Quote:
Originally Posted by RickFLM4
Penalizing companies who automate may seem like a solution, but then again it may force them to move overseas or lose business to foreign competitors. Not everything can move overseas, of course, but there will certainly be a response by those who can. That response is not necessarily hiring humans. It may be to move or pass on higher costs to consumers (if they can do so).
Perhaps minimum wage laws, requirements to provide health insurance, employer FICA, a litigious society and labor laws in general should be revisited to encourage employers to employ people rather than rush to automation. Automation isn't free. Aside from R&D costs, automation typically requires significant capital investment. Sometimes it is makes sense no matter what the employment conditions. However, sometimes employers are pushed to automate when they believe the cost of employing humans is too high and has too many risks. Using your McDonalds example, will it always make sense to pursue an army of robots to make burgers and fries? Maybe, maybe not. But start talking about a $15 minimum wage for low skilled labor (with protests outside corporate offices), requirements for large franchisees to provide health care to employees, a Labor Department that wants to treat McDonalds as the employer even though franchisees are the employers and a country full of attorneys willing to pounce on any employment litigiation they can find and robots start looking a lot better.
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I get the argument against basic income. As I said, right now, I wouldn't say its necessary or a good idea. But in the future, it will be needed.
What you say about not increasing min wage and providing health care is only a temporary stay on not replacing workers. In the future the cost of automating will be cheaper than even what you'd pay in 3rd world countries for labor.
The cost of automating jobs is pennies on the dollar. A company pay spend millions today to do it but they reap the benefits for decades to come. How cheap is cheap labor? $5 an hour? Why pay a guy $5 an hour to do something when a machine can do it for $1 or less? Oh, and the machine can work 24/7. Can a human work 24/7 for years for $1 an hour?
You can argue, fuck the min wage workers they're screwed anyway. But what will you say when automation starts replacing bankers? nurses? lawyers? accountants? engineers? doctors? It's going to happen, it's just a matter of time.