The Quick Check by my house has this tech already. I just navigate through the menu of options and it goes right to the cook. All of these chains can do this. Sure there will be an initial upfront investment, which they obviously can deduct, but will save thousands in the long run by being able to cut their wait staff by 3/4 or more.
zantax
22
No sorry, you can’t take a robot, have it do the work of five people and say it creates jobs because of fewer jobs being created to support it. Automotive robots didn’t create more jobs than they replaced.
from A new study measures the actual impact of robots on jobs. It’s significant. | MIT Sloan
The researchers found that for every robot added per 1,000 workers in the U.S., wages decline by 0.42% and the employment-to-population ratio goes down by 0.2 percentage points — to date, this means the loss of about 400,000 jobs. The impact is more sizable within the areas where robots are deployed: adding one more robot in a commuting zone (geographic areas used for economic analysis) reduces employment by six workers in that area.
About six months ago there was a news story about a restaurant in NY City that was trying out a new robot that delivers meals. The servers were still there to take the orders and place the plates, delivered by the robots, on the table. The servers liked it because they could spend more time with the guests. So this use of automation didn’t cost anyone their job.
1 Like
Guvnah
24
And they can run through all three shifts. A robot doesn’t just replace one guy on the line.
And as you point out, the jobs it takes to build the robot and maintain it are far less than the ones it replaces. Heck, a lot of the robot manufacturing is automated as well!
On the flip side, mankind didn’t collapse when the engine was created. Yes, entire lines of work went obsolete, but new ones arose. Mankind will adapt this time around too.
zantax
25
Wouldn’t be so sure of that, this displacement will be far faster than anything we have ever seen.
Samm
26
Flight attendants. Airlines don’t offer much in-flight serves these days anyway. All they need is a couple of MMA bouncers to settled passenger disputes.
2 Likes
RTchoke
27
The can just use one of those machines that throws tennis balls for dogs and fill it up with peanut packs and turn it loose on the passengers.
1 Like
I don’t know that this is a good trend. These types of jobs have historically provided not just benefits to employers but to employees too. Teenagers in particular benefit because they have no job skills or experience to offer a higher paying employer, if the lower paying, entry level jobs are automated how are these kids going to get the experience and sense of responsibility to get the higher paying jobs?
Another thing to consider is that while we are talking about restaurants, there are many other type jobs of low and mid pay level that are also going to be automated. Automated delivery is coming as Amazon is beginning to use drones, autonomous cars are in limited use already in some cities which potentially put delivery drivers and taxi cabs and bus drivers out of work.
This trend is going to do nothing in the long run except make more people dependent on government assistance.
1 Like
This trend is one of many strategies that will make the internationalist rich politically and technologically elite less dependent on the poor and the middle class and make programmed planetary depopulation seem to them the logical policy to enact.
There will always be employers with hearts, who will choose to employ workers to give them a livelihood. Not all business-persons are cynically driven by the dollar.
Smyrna
30
Jeff Bezos approves of, “isn’t it best that certain types of jobs go unfilled”?
“Teenagers in particular benefit”
It isn’t just getting a spot on a résumé and some skills. They benefit from learning to be in a particular place at a particular time and having minimal dress & appearance expectations. They know they’re expected to perform certain duties.
They learn if they want things mom and dad can’t provide for everything and begin working to save for what they want, start the process of independence. Teens weren’t helped with isolation that was designed to protect unhealthy adults from COVID-19. They won’t benefit from the extension of dependence that will take place if the O P gets his wish to eliminate potential jobs for them.
1 Like
I’m disgusted by the conservative POV shown in this topic. I find it ironic in thread after thread, the O P expresses disdain for higher education—yet in this very thread he expresses a desire to eliminate jobs those not finished with high school or interested in college would do to start.
Most of y’all would be seeing red if immigrants were doing these jobs. They’re taking away our jobs.
Yet you’re getting a big laugh from the idea of robots taking those same jobs. I see, an immigrant can’t have it, but a hardy laugh is generated when automation & robots get them.
Maybe it’s because immigrants frequently start at lower level jobs that certain individuals want them unfilled. You guys rant about benefits on EBT and those paying with it, tell them to get a job, yet out the other end of your mouths, laugh yourselves silly at the thought of those jobs they can do eliminated.
How in the ■■■■ do you think not only teens, immigrants, stay at home parents wanting part time or having minimal skills are going to pay for their basics with less job prospects? Not to mention those laid off from good jobs & not wanting to remain unemployed?
If you guessed programs like SNAP & TANF, ding ding ding ding ding! You win a prize!
Disgusting 
It’s mindsets like this that drive away potential conservatives, and rightfully so.
Not to mention some of these employers, like Starbucks, MacDonalds and Chipotle Grill offer benefits like tuition assistance for those interested and not having any other possible way to get it.
God forbid some poor soul wants to improve his education and possibly job prospects. Some of you are getting high on the possibility of pulling away benefits like health insurance and higher education, increasing the number of years teens will be dependent on their parents.
Then, out the other side of your mouths , you lament that those young folk are delaying moving out of the house and marriage and having less kids later in life, they’re perpetual children.
Do you seriously think eliminating jobs will help?!?!?! Hypocrisy at its lowest. Center left & libertarianism are starting to look appealing.
zantax
34
Realizing it’s coming isn’t approval. It just is.
1 Like
I hate the whole concept of tipping. I wish they’d just raise everyone’s wadges and drop the act all together.
zantax
36
I was making $200 a night when I was bartending at 22 years old back in the early eighties. Who is going to pay a bartender that much in salary? Nobody.
1 Like
Dem
37
Universal Basic Income is coming at some point. If robots are replacing jobs faster than they can create, then something will need to be done with the aftermath.
zantax
38
I would expect a tax to be levied on robots to pay displaced workers. But then other countries will just out compete us.
They would if they couldn’t hire any bartenders to work for less than that.
zantax
40
But obviously people would do it for much less. Which is why it used to make the kitchen staff crazy, they were getting like seven an hour or so for cooks and maybe four for dishwashers.