So, You Want $15 An Hour?

[LV426]

The robots do!

Where are they? We've been promised these robots were right around the corner since 2002...should we just give up on them ever arriving?

This pandemic was the best opportunity to bring robots into work because robots can't catch COVID and you don't have to pay them.

So why didn't they replace workers during the last two years of this pandemic?

We were promised robot workers.

I want my robot worker:

 

[LV426]

Solving simple poverty by using the social-ism of Government to correct for Capitalism's natural rate of unemployment is more cost effective than our current regime.

Why do right-wingers object to lowering the Cost of Government through more efficient public policies rather than the "brute economic force" of Tax Cut economics?

I'm convinced it's because "tax cuts" are monosyllabic and they can (kinda) spell both.

 

[Ross Dolan]

You ask that as if those are the only two options...

What are the other options. If the person hurts productivity...you either accept it or throw him/her out. If everyone does that...the person goes without food or shelter.

If you have got something else...share it.

If someone isn't doing their job, then they have no place in my company. I have plenty of people who enjoy working for me, and my HR Director has a filing cabinet filled with resumes of others who want to. If someone is determined to be a detriment to the health of my company, there's no place for them here...

Open your eyes, SG. What you are saying is either a person becomes productive (which some people cannot become)...or you are willing to let them go without food and shelter...and the other basics of life.

THERE IS NOTHING AGAINST THE LAW for having that disposition, but stop trying to pretend it is anything but that. You are telling the unproductive to go fuck themselves.

 

[Ross Dolan]

Again, you stupidly assume as those are the only two options. Perhaps such a person would be more well-suited to a career in the custodial arts...

I don't do anything stupidly, SG. I don't fashion myself a genius, but I am far from stupid.

And if a person is unproductive, he/she will be unproductive whether manning a significant desk...or emptying wastebaskets or wiping piss from the floor around urinals. An unproductive person is always an unproductive person.

Yes...

And the people not smart (as you were) to be born to parents who do not encourage hard work and self-sufficiency...you say, "I've got mine, fuck you." And in a world filled with plenty as never seen before on our planet...you would have them be without sufficient food and shelter and the other necessities of life?

No. I was my only full-time employee for the first three years I was in business. I'd saved money while in the military, so I had a little chunk to use to get started. I took advice from successful people I admired, but I didn't take a dime from anyone...

And for the people who did not have a military career (some cannot get one)...and who were not able to save "a little chunk"...or who do not have the kinds of talents that result in a successful business (with an HR Director)...you would have them be without sufficient food and shelter and the other necessities of life?

 

[LV426]

I don't do anything stupidly, SG. I don't fashion myself a genius, but I am far from stupid.

And if a person is unproductive, he/she will be unproductive whether manning a significant desk...or emptying wastebaskets or wiping piss from the floor around urinals. An unproductive person is always an unproductive person.




And the people not smart (as you were) to be born to parents who do not encourage hard work and self-sufficiency...you say, "I've got mine, fuck you." And in a world filled with plenty as never seen before on our planet...you would have them be without sufficient food and shelter and the other necessities of life?



And for the people who did not have a military career (some cannot get one)...and who were not able to save "a little chunk"...or who do not have the kinds of talents that result in a successful business (with an HR Director)...you would have them be without sufficient food and shelter and the other necessities of life?

Nothing Street Glider is saying about themselves is true, you know...

It's the old Conservative and BoThSiDErISt habit of inventing personal given circumstances that are unverifiable in order to bridge over the credibility gap that exists in their fundamental beliefs.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Better supply-side performance with more automation?

Depending on the work involved, robots may do it better, the same, or in some cases less efficiently. Simple, repetitive jobs are something robots excel at. Thus, kiosks rather than a person asking "Welcome to _______________. May I take your order?"

 

[LV426]

Depending on the work involved, robots may do it better, the same, or in some cases less efficiently. Simple, repetitive jobs are something robots excel at. Thus, kiosks rather than a person asking "Welcome to _______________. May I take your order?"

Ah, so where are those robots, then?

Because we've heard this same refrain since the early 2000's, and you had two years of a global pandemic to replace human workers with robots who can't catch COVID and who you don't need to pay.

So...what happened?

Was automation just a hollow, impotent, fascist threat from the business class to prevent higher wages? Sure seems like it since those same business owners are whining endlessly about no one wanting to work for them today.

Robots can't refuse work, so why didn't any of these businesses replace those greedy workers with robots at any point during this pandemic? Or even before it? I think you know why...

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Where are they? We've been promised these robots were right around the corner since 2002...should we just give up on them ever arriving?

This pandemic was the best opportunity to bring robots into work because robots can't catch COVID and you don't have to pay them.

So why didn't they replace workers during the last two years of this pandemic?

We were promised robot workers.

I want my robot worker:

They even have their own cubicles!

 

[LV426]

They even have their own cubicles!

OK, so I see robots, but I also see people working on the robots...so...

And none of these robots are filling the jobs that those shitty business owners can't fill.

Fact is, "automation" was just a hollow threat because if it were real, it would have happened over this pandemic.

Also, those robots don't seem like they can take my McDonald's order....or fill it.

And also, they're in India, not the US.

And what are those Indian robots doing?

 

[T. A. Gardner]

OK, so I see robots, but I also see people working on the robots...so...

And none of these robots are filling the jobs that those shitty business owners can't fill.

Fact is, "automation" was just a hollow threat because if it were real, it would have happened over this pandemic.

Also, those robots don't seem like they can take my McDonald's order....or fill it.

And also, they're in India, not the US.

And what are those Indian robots doing?

The people that work on robots don't make a measly $15 an hour. The make the robots to replace those low-wage cretins.

 

[Street Glider]

Heard this 15 years ago and it didn't land then, either.

It's landing now.

My local Wal-Mart used to have up to ten cashiers at the front of the store. Now it's two cashiers and eight self-serve kiosks...

Also, Walmart had to up their wages TO $15/hr during this pandemic in order to find workers.

And they still have positions to fill. Since it's not worth it to pay $16 an hour for those jobs, Wal-Mart is embracing automation...

And the parent company of Walmart is most definitely NOT moving toward automation, they are, in fact, raising their wages to...wait for it...$15/hr:

Um, I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart is the parent company...

Reading your garbage posts, this shouldn't have occurred...

All I can do is tell you what's happened locally. There's not a single reason to believe that Wal-Mart St. Augustine is existing in a vacuum...

So you say Walmart "is moving in the direction of having no cashiers", yet the parent company of Walmart is raising its starting wage at Sam's Club (owned by Walmart) to $15/hr.

Sam's Club is not Wal-Mart. They're two entirely different business models...

But that should not have happened, right? Because "Walmart is moving in the direction of having no cashiers"...

Again, two very different entities...

Say, what year did Walmart say they would no longer have cashiers by? Oh they never said that? Ah...so...

According to the General Manager of our local Wal-Mart, he was told that it's going to happen by mid-year 2025.

So, yeah, they have said it...

No, it's not happening...what's happening is that Walmart is raising their wages.

But they're still not getting the quality employees they need. $15 an hour means nothing to someone who's convinced himself he should be paid $20 an hour...

 

[LV426]

The people that work on robots don't make a measly $15 an hour. The make the robots to replace those low-wage cretins.

Right, but the robots they're working on can't take my McDonald's order...and also, those robots are in India and I'm not even sure what they're doing.

I'm looking for the robots we've been told would replace low wage workers, and these robots you showed me aren't it.

It's been 22 years since "automation" was made a threat...and even in a pandemic, businesses can't manage to automate.

So using "automation" as a threat against higher wages is foolish and contemptible; but more importantly, it exposes many things about the person or people making that hollow, impotent threat.

It means there's no good argument against raising wages because the deadliest arrow in your quiver doesn't have an arrowhead.

 

[zymurgy]

Better customer service/client relations should matter to most consumers.

most customers price shop - and go to the stores cutting costs

 

[LV426]

It's landing now.

No it's not.

If it was, we wouldn't see so many moron business owners crying about how "no one wants to work." They would just shut up and replace their workers with robots.

Why haven't they? Because automation is an impotent threat and always has been.

 

[LV426]

My local Wal-Mart used to have up to ten cashiers at the front of the store. Now it's two cashiers and eight self-serve kiosks...

I don't accept unverifiable personal anecdotes invented for the purpose of lending your shitty argument credibility where it doesn't otherwise exist.

 

[LV426]

And they still have positions to fill. Since it's not worth it to pay $16 an hour for those jobs, Wal-Mart is embracing automation...

They said the same thing 10 years ago and they never followed through. In fact, all you clowns have been saying that same thing for 10 years..."it's right around the corner".

No, it's not...it never was...how could something be "right around the corner" for 20 years?

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Right, but the robots they're working on can't take my McDonald's order...and also, those robots are in India and I'm not even sure what they're doing.

I'm looking for the robots we've been told would replace low wage workers, and these robots you showed me aren't it.

It's been 22 years since "automation" was made a threat...and even in a pandemic, businesses can't manage to automate.

So using "automation" as a threat against higher wages is foolish and contemptible; but more importantly, it exposes many things about the person or people making that hollow, impotent threat.

It means there's no good argument against raising wages because the deadliest arrow in your quiver doesn't have an arrowhead.

Yes, they can...

That eliminates 90% + of the counter staff. Just need people in the kitchen assembling the food.

The kitchen staff is next

 

[LV426]

Um, I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart is the parent company...

Well, Walton Enterprises is the parent company of WalMart.

All I can do is tell you what's happened locally.

Ah, isn't that always how it is with you people?

How convenient...

There's no empirical evidence you can point to that I can view for myself.

Instead, I have to rely on you being truthful, which you're not.

I have to take you at your word in order to accept this shit. So why the fuck should I?

Why should I take you at your word when your entire argument has been breaking its word since 2000????

Remember, we've heard "automation is right around the corner" since the Bush Administration.

Here we are, in a pandemic that creates the perfect condition to replace workers who can catch COVID with robots who cannot and yet that didn't happen.

In fact, it didn't even come close to happening.

 

[LV426]

There's not a single reason to believe that Wal-Mart St. Augustine is existing in a vacuum

There's not a single reason to believe you that the purpose of them installing those kiosks wasn't because of higher wages, it was because WALMART CAN'T GET ENOUGH PEOPLE TO WORK THERE.

Those kiosks that were placed during the pandemic didn't replace workers, they filled empty staffing holes.

Walmart installed those kiosks because they COULDN'T HIRE 8 PEOPLE TO MAN THE REGISTERS.

So you're trying to pin Walmart's move in your local area to kiosks on $15/hr demands, yet the real reason those kiosks were installed is because WALMART'S HUMAN WORKERS QUIT...or they died of COVID and Walmart simply couldn't find enough people to replace them.

Also, the labor market is not favorable to Walmart...so that's why they went to the kiosks in your local area very recently.

 

[LV426]

Sam's Club is not Wal-Mart. They're two entirely different business models...

No, they are part of the same company and are both retail businesses.

The reason Sam's had to increase their wage is the same reason why Walmart installed kiosks: NO ONE WANTS TO WORK AT EITHER PLACE

So it's not like Walmart fired workers and replaced them with kiosks because of a tight labor market, it's more like Walmart lost workers to COVID and the Great Resignation and fell back onto kiosks because no one wants to work there for shitty wages in unsafe conditions.