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Inasmuch as unions increase the cost of labor, employers will have a stronger incentive to replace it with capital. It’s one reason we haven’t seen much advanc
by zeroonetwothree 3y ago
Inasmuch as unions increase the cost of labor, employers will have a stronger incentive to replace it with capital.
It’s one reason we haven’t seen much advancement (until recently!) in automated food preparation (vis-a-vis industrial factories)—the labor has been very cheap.
- autoexec 3y agoAny human worker will increase the cost of labor compared to automation. Even at slave wages, automation wins every single time. Employers are, and long have been, 100% incentivized to automate the instant it becomes technologically feasible. Research and advancement in automated food preparation has never stopped. They were working on the problem in the 1970s with automatic vending machines, Fast food in particular has been salivating at thought of throwing out human workers for ages. (see for example: https://www.deseret.com/2003/8/11/19740875/mcdonald-s-flips-for-inventions https://www.deseret.com/2003/8/11/19740875/mcdonald-s-flips-... and https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/mcdonalds-testing-self-serve-kiosks-in-raleigh-denver/83-404008779 https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/mcdonalds-testi... and https://www.cnet.com/culture/mcdonalds-hires-7000-touch-screen-cashiers/ https://www.cnet.com/culture/mcdonalds-hires-7000-touch-scre...) The very second that the tech is ready and reliable enough, it's a done deal. No worker will ever be as cheap as a robot slave.