and pump their own gas. I still can't believe NJ has gas at the price it is at with making it mandatory for someone to pump your gas.
When I go to NYC, I typically pay more to pump my own gas. The gas tax must be ridiculous.
Illegal to pump your own gas??!?? Wow!
Then again, it is illegal to play TexasHoleDumb in Texas.... that one still boggles my mind.....
In Mexico no self service pumping at all Pemex gas stations
Automatic tranny and smaller trucks.
Automated cars would work if all cars were automated and controlled by a central computer, driving on closed roads free of unexpected obstacles.
The point of view that efficiency is optimal is a corporate sponsored value.
An alternative humanistic value is quality of workmanship. Love of the activity of producing something with quality.
Putting people out work lauding robots helps no one but the corporate masters.
So that's no tomato, hamburger wih double cheese and 1 leaf of lettice, hold the mayo, coke no ice and a cold apple pie.
Sorry, order only what's on the menu - have a nice day, beep, beep...
Nope, you get it exactly the way you want it. Read this, last year on ZH
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-12/meet-smart-restaurant-minimum-w...
THIS is what happens when government interferes with arbitrarily high wages/demands. The government thinks they are "protecting" workers. In fact, the opposite is true.
Okay, give me two all beef pattys, special sauce lettice cheese pickles on a sensimia bun.
And a big lugee to top it all off.
So....61 years old and still flipping burgers for a living? Another person who for the last 20 years has been oblivious to the changes taking place in the world and did NOT hedge accordingly.
The age and planning is obviously not good but the expectation that they are owed more simply because they exists is the problem.
There's nothing wrong with thinking you're owed more. Doing nothing about it is another consideration.
Were there no paths into management. If she worked the line for 20 years without attempting to become at least a shift leader or assistant manager then she should be kicking her own ass.
But, as Forrest Gump says, Stupid is as Stupid does.
You are owed what the employer is willing to pay you for the job offered.
If you do not like it get another job that pays more, if you can't get another job that pays more, that should tell you something about yourself and your skill sets.
Expecting more simply because you want it, is like electing a lazy communists as President of the USA.... oh, wait a minute....
It is not my fault I'm a lazy dumbass, the bosses screwed me.
She should have taken her "experience" and became a waitress. They on average get more than $9 an hour, especially if half of the population on Zero Hedge (who doesn't believe in tipping them) stays away from their restaurants.
To be a waiter, you have to smile and be congenial to all races and creeds - some people refuse to be disrespected in that manner.
I have to sound pleasant in my job to people who should have no business in what sector of the economy I am in all day as well. It's called earning a paycheck without better skills (programming/coding, engineering, being a scientist, etc.).
She should of just got an E-Trade margin account like everyone else and bought AMZN,GOOG,FB,APPL,TSLA, (____) -fill in the blank-
I think you guys are a little confused. Not everyone in a totalitarian society can be a billionaire.
When you're earning barely enough to pay the rent it makes it a little hard to worship fonestar and climb the bitcoin ladder.
There were a couple coffe and donut franchizes in Canada (Tim Hortons) located within hospitals. They had to pay thier employees the hospital union wages of over $20/hr. The locations were very busy, and they also had limited hours to keep costs down, but those franchizes LOST 1/4 to 1/2 a million dollars a year. Those costs were subzidized by the hospitals.
But it's VERY clear that high wages in the fast food industry aren't sustainable, at the prices people are willing to pay for the food.
Look at Norway, they have lots of social benefits and high wages. A typical "meal" at McD's costs about $20 (for one person).
A sound investment by the hospital, the donut eaters were immediately wheeled to the ER with clogged arteries.
Dumb Canadians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D2Q99X3Db8
Keep your stick on the ice. Now known as, keep your robot on the donut.
And yet there is a Tim Hortons not far from my workplace that is paying their employees roughly $13 - $15 an hour and it was due to the demand for employees. Place seems to operate with 6 people behind the counter re-heating donuts and old coffee and it is still making a killing (always a hire sign outside for new positions, as people move onto better paying jobs). So they seem to still be making money by paying their employees half decently (or at least closer to livable).
Robots can't operate my French press .... I pour in 2/3rds of the hot water .... stir the slurry vigorously with my bacon fork .... then pour the remaining water to rinse and sterilize my bacon fork .... let it steep a couple of minutes .... don't worry, bacon and coffee are synergistic flavours .... and it keeps the Muzzies away !
Disney seems to be laying out our future.
Yeah? I cant wait to hear what HR says when the Wolf coil feeder is caught fucking the Mazak in the coatroom at the Christmas Party!...
Where do they get their energy from? Thats their weak link. Kill the energy, kill the robot.
Steak 'n' beans .... are less environmentally friendly .... than clean burning coal ?
The same as humans
Oops! Luddite alert!
Why kill the robot? It's automation that formed the essence of the Industrial Revolution that sparked a global rise in prosperity that 'raised all boats.'
Today however, the bulk of mankind has had its attention redirected against automation because this trend appears to be reversing --when the real culprit to blame for the sudden and truly wide-spread increase in unemployment globally, is actually due to the 'financialization' (read: rapidly advancing fascism) of the worlds' formerly most advanced countries, due to the control of their respective governments by a mere handful of banks [ note: bribery and corruption on an industrial scale! ]
If this parasitic layer were to be removed from society however, the process of increasing employment and prosperity would return in the blink of an eye.
Don't be misdirected into buying into the same tired meme that formerly fueled the "communist" revolutions of the past (also financed by banks, by the way)
You sound like a good taylorist fool. What's the difference between a marxist and a good capitalist slave? The marxist believes that when everyone works salvation lies ahead, the capitalist slave believes that when anyone works salvation lies ahead, for him.
Industrialism more than doubled work time and simply changed the definition of wealth to a millenarian belief in useless junk.
Read 'We'. I think the reason so few read it and understand it is because its critique of socialist society hits too close to home for capitalism and democracy. People don't want to believe how close the two systems are in their foundation.
The State controls the money supply, the schools, the healthcare, the justice system, the transport infrastructure ... and so forth.
But, yeah, let's call it "Capitalism".
"Industrialism more than doubled work time"
No, it didn't. The people working long hours in factories worked longer, harder hours on farms previously. They might have worked harder than artisans and such, but thats apples and oranges. Of course, as they moved into the middle class, their hours and wages became more like those middle class artisans.
So, who are these robots selling their products to? Jobless moneyless customers?
Sell to government subsidized citizens (and non-citizens), after all they just need to keep on printing.
With the rapid advancement in 3D printers they will be printing biological robots in no time.
I wonder if they will print 'minority' robots to maintain the farce.
The Justice Brotha'z will have it no other way. Otherwise, their rice bowl will also vanish.
- Ned
Gonna need stronger suicide nets.
Robots don't buy goods. it is just a matter of time until there is no one left to buy the products or so few that having robots make them, makes no sense.
With every robotic advancement, the need for entitlements increases. A robotic world world will mean an entirely entitled world. Pure socialism. It can be no other way. So you may want to be careful what you wish for when it comes to replacing humans.
In a roundabout way you are correct. The situation of robots replacing people is entirely due to governments trying to "protect" workers. By mandating more protection, in the form of social benefits, safety, higher wages, greater power over their employeers, and hundreds of other "worker benefits", the companies have to make a decision.
Their decision? Get rid of people and replace them with robots. So those entitlements you speak of are the direct cause of the workers being displaced by robots. Robots who don't need all those entitlements.
So what do all those entitled workers do? They look to government for MORE entitlements when they no longer have jobs. That's why HALF of the US population is on some type of social benefit. The situation isn't sustainable in the long run, and that's why socialism eventually breaks down, when they run out of other people's money.
It's a vicious circle powered almost exclusively by the corporations relentless pursuit of profits, at any cost to our society.
The corporations get a big assist from.gov, who, instead of working for the peoples best interests, work for the corporations.
Well, if you kill off the non-productive and the people who service only the excess of useless eaters, you can keep a limited few to build the yachts, exec. jets and things that are useful to the .01%.
I don't know what they'll do with Keith Richards in the coming century. He might have another 50 years left in him.
Sanger and gang totally agree with you on this.
He's patient zero in the longevity study: "The Effects of non-Controlled Cocaine Use on a nominally Anglo-Saxon Brit Thang with no Self-Control as Regards Consumption of Various Ethanol Derived Liquids Under Varying States of Testerosterone Initiated Ejections: An Initial Survey."
Please note that this preliminary title is not intended to offend any individual of any race, ethnic background, gender, perceived gender, claimed gender, claimed sex, perceived sex. If such offense is sensed in any form, then the offendee is well advised to go fuck his/her/its self and to thoroughly enjoy said auto-process.
- Ned
Everyone wants to blame those on entitlements when in reality it is the "robots" that made them rely on them.
Yes, at some point there is a tipping point right? People out of work will buy less stuff, which will slow production, creating a self defeating situation.
I think you just defined the current state of the US economy quite succinctly.
It's called supply and demand. Prices will come down until people can afford them. With a robotic supply chain from top to bottom, the marginal cost of goods will be zero, so the prices can fall that far without violating any economic laws.
The point of capitalism is to use capital to do more with less. The logical endpoint is where you can use capital to get anything with nothing. We are almost there. Government interference only slows the rollout.
The slave labor making NIKES and iPhones were not buying them anyway, but I get your point.
Maybe robots will manufacture more robots so they can drive us and do our shopping. That way we'll have more time for U of Phoenix in order to train for our new and soon to be obsolete occupation
We had a good run fellow useless eaters
One thing that is overlooked, is no one actually wants these food service jobs, just the money. They are menial tasks that SHOULD be replaced by automation and kiosks. Those jobs are in no way satisfying or engaging to humans in anyway. If you are such a humanist, you should be fighting to get people in real jobs that aren't so degrading.
You contradicted yourself by wanting menial tasks replaced by machines, then no examples of "real jobs" that won't be replaced by machines.
All jobs that are not repetitive and require original thinking are suited for humans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i5OrcxwFUA
Meet your next burger flipper: http://www.businessinsider.com/momentum-machines-burger-robot-2014-8
I wonder about this.... Everytime someone is replaced by a machine that person will no longer be a paying customer for that company's profit or others. I mean are those robots going to purchase these products?
The fact that this is in China where labor is very cheap, almost slave like shows that eliminating employees no matter how cheap is the long term goal. What's interesting in this article is there is no mention of how much it cost to buy the machines and set them up. Doesn't apparently matter as the companys productivity tripled. Again, I repeat.... they will be selling their cell phones to people around the globe that are still employed... for now.
IMO, the constant replacement of people by machines is a major cause of the global downturn. Corporate profits (real) are already down. They are not only firing people, they're eliminating the customer base. Machines were supposed to help, not replace people.
Let's say they can replace 80% of employees worlwide,,, which means only 20% will have some kind of work and at an extremely low wage due to the number of jobless people competing. This means they will have an 80% over capacity problem which means a lot of bankrupt companies.
From a long term view,,, I don't see this ending well....
The problem in China is that wages HAVE been INCREASING. That's why they are beginning to turn to robots.
For cheaper labour, even China is turning to other poorer parts of the world. Just like Japan turned to robots and cheaper sources of labour as their own labour became more expensive.
understood,,, but my point is I don't see how this can work long term when you eliminate 80-90% of the workforce. Soon the machines will be building the machines (reproducing) and repairing the machines.
Sure, right now those that are employed are reaping the benefits of a less costly product but at what long term cost?
Will everyone be on the government dole? Where will they get the resources to purchase the products? How will government support a population where no one is producing?
They're not good at thinking these things through to their logical end. That's why the US is in the condition its in after they outsourced those very same jobs to China in the first place 20 years ago.
It's not exactly "outsourcing", the companies have been forced out by government regulations. As you say, governments are very short sighted.
Free money makes relocating factories overseas cheap and easy. Big Corps. can do it and those without access can't compete with the domestic tax disadvantages.
Why build factories at all in the US when you can mail a set of prints to China for manufacture and keep all your foreign sales profits offshore?
"According to a teardown report from research firm IHS, the components and manufacturing cost of a 16GB iPhone 6 cost Apple $200.10. The device is selling for $649 in the U.S. without a contract with a wireless carrier. That gives the device a profit margin of about 69%.Sep 24, 2014" Not bad money since the tech mags will give you all the free advertising by reviewing your product ad nauseum.Complete breakdown of society is the end result of a socialistic society. The workers are being replaced by robots because of government "improvements" mandating greater benefits and protections for workers. These government "improvements" are very costly and disruptive to companies.
So companies "solve" the "problem" by getting rid of workers. It's the short sighted and unintended consequence of governments "protecting" workers.
As for everyone on the government dole? HALF of the US population is on some form of social assistance. The more demands of taxation from government on the remaining productive population will force even more companies to leave for other countries. It's a slow, downward spiral.
It WILL happen, and the country WILL fail. The only unknown, is how long it will take.
It doesn't end well in the short term. All the wealth gets concentrated, and then the system collapses. It's the civilization that comes after that collapse that will really deal with the concepts of robots and AI. What's going to be interesting is the potental arms race between AI and genetic engineering. I actually believe that flesh has more top end, and the lines between machine and animal will slowly begin to blur.
Piss!...who is gonna buy all this Humanoid shit I've accumulated at my next garage sale?
I'll tell you what. I'll stop buy next week and buy all your shiite and you'll do the same at my garage sale the week after.
We'll keep raising prices every week that way we can get rich in just a few months.
/s
Who goes first
There would also have to be deflation, since no one owuld have any money to spend.
The .01% can be worth 1,000,000,000,000,000 each. They will still be cheap fuckers.
Robotics is the way manufacturing returns to North America
Assuming no societal disintegration first
It's a close race
Under Obama's Climate change laws, Robots will get free carbon credits.
Who services the Robots under preventive maintenance? Nevermind.
Can't wait to hack these fucker's and make them perform strange activities. Ie, walking aimlessly around scratching their ass.
/sarc
When the West farmed out manufacturing and kept service industries, it forgot raising productivity in manufacturing is much easier than the service industries.
How can we make doctors, dentists, lawyers and accountants more efficient?
Can we replace them with robots?
Wall Street should be working shifts and operating 24 hours a day, there is always a market in the world that is open.
One could argue you could make lawyers more* efficient by eliminating them.
All those guys value drops to zero with a gold std currency, just like a ZH customer.
Accountants and lawyers certainly. Doctors and dentist I believe would still be highly valued.
Wrong again Einstien, we just bitch slapped the dept of education and then they went home whining about it.
I guess I'm not Einstein, because I seriously have no clue what the fuck you are talking about.
I like resourceful Capitalists .... like my mother .... she'd scrape the butter off the wrapper .... can a robot do that ?
Like I keep saying, With California (and Arizona, New Mexico, and of course Nevada) turning into a giant dry dust bowl, there will simply not be enough food to go around.
They are about to announce the new miracle water witch called "reverse osmosis", which is just a filter to separate H2O from salt -- which requires many new nuclear power plants to provide the needed energy. Then when the Big One hits the entire Weat Coast will become Fukushima x1,000.
The "fast food" will glow in the dark. All the radioactive Westerners will move to the East Coast. We will learn to grow food in greenhouses on top of houses, like the Russians are doing.
There might be some economic effects...
"The reality is that most business are not going to pay $15 dollars an hour and keep their doors open," one Burger King franchisee told CBS. "It just won't happen. The economics don't work in this industry. There is a limit to what you're going to pay for a hamburger."
There is "no" limit on what you're going to pay for a hamburger. When I started my career in the early 60s, a restaurant hamburger cost $0.25. Steak-n-Shake claimed better beef cuts in their burgers and charged $0.29. Then along came McDonalds ($0.15), Mr. Quick ($0.19) and myriad others.
Now, don't you think back then the vendors were saying "there's a limit to what you're going to pay for a hamburger"? Do you think they thought $1.00 or $2.00 or more was above that limit?
A rising tide raises all boats. In my lifetime I've seen this slow ratchet progressing continuously.
Why? Because our government finances itself on inflation. Our financial industry requires inflation to make their scams work.
Institute a properly managed Medium of Exchange (MOE) with guaranteed zero inflation and watch all these problems go away.
If people are willing to pay more and more for crappy hamburgers that contain cellulose and seaweed then why is McDonald's profits in the tank and they're planning to close over 700 stores. And, now they're trying to entice customers back with what they consider a real beef hamburger. Most of their food is probably for the most part animal byproduct.
I went by Wendy's yesterday. The week before their spicy chicken sandwich was one size, yesterday it had shrunk to the size of one of their dollar value sandwiches. I'm sure if I ordered a sandwich from the dollar menu it would now be the size of a biscuit, with their biscuits now being the size of a tater tot.
I'm not about to go back again and pay over eight dollars for a mini-me meal.
What is so hard about making a spicy chicken sand?wich
There is more to the story with some of the fast food chains.
Not saying I know exactly what all is going on, but quality has dropped while prices have gone up. If quality had stayed level they might have managed.
I pay more than $2 for a hamburger. I go to a local place, or sometimes Culver's and pay $4 for a single patty burger w/cheese. But is isn't crappy.
Usually skip fries/drinks.
Because now for the price of a decent burger with fries and a drink you can go to a nice diner or ethnic place with more interesting and varied food.
If people are willing to pay more and more for crappy hamburgers that contain cellulose and seaweed then why is McDonald's profits in the tank and they're planning to close over 700 stores.
McDonalds has far more competitors now than when they started in the late 50's. If they made "no" changes to their product over those years they still would likely have overbuilt and had to retrench in the face of new competition. It's a life cycle thing.
The week before their spicy chicken sandwich was one size, yesterday it had shrunk to the size of one of their dollar value sandwiches.
This is the first step in the staccato march of inflation. Cost of production goes up but they do what they can to hold prices. Once they've trimmed back the profits and improved their efficiency as much as they can (or want to), they begin to fake their customers out ... bigger box, less contents. While all this is happening they are holding wages down and laying off people. Soon something has to give. Wages go up in a spurt and prices do too. And the cycle continues.
A Hershey bar of larger size cost just $0.05 when I was in high school. A summer job (like roofing or landscaping) paid $1.50/hour.
I remember when they started adding COLAs (Cost of Living Adjustments) to the union contracts. What an obvious joke that was ... creating a positive feedback that could only eventually blow up the system.
Let's face it. The problem is non-zero inflation. We could be guaranteed zero inflation if we properly managed our Medium of Exchange. But look whose ox gets gored with zero inflation: Governments; the financial industries; the real-estate industries; and lots of accounting jobs wouldn't exist with zero inflation.
My Daddy was no socialist slouch .... he'd rub the joints of his fishing pole .... with nose grease !
production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That's a 162.5% increase.
No it isn't. It's increased by a multiple of 2.625.
We've all seen what automation does to the workforce, I saw it in the auto industry of the 80-90's, our great, great grandpas probably experienced it during the Luddite rebellion in the textile industry. This is the way we're heading. I won't argue whether automation removes drudgery and menial tasks from the human experience or whether it removes those who are unskilled a chance at honest labour. It's too complex and broad to explain in a sentence.
The Robot will be the new slave class and the old slaves will, for awhile, be put on the rubbish heap to fend for themselves or evolve new skills. Be warned though, automation is only as good as the programmer and as the chinese get better at it, they will export the next generation of robots and programmers into the world to cause the same social upheavals that they will experience in their employment sectors. Just to add to the misery of supporting the growing unemployed.
Electricity put many out of work as well. Should that have been feared? And if no, where do you draw the line? When your job is under threat?
When I worked for Kobe Steel division back in mid 1990's. HQ sent over the best Japanese engineers to replicate Mitsubishi robot technology.
Eventually, the secret program was shutdown and they shipped the engineering department back to Kobe Japan. They were utilizing US Government tax abatement benefits. Back then, 10 years.
Epic failure.
Worried about criminal hackers taking over your laptop? Wait till they start taking over the robots.
Oh the fine low-hanging fun fruit that awaits!
We'll have some good laughs ahead of us. I've be dormant for decades. Being a good boy. Winks
However, this may be a good run for the money.
Look what havoc Stuxnet did to the Iranian uranium enrichment factory. And that factory was completely disconnected from the internet.
"No Robot ever called me Nigger"...
Unless it was a black robot and then it called you "Nigga"