Ai Restaurant opens in California

Comixbooks said:
I worked at McDonald's in the early 90s for a year fun job but made 4.50 after one year got a 10 cent raise so I quit. Burned myself a few times cleaning the grill at night.
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There's a McDonald's up here in the deeply frozen deep north of the part of Ontario that is not Toronto that's staffed almost entirely by seniors, many of whom have been there for years.

You know how McDonald's is shitty, inconsistent food with half the crap on the burger and the rest on the box or spilled into the bag? This one isn't, the place is clean, things are done properly and the food is consistently less shit than McDonald's seems to permit at most restaurants. The franchise owner pays them well, there are even some actual full-time employees in there. Of course, the owner is a Sikh, they tend to treat employees better than most people do.

The "It's minimum wage because people are useless" types never seem to realize that experience is useful in every single field of labour, whether you're an engineer, a rocket surgeon, or you stock shelves. In every civilization somebody's gotta clean the toilets.

McDonald's has been skating on the idea that the customers will just have such low standards that they won't care how shit the food is, so the staff turnover was the calculated risk they took. Except that McDonald's is having problems lately, because their quality standard has been getting worse and worse since the 80s.
 
Red Falcon said:
You aren't taking workplace insurance into account.
There is a massive cost savings in moving anything to AI/automation/robotics with general maintenance compared to humans who can get injured, proceed with legal action, have unemployment, etc.

It always comes down to cost, and the moment AI/automation/robotics are more cost effective than humans, well, here we are. :borg:
Megacorps don't invest billions/trillions into AI because they aren't "saving any money", its a massive forward-investment that is going to hurt the average individual in a severe way for at least the short/medium term, which will probably extend beyond our lifetimes.
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I'm also not taking into account of robots breaking down and needing repair. We gotta shut down the restaurant for a week because the technician won't be here until Friday. How much you think that technician will cost? I'm not saying this won't happen, but to point at this and make fun of people demanding a high paying job is ludicrous. Good chance that most people here are making a three figure salary and sit in from of a computer all day. All it takes is for some software to replace you, and the software is a heck of a lot cheaper than you are. You are far more likely to lose your job over automation instead of a physical laborer.

sharknice said:
Society will move on nonetheless. Automation and improved efficiency has continually been disrupting jobs throughout history. There have been bigger disruptions than "AI" in the past and people adapted and found ways to provide value. It wasn't long ago over half the people in the US were farmers, now it's less than 2%.
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Usually when things like this occur we tend to create more social safety nets for people. Homelessness is on the rise and nothing is really being done about it.

View: https://youtu.be/Dxhz9rn9f90?si=I5dS6oARJfGt2TwB
 
DukenukemX said:
Socialism by definition is putting democracy into the workplace. I know there's a lot of right leaning people here, but you guys have a very different definition of what is Socialism.

Whateverism. Right now Apple has more money than the GDP of some European countries, and that is scary. At what point could they just buy out our democracy? I say this and we have Trump and Biden as our best choices for president.

Then pay more. Are we in agreement that nobody should get paid $20 to shovel shit? The reality is that people found alternative means of making money and something like $20 for a shit job is just shit. It's also likely that people are now prioritizing their mental health and settling for jobs that pay less, but aren't stressing out their bodies and eating their time. You can't even get your car fixed without it costing as much as the car itself because that mechanic is now worth more per hour.

The thing is that everyone thinks that AI is going to replace the minimum wage workers but they got it all wrong. Flippy the robot which they showed is $30k with an additional $1,500 per month just to operate it. To replace a burger flipping human who gets paid $20 an hour? They're not saving themselves any money doing this, but a person who sits in front of a computer who makes TPS reports, or whatever it is, can be replaced with software. Even artists are a thing that could be replaced with just software. The Boston Dynamics robots can barely move boxes around like a human, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but software is cheap. The people that software can replace have a three figure salary. Most of those people are the ones who should be worried when they lose their jobs. Going forward, society really needs to rethink how to deal with what will be an alarming high jobless rate, because we're not going back to digging a hole and filling it strategy.
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I feel like Peter at the end of office space, I'll gladly shovel shit for the same salary as my desk job at this point lol.
 
DukenukemX said:
I'm also not taking into account of robots breaking down and needing repair. We gotta shut down the restaurant for a week because the technician won't be here until Friday. How much you think that technician will cost? I'm not saying this won't happen, but to point at this and make fun of people demanding a high paying job is ludicrous. Good chance that most people here are making a three figure salary and sit in from of a computer all day. All it takes is for some software to replace you, and the software is a heck of a lot cheaper than you are. You are far more likely to lose your job over automation instead of a physical laborer.


Usually when things like this occur we tend to create more social safety nets for people. Homelessness is on the rise and nothing is really being done about it.

View: https://youtu.be/Dxhz9rn9f90?si=I5dS6oARJfGt2TwB
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We're doing something about it, we're criminalizing it so we can make homeless people jail labor slaves.
 
Decko87 said:
We're doing something about it, we're criminalizing it so we can make homeless people jail labor slaves.
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Technically Colorado didn't ban slavery until 2020 or thereabouts because every time someone tried to ban slavery they wanted to raise taxes, so all the voters were like, "fuck that."

In any case, AI isn't going to replace anyone in the service industry. Journalists, on the other hand...
 
Decko87 said:
I feel like Peter at the end of office space, I'll gladly shovel shit for the same salary as my desk job at this point lol.
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No you wouldn't. You'd serious give up sitting at your comfortable desk over working at a burger joint? You'll come home with muscles hurting and dealing with Karens all day long. While at the office you spent half your time browsing the web, probably social media. That's kinda why people aren't taking service jobs because people are even worse today, and the amount of work you do is back breaking. You know who thought the same thing and found out he's wrong?

McConnell: - "chat that guy's a millionaire, you go to work and fucking have to deal with so much bullshit, you have to deal with people, it's awful, and you do backbreaking work you make pennies, this guy watches videos"

He went to go work at a Fast Food joint for a day and had a very different opinion on how hard his job really is. Why you think there's so many men and women who'd rather be V-Tubers instead of actually joining the work force?


View: https://youtu.be/eh3EyxiNes0?si=IVK5LZv45irKH4s0
 
Decko87 said:
We're doing something about it, we're criminalizing it so we can make homeless people jail labor slaves.
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Not to get political, I always seem to get warnings, but where are we jailing someone for being homeless? Sure places are making it so you can set up a camp, but at most they throw your stuff away and/or give them a 1 way bus ticket to SF, LA, or any number of large cities so it isn't their problem anymore
 
Axman said:
Technically Colorado didn't ban slavery until 2020 or thereabouts because every time someone tried to ban slavery they wanted to raise taxes, so all the voters were like, "fuck that."

In any case, AI isn't going to replace anyone in the service industry. Journalists, on the other hand...
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We have something called TABOR and we use it. Trying to tack tax proposals on top of other bills is just a recipe for it going down. Any real politician in Colorado would know that so not sure why they'd keep doing that. Sounds like the definition of insanity.
 
DukenukemX said:
No you wouldn't. You'd serious give up sitting at your comfortable desk over working at a burger joint? You'll come home with muscles hurting and dealing with Karens all day long. While at the office you spent half your time browsing the web, probably social media. That's kinda why people aren't taking service jobs because people are even worse today, and the amount of work you do is back breaking. You know who thought the same thing and found out he's wrong?

McConnell: - "chat that guy's a millionaire, you go to work and fucking have to deal with so much bullshit, you have to deal with people, it's awful, and you do backbreaking work you make pennies, this guy watches videos"

He went to go work at a Fast Food joint for a day and had a very different opinion on how hard his job really is. Why you think there's so many men and women who'd rather be V-Tubers instead of actually joining the work force?


View: https://youtu.be/eh3EyxiNes0?si=IVK5LZv45irKH4s0
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I worked in the service industry for a decade, I'll go back for 6 figures, a 401k, and healthcare. Being at my desk all day sucks. No one has any personality at my job anymore, it's dreadful. We're all just little productivity worker bees pushing on our sprint tasks. Whole system sucks and gives me panic attacks. I lift weights 4 days a week and do cardio. I did that back in my service industry days too.
 
Decko87 said:
I worked in the service industry for a decade, I'll go back for 6 figures, a 401k, and healthcare. Being at my desk all day sucks. No one has any personality at my job anymore, it's dreadful. We're all just little productivity worker bees pushing on our sprint tasks. Whole system sucks and gives me panic attacks. I lift weights 4 days a week and do cardio. I did that back in my service industry days too.
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Oh for the same pay and benefits I would totally go back. I had some of the funnest work days at McDonald’s even if it was a 14hr shift. I had a much better body then too, all that running around.
 
Darunion said:
Oh for the same pay and benefits I would totally go back. I had some of the funnest work days at McDonald’s even if it was a 14hr shift. I had a much better body then too, all that running around.
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Best shape I was ever in I was kickboxing and working at a bakery. Basically lifting weights all day. And the last thing you ever want when you're working at a bakery is a damn muffin.
 
Axman said:
Best shape I was ever in I was kickboxing and working at a bakery. Basically lifting weights all day. And the last thing you ever want when you're working at a bakery is a damn muffin.
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Yes! We used to chuck 30-40lb frozen boxes at each other unloading truck trying to knock the other over. That would probably kill me now hahah
 
$20 an hour. You could make the mininum wage 50 an hour and nothing will change. As soon as the minimum wage goes up, so do other jobs wages and prices on everything. In the end someone making mininum wage is in the same position they were before.

If you can't understand that, you should qualify for disability and get your money for no work.
 
Wat said:
$20 an hour. You could make the mininum wage 50 an hour and nothing will change. As soon as the minimum wage goes up, so do other jobs wages and prices on everything. In the end someone making mininum wage is in the same position they were before.

If you can't understand that, you should qualify for disability and get your money for no work.
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This is exactly right and it's sad that people just don't seem to understand. This forced fake minimal wages only "work" in certain industries where the rest of the market stays low. But then that market may begin to lose jobs due to wages too high for what the market demands. So in an industry where someone expects to pay very little for something, like fast food or a ride share, you simply cannot pay a lot without charging a lot. But by charging a lot, people won't use the service.

If you were to falsely bump up minimal wage for all jobs to say $25/hour and/or hand out people UBI it would cause inflation like this country has never seen before. There are people who think you can pull a fast one on these companies and trick them out of making a profit.
 
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bigdogchris said:
This is exactly right and it's sad that people just don't seem to understand. This forced fake minimal wages only "work" in certain industries where the rest of the market stays low. But then that market may begin to lose jobs due to wages too high for what the market demands. So in an industry where someone expects to pay very little for something, like fast food or a ride share, you simply cannot pay a lot without charging a lot. But by charging a lot, people won't use the service.

If you were to falsely bump up minimal wage for all jobs to say $25/hour and/or hand out people UBI it would cause inflation like this country has never seen before. There are people who think you can pull a fast one on these companies and trick them out of making a profit.
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How would that be false if it was enacted? It would objectively be true not false.
 
DukenukemX said:
No you wouldn't. You'd serious give up sitting at your comfortable desk over working at a burger joint? You'll come home with muscles hurting and dealing with Karens all day long. While at the office you spent half your time browsing the web, probably social media. That's kinda why people aren't taking service jobs because people are even worse today, and the amount of work you do is back breaking. You know who thought the same thing and found out he's wrong?

McConnell: - "chat that guy's a millionaire, you go to work and fucking have to deal with so much bullshit, you have to deal with people, it's awful, and you do backbreaking work you make pennies, this guy watches videos"

He went to go work at a Fast Food joint for a day and had a very different opinion on how hard his job really is. Why you think there's so many men and women who'd rather be V-Tubers instead of actually joining the work force?


View: https://youtu.be/eh3EyxiNes0?si=IVK5LZv45irKH4s0
Click to expand...


I did choose a job working with my hands and direct customer facing. Probably won’t make a mil but talented people are in short supply so I do okay.

Also, minimum wage really doesn’t mean much no matter where you are. In LA, 20$ an hour isn’t enough to live independently, and for that matter, $7.50 is no longer enough in Arkansas.

Remember, productivity is up about 300% since the 70s, while real wages adjusted for inflation are up about 7%. Globalization provided Americans with cheap goods but the high value-added manufacturing jobs went overseas as a result.
 
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bigdogchris said:
This is exactly right and it's sad that people just don't seem to understand. This forced fake minimal wages only "work" in certain industries where the rest of the market stays low. But then that market may begin to lose jobs due to wages too high for what the market demands. So in an industry where someone expects to pay very little for something, like fast food or a ride share, you simply cannot pay a lot without charging a lot. But by charging a lot, people won't use the service.

If you were to falsely bump up minimal wage for all jobs to say $25/hour and/or hand out people UBI it would cause inflation like this country has never seen before. There are people who think you can pull a fast one on these companies and trick them out of making a profit.
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except it's an oversimplification and disregards the effects of automation reducing the relative price of goods and potentially frees up labor for other tasks particularly during a labor shortage. forcing businesses to become more efficient rather than abuse low labor costs is not always a bad thing
 
GoodBoy said:
It's not that. No one wants those jobs anymore, even at $20 an hour.

I'm not resisting it, will be better fucking service.
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Those who do take those jobs with their heads in the clouds find out quickly, that they'll hit the bottom pretty quickly.

A minimum wage fast food job isn't what it used to be. Before the craziness had set in, a fast food employee would typically be given an assignment for the day, whether it be as the grill worker, manning the drive through, being the fry station handler, a cashier, the lobby janitor, etc., and he was expected to do that job for the whole shift.

These days, most of your "average" fast food workers are expected to handle two, or even three, of the above jobs, since everyone wants to do more with less. It's not surprising to drive up to a McDonald's these days, and see only a manager and a single employee working the whole restaurant. Of course, the lobby is closed, and it's drive-through only, but that's how many of them are operating these days.

The old concept by the McDonald brothers of getting a hot and fresh hamburger to you about as instantly as possible died a long time ago.


If automation can replace a reasonably competent minimum wage worker and produce results somewhere in the same ballpark, then it's a sure bet that it's going to happen, assuming that it's cost-effective.
 
Employee cutting automation in restauration is already quite common (microwaving stuff instead of cooking it being a common form) and it is a lot because it is hard to find people for the job at the current unemployment rate and youth work rate, that filled a lot of those jobs:

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Salary and condition got so good during covid that it probably went back up, but the aging demography of most country make it so that there not as many teens by capita than in the past.

In most country (Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, china, first then rest of the world) automation for elderly care type of work could be a must-do it and not something we can fix otherwise with money spending on workforce that will not exist.
 
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