A Chipotle in Kentucky was forced to shut down for the evening after half the staff walked out

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It’s this part that I’ve seen. And it’s not because they can live on their partner’s income, or because they’d rather go to school, or any of the optional reasons people used to have to leave the labor force. It’s because the job is so bad, so demeaning, so labor-intensive, that the people are broken. Broken physically and mentally, emotionally and spiritually, by the abuse of customers and corporate offices. Then they’re told that told that they should be grateful for the $1 raise they got after 3 years, and if they don’t like it they can go somewhere else.

The “essential workers” are the ones who have suffered the worst in this pandemic. Health care workers the most obviously, but nearly every food service or retail worker or gig driver has been overworked and underpaid.

One of our kids is an assistant manager at a fast casual place. They have signs on the door that says “THE WORLD IS UNDERSTAFFED. Please be kind to those of us who have shown up.” and she says it doesn’t stop the 1 out of 4 people who complain loudly and rudely about waits or unavailability of ingredients.

So, when the capitalists said “Don’t like your job? Then quit!” and lots of people did, they didn’t think capitalism was to blame for their wait for lunch. They blame the workers.

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Same with autonomous cars… They seem to have a really great track record of causing accidents and sometimes killing people. We need to move towards more public transit, not putting more cars on the road.

Regardless, we still must work on our core problems, or automation will only cause more problems.

Kenan Thompson Reaction GIF by Saturday Night Live

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Exactly. We have more resources than the people of this world need to survive. Yet we still have hunger, disease, suffering and strife.

If we had high-level automation right now, TPTB would simply automate the hunger, disease, suffering and strife. As we often conclude many of these threads about Republicans/Tories/Conservatives, the cruelty is the point.

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Chiptole seem to be in the news a bit recently:

They’d better update their ordering software to dynamically update availability due to a last minute walkout.

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Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer at Chipotle, downplayed worker concerns. “We were seeing increased staffing needs, however, Chipotle is incredibly fortunate to have a steady influx of applicants due to its strong values, leading benefits and mission to cultivate a better world,” she said in an email to MarketWatch.

GIF by Almost Christmas Movie

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That is literally by design of the company that makes the ice cream makers. Because ALL McDonald HAVE to use that machine from that company. They make it nigh impossible for the user to troubleshoot, and make it super finicky so that it throws errors. So then the franchise owner has to call the company to get a tech out there at the cost of hundreds of dollars per visit.

It is literally a money making scam - not because we can’t make a reliable ice cream machine.

Fair point we are still a ways off from the future @MikeTheBard mentioned. But I think it is coming. To say we are too far off to worry about it sounds like the farrier not worried about these loud, slow, finicky and unreliable new fangled automobiles.

There has to be a balance. A lot of jobs in the manufacturing sector were automated, or at least computer controlled, which reduced the amount of literal hands on work needed. There were a stories and shows (thinking specifically of a Twighlight Zone episode) where people were worried machines would replace man in the capacity and need to do work. That clearly didn’t happen, but the types of jobs did shift.

There will probably be some similar shift of jobs that we just aren’t seeing yet. Capitalists are going to capitalize and do what ever makes them more money. But pragmatically - there has to be a limit. If people aren’t making money - they can’t afford your goods and services.

So the two solutions I see is either a balance of higher wages and a shift in types of jobs, or something like UBI. Which, when I first heard of it seems absurd. But the longer I chewed on it - eh - it might be what is needed. The problem is - I could see this fly in some European countries, but I just can not imagine it going over well in America. Maybe if things got desperate enough. Maybe it is a far off future thing.

In science fiction, there are imaginings of utopias where robots cater to our needs or what have you. If we were able to automate most things so that people didn’t need to “work”, or at least work less, a lot of people would find that the ultimate end goal. But other people seem to think “work” is the meaning of life and directly tied to a reason for existence.

So, yeah, don’t agree with everything Mike pointed out, but it certainly is something that will probably effect me in my life time.

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See my post again. That’s exactly my point. What makes anyone think that the robotic burger flipper company would be any different in today’s environment?

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“The Customer’s Always Right!” even when the customer is throwing food at you and cussing you out, right?

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What I’m seeing with automation right now is that it not only gets rid of workers. It also puts some of the work back onto the customers. Businesses are using vending machines or robots to provide amenities in hotels after hours, self-service kiosks or apps for ordering in fast food/fast casual restaurants, and self-checkout in grocery or retail stores. This has been happening in the public sector, too, with more self-service for tolls, vehicle services, form processing, etc. It doesn’t have to work perfectly to put workers at risk. It just has to work well enough for industries to get along with fewer people.

We’ve got industries promoting part-time positions over full-time to avoid providing benefits. The gains going to workers from a higher wages is undermined by that practice. Some companies furlough workers to manipulate their tax and annual reporting figures. Better oversight of business practices, healthcare options, and UBI would help workers get through the transitions to come:

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Some of the jobs being automated are dangerous mad very hard in the human body. How to structure a society where hands-on work is scarce is going to be a painful reevaluation.

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There are solutions for that, too:

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No. They are not. They are assholes. Can we stop with these stupid bits of “captialist common sense” that are really just ideas designed to get us to treat others like shit? How about we just treat each other with kindness. It’s not that difficult.

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If the cost of teching the burger flippers is still less than hiring people and paying for their benefits - then they will keep the meh burger flippers. If they are bad enough then they may insist that McDonalds does something about these shit burger flippers. If McDonalds has more than one model to chose from, then said burger flippers will probably be more reliable, as one doesn’t want to order the shit burger flipping machines. (insert burger flipper for what ever else is out there).

Wendys, for example, doesn’t have a chronic issue with their Frosty makers.

Certainly, people selling tech to the service industry will game the system so they get repeat customers, or offer subscription type services.

I hope these things work by the time I need one.

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