36 ms·

All these unemployed people are not going to crawl under a bridge and die. When people are hungry and see people with food, they kill them and take their food.

All these unemployed people are not going to crawl under a bridge and die. When people are hungry and see people with food, they kill them and take their food. We don’t really have any plan for this yet and it will seem like a distant scenario until we are in it.

ryanmercer 8y ago
All the unemployed high school students?
- kristopolous 8y ago
  The average age of a fast food worker is 29 and 40% are over 25. Fewer than 1/3 are under 20. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/more-than-a-quarter-of-fast-food-workers-are-raising-a-child/278424/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/more-th...
  - ryanmercer 8y ago
    >Fewer than 1/3 are under 20 Because there are restrictions on what hours minors can work and what equipment they can operate. Guess what job they do the most of? Cashier. Guess what job these kiosks replace? Cashier. You still need humans to do the cooking, to troubleshoot system issues, you'll always need a proper cashier for times when systems go down or you have a disabled patron (blind for example), you'll need people cleaning the facility and parking lot, taking the trash out, restocking things. This is a chicken little issue "ermagerd, a kiosk is going to replace a cashier, we're all gonna starve to death when our jobs are replaced!!!". This is something we WANT. Widespread adoption of kiosks gives John Q Public a wake up that automation can replace jobs, it gives minimum wage workers yet another nudge that saying "do you want fries with that" isn't a career. They're replacing cashiers, the most pointless and un-fulfilling job on the planet. It'll be ok.
    - kristopolous 8y ago
      The admonishment is the structural way technological progress screws over poor and vulnerable members of society and proactively detracts from society's well-being. If the kiosks cause people to lose a job and, say fall behind in rent, then they create homeless people or bad educational outcomes, or any of the other consequences of poverty. If we want to continue our 35 year old preposterous cult of imagining everyone who is homeless are really just lazy versions Jeff Bezos who don't apply themselves, then we will continue to get the same results having that approach has generated. It is empirically beyond any reasonable doubt, demonstrably conclusive to be a highly dysfunctional and patently incorrect approach to structuring a society. Sure, let's have kiosks, but let's also prioritize not having profound disruptive deleterious harm to society in the process. There's consequences and costs to all of us for our negligence, incompetence and irresponsibility. Those who continue to advocate for ignoring this reality are controlled and blinded by their passions and preference. It's terribly wrong and we are suffering the consequences.
- smcl 8y ago
  More people work in fast food industry than just high school students. I think you know this though and you're just trying to have a bit of fun at their expense. Don't do that.
  - ryanmercer 8y ago
    And guess who will get replaced, the individuals that have legal restrictions on when and how much they can work and have limitations on what equipment they operate. Not the adults that can work nights, early mornings and you know, legally operate the grill and fryers.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
DavidVoid 8y ago
I have a feeling this quote will start getting more relevant again. "[D]emand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread." - Emma Goldman, said to a crowd during the panic of 1893.

ryanmercer 8y ago

All the unemployed high school students?

kristopolous 8y ago
The average age of a fast food worker is 29 and 40% are over 25. Fewer than 1/3 are under 20. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/more-than-a-quarter-of-fast-food-workers-are-raising-a-child/278424/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/more-th...
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  >Fewer than 1/3 are under 20 Because there are restrictions on what hours minors can work and what equipment they can operate. Guess what job they do the most of? Cashier. Guess what job these kiosks replace? Cashier. You still need humans to do the cooking, to troubleshoot system issues, you'll always need a proper cashier for times when systems go down or you have a disabled patron (blind for example), you'll need people cleaning the facility and parking lot, taking the trash out, restocking things. This is a chicken little issue "ermagerd, a kiosk is going to replace a cashier, we're all gonna starve to death when our jobs are replaced!!!". This is something we WANT. Widespread adoption of kiosks gives John Q Public a wake up that automation can replace jobs, it gives minimum wage workers yet another nudge that saying "do you want fries with that" isn't a career. They're replacing cashiers, the most pointless and un-fulfilling job on the planet. It'll be ok.
  - kristopolous 8y ago
    The admonishment is the structural way technological progress screws over poor and vulnerable members of society and proactively detracts from society's well-being. If the kiosks cause people to lose a job and, say fall behind in rent, then they create homeless people or bad educational outcomes, or any of the other consequences of poverty. If we want to continue our 35 year old preposterous cult of imagining everyone who is homeless are really just lazy versions Jeff Bezos who don't apply themselves, then we will continue to get the same results having that approach has generated. It is empirically beyond any reasonable doubt, demonstrably conclusive to be a highly dysfunctional and patently incorrect approach to structuring a society. Sure, let's have kiosks, but let's also prioritize not having profound disruptive deleterious harm to society in the process. There's consequences and costs to all of us for our negligence, incompetence and irresponsibility. Those who continue to advocate for ignoring this reality are controlled and blinded by their passions and preference. It's terribly wrong and we are suffering the consequences.
smcl 8y ago
More people work in fast food industry than just high school students. I think you know this though and you're just trying to have a bit of fun at their expense. Don't do that.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  And guess who will get replaced, the individuals that have legal restrictions on when and how much they can work and have limitations on what equipment they operate. Not the adults that can work nights, early mornings and you know, legally operate the grill and fryers.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

DavidVoid 8y ago

I have a feeling this quote will start getting more relevant again. "[D]emand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread." - Emma Goldman, said to a crowd during the panic of 1893.