In a lot of movies, we are scared to think that robots will slowly replace us and it'll be our own doing. Well, it is happening and unfortunately, like everything, it will hurt the poor and dumb quicker than the rest of the population. These clown who have been crying for $15 minimum wage are going to get what they wanted, but slowly the "robots" are coming out to replace them and I don't think they even notice. It is now customary to do our own checkout at Home Depot, Lowe's, HEB, Walmart, and most other giant places of commerce. Each of those machines means one less employee per shift at $15/hr. Machines don't make mistakes, steal, get sick, or take vacation, so yeah, if I was the boss, I would also want more machines.
Now it seems like the same trend has started at eateries. I noticed the last time we actually went into a Bill Miller's restaurant, there was a self ordering screen, same thing is the case at Taco Bell, and even McDonald's has them. I imagine in 5-10 years all of the fast food restaurants will be manned by one person and a bunch of robotic screens, but at least the one person working will be making $15/hr. Idiots.
Not to bring more sadness to the industry of fast food, but even Boy had a project in one of his classes for a robotic burger maker. The project, which we saw to completion would take all the parts of a burger, cook the meat, put it on a bun, then know the differences between the different toppings and prepare it based on the customer's selections. They my not have had a winning "straight to the kitchen in every McDonald's prototype but if they are working on it as a project in Colleges, it will happen soon enough.
Maybe one day the restaurant owner will just need to come and load up some burger patties and press start and the automation will begin. At that point, they can be paying minimum wage people $50/hr, but there won't be a need for minimum wage workers. Think about what you ask for, you just might get it. A better solution is to train yourself to be able to do a job that few want to do, is needed, and can't be done cheaply by a robot. Get some worthwhile skills that are coveted by employers, going through life without any training makes you useless and really if you're useless, why are you wasting the Earth's precious oxygen? Find a way to contribute to the world, positively.
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