McDonald's hires 7,000 touch-screens to replace employees

[The Free North]

Will we see the same thing in the US soon?

http://news.cnet.com/mcdonalds-hires-7000-touch-screen-cashiers/8301-17938_105-20063732-1.html

[DC Al Fine]

This is an interesting piece of evidence for the recent minimum wage debates. Labour vs Capital is a real trade off, and a surprising number of people will be replaced if you raise the cost of their labour enough.

[badgate]

When the touch screens don't work or get the order wrong is the customer going to want to complain about their issues with another touch screen or a person?

[opebo]

a surprising number of people will be replaced if you raise the cost of their labour enough.

Yes, precisely!  This is the goal of a well managed economy - encourage innovation and investment by keeping the cost of labor very high, while providing for any 'unemployed' with a generous dole.  The alternative is just the endless poverty of unreformed capitalism.

[Ban my account ffs!]

McDonalds in Europe sucks anyway... "oh, you want ketchup with your french fries?  Here's a tiny little bit..  that'll be 50 cents please."

In case our European friends don't know:  In America, the ketchup is in a pump container with little white paper cups next to the self serve pop machines... so you can drink as much and get as much ketchup as you want.  And your meal is still cheaper than it would be over there.  AND... you'll have a person take your order and give you your food!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

When the touch screens don't work or get the order wrong is the customer going to want to complain about their issues with another touch screen or a person?

"It's so hard to program good help these days".

[Leftbehind]

This is an interesting piece of evidence for the recent minimum wage debates. Labour vs Capital is a real trade off, and a surprising number of people will be replaced if you raise the cost of their labour enough.

Yes, because McDonalds workers are notorious for their high wages(!). What better way to demonstrate how workers in capitalism - far from enjoying the fruits of technological advances are being driven to compete with/replaced by them, as this era of mass unemployment is being ushered in.

Although hopefully, this will reduce the power of these all-powerful global chains who continually justify their exploitative practices to governments looking to tax them by how many would lose their jobs - rather means little if other, smaller chains are fully staffed and are eager to expand into the vacuum they'd leave.

[Sopranos Republican]

McDonalds in Europe sucks anyway... "oh, you want ketchup with your french fries?  Here's a tiny little bit..  that'll be 50 cents please."

In case our European friends don't know:  In America, the ketchup is in a pump container with little white paper cups next to the self serve pop machines... so you can drink as much and get as much ketchup as you want.  And your meal is still cheaper than it would be over there.  AND... you'll have a person take your order and give you your food!

Like the smoking hot girl at my local McDonald's.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

When the touch screens don't work or get the order wrong is the customer going to want to complain about their issues with another touch screen or a person?

I've already seen fast-food-type restaurants have this kind of tech installed in the U.S. They always have cashiers on hand, because there are always going to be people who do not want to interact with the touchscreen.

In fact, from what I've seen, touch screens only get used when there's a long line. People don't like interacting with them. They're cold and needlessly complex.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Chic Fil A has had touch screen order stations at some places for a while now. This will continue to happen as wages rise and companies try to cut costs.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

[DC Al Fine]

This is an interesting piece of evidence for the recent minimum wage debates. Labour vs Capital is a real trade off, and a surprising number of people will be replaced if you raise the cost of their labour enough.

Yes, because McDonalds workers are notorious for their high wages(!). What better way to demonstrate how workers in capitalism - far from enjoying the fruits of technological advances are being driven to compete with/replaced by them, as this era of mass unemployment is being ushered in.

Although hopefully, this will reduce the power of these all-powerful global chains who continually justify their exploitative practices to governments looking to tax them by how many would lose their jobs - rather means little if other, smaller chains are fully staffed and are eager to expand into the vacuum they'd leave.

Damn those Spinning Jenny's, putting those hardworking weavers out of work. Workers are doomed I tell you, DOOMED!!!!

My point is that raising the minimum wage is a terrible way to reduce poverty because employers will switch from labour to capital as labour costs rise. The EITC and wage subsidies are much better methods to reduce poverty than the minimum wage.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Damn those Spinning Jenny's, putting those hardworking weavers out of work. Workers are doomed I tell you, DOOMED!!!!

The handloom weavers and their families certainly were doomed. The first half of the 19th century was a very bad time for ordinary people in Britain.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

where are the robots?

[Indy Texas]

Doesn't this sort of thing belong in Economics rather than OT?

The Chase Bank branches in my area have all installed touch screen kiosks inside. You can use them to deposit checks and withdraw money. But they also have windows with tellers at them and I've noticed that a lot of people are willing to wait in line to have the teller process their deposit rather than use one of the many available touch screens.

I've also noticed that the teller staff are much friendlier and more outgoing than they were before the screens were installed. When you walk in the lobby, they'll ask you what they can help you with whereas before they usually just stood there until you went up to the counter. As far as I can tell, the touch-screens haven't replaced the tellers, but they've made the tellers offer better customer service by existing as a competitor. It's kind of like how banks expanded to regular business hours in the '80s when ATMs were introduced (as opposed to their 10-to-4 schedule before then) - they knew that if people simply used the ATM outside, they wouldn't have an opportunity to try to coax them into refinancing their mortgage or taking out a loan or opening a new account as they would if they went inside to withdraw money.

[Leftbehind]

My point is that raising the minimum wage is a terrible way to reduce poverty because employers will switch from labour to capital as labour costs rise. The EITC and wage subsidies are much better methods to reduce poverty than the minimum wage.

Well as we've seen here: capitalists will switch from labour to machinery even if wages are rock-bottom if they can achieve higher profit, so it's hardly evidence for your wider point. If an increasingly inadequate minimum wage is still too much to prompt this, and the costs of production for this machinery destined to grow cheaper, then it's already a development in which government hasn't brought about. Unless of course, you're arguing that the minimum wage should be reduced even further to outcompete the machinery, thus burdening the state further with an ever growing bill (that'll consequently balloon as this becomes the industry standard) - which will only aid the capitalists, as state funds increasingly becomes part-employer without any material improvement in the working class' position (draining the state's revenues, and tending to either inadequate support or adversely affecting other services/debt to pay for it).  

No, raising minimum wages is fundamentally the better solution for me, not only because it effects all sectors - many of which can't be/aren't automated, but because those pittence jobs are not worth having under those conditions and far better to quicken the mechanisation with these businesses, who'll then becomes easier to tax more appropriately - which can then be plouged back into unemployment benefits.

[King]

Sounds good to me.  More money to pay the fry cooks $15 an hour.

[opebo]

My point is that raising the minimum wage is a terrible way to reduce poverty because employers will switch from labour to capital as labour costs rise. The EITC and wage subsidies are much better methods to reduce poverty than the minimum wage.

But employment is what makes people poor, DC Al Fine, by definition.  Only by changing the rules - the higher minimum wage is a nice first step, outlawing private property would be a worthy final goal - can people be freed from poverty.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Thankfully, my hometown McDonald's was immune to the strike and is still operated by human beings.

BTW, I actually went there for lunch today.