Automation

"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo) 07/13/2016 at 17:32 • Filed to: None

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In California, labor has become a major risk for business. What happens when employing people becomes an unacceptable risk? Reduction of risk through elimination of labor.

Well intended regulation of employment will lead to the elimination of unskilled jobs. In dairy, we will have robot milkers soon.

Time to change how we think about labor.

Chasaboo > ImmoralMinority 07/13/2016 at 17:38

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It’s funny, in California you hire people not so much by their qualifications, but on how likely they are to sue your butt.

DutchieDC2R > ImmoralMinority 07/13/2016 at 17:47

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There are already robotic milkers actually....

Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch > ImmoralMinority 07/13/2016 at 17:48

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Fun fact: Automats (automated restaurants) like you’re showing above became popular in the early 1900s. They’re anything but new.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat

Sneaky Pete > ImmoralMinority 07/13/2016 at 17:48

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It’s a lot cheaper long term to purchase a machine that can do the job of a person that would be making 15 bucks and hour, plus benefits...

Rykilla303 > Sneaky Pete 07/13/2016 at 17:56

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Bad for business when nobody has the money to use your machine...

CRider > Sneaky Pete 07/13/2016 at 18:07

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That’s also true at $10 an hour, or $5 an hour.

DasWauto > DutchieDC2R 07/13/2016 at 18:08

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Indeed. They’re more common in Europe, where higher costs of production make the cost of the machinery easier to justify. They’re making their way over to North America though. Here in Canada, the dairy market is still protected by a quota system, keeping prices/profits fairly high, which makes the machines affordable for bigger producers.

A lot of the development of these machines is led by Dutch companies, as you probably well know. Even though we’re in pork, others members of my family have surely looked at robotic milkers when expanding their dairy operations but have thus far stayed away from it. It’ll be interesting to see how long that continues.

DasWauto > Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch 07/13/2016 at 18:10

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They’re still fairly common in my native Holland but I had no idea they’d been around for so long. Not sure if even seen one in North America though.

Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch > DasWauto 07/13/2016 at 18:15

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I’ve never seen one here, I just know they’re not a new concept.

DutchieDC2R > DasWauto 07/13/2016 at 19:19

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Im originally from Croatia (born here in NL, but both parents are from Croatia). My uncle has an agricultural firm in Croatia, he brought in one of the first robotic milkers in the country, quite an amazing thing to see it work.

DynamicWeight > ImmoralMinority 07/13/2016 at 19:53

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I’d like to think the mass automation of all necessary goods would lead to a Star Trek like world where people can focus on art and the enjoyment of life without needing to work, but being able to work if they’d like. More and more though I think greed will mean that a small percentage of humans will still try to take as much as they possibly can starving out everyone else until it makes more sense for the have nots to steal than to beg and the whole thing collapses on itself.

Also, it seems, that given the opportunity to do nothing, many will take it. Perhaps humans require strife. I sure hope not.

samssun > ImmoralMinority 07/13/2016 at 20:27

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“Well intended” doesn’t really fly when they’ve had decades and countless examples to see it not working. At that point you have to go from simple incompetence to control-freak malice.

fintail > Rykilla303 07/13/2016 at 20:49

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That’s the elephant in the room nobody wants to touch. As lower end wages continue to erode, and the US ends up with a socio-economic chasm closer to 1789 France rather than the Gatsby-era USA gap seen today, something will need to be done, likely along the lines of a minimum income like Switzerland has suggested. It might not be a huge shock to the system, as so many low wage earners collect public assistance already. If nothing is done, there will eventually be societal discord and revolt like has never been seen in the history of the nation. History shows this happens again and again.

I always find it amusing when lucky generation members complain about minimum wage being too high - if it was adjusted to match the wage they received when young in ~1970, it would be significantly higher than now.

samssun > fintail 07/14/2016 at 17:07

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“Switzerland” didn’t suggest a guaranteed check, the same politicians who promise everything else with other people’s money did, and Switzerland voted it down with a 78% majority. I’m guessing taxpayers realized it was a blank check on their earnings, whose demand would never be met.

fintail > samssun 07/14/2016 at 17:50

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More than 100K Swiss signed the initiative, and even in that hilariously expensive amusement park built on hiding money for the more despicable parts of humanity, it received hundreds of thousands of affirmative votes. It likely was voted down due to unfeasability due to the open borders mantra adopted by EU Kool-Aid drinkers, which Switzerland also swills now and then. I think the Finns are now considering it, too. Maybe after the Brussels/Strasbourg experiment fails.

Lemee guess, Ayn Rand blah blah.

samssun > fintail 07/14/2016 at 20:30

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Actually it’s interesting you bring up that tradeoff, as I remember seeing groups from the Scandinavian countries being overrun, putting up banners saying “Open Borders or Welfare State?” Turns out combining them is like trying to air condition the neighborhood.

fintail > samssun 07/14/2016 at 20:40

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It’s just a matter of time until Germany deals with that reality firsthand. I think Limeyland is already there. Sweden is probably a lost cause.