
Jack in the Box CEO: Swapping cashiers for robots 'makes sense' as wage increase - kimsk112
http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/01/10/jack-in-box-ceo-swapping-cashiers-for-robots-makes-sense-due-to-minimum-wage-increase.html
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seangrant
As soon as those computers are cheaper than human labor, of course it makes
sense. I wonder what our idea of low skilled jobs will be in the coming
future.

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snuxoll
Those computers will only get cheaper over time as economies of scale kick in.
Assuming Jack in the Box has at most one cashier working at a location around
the clock at minimum wage that's $63K/yr in expenses before employer-paid
taxes and maybe benefits for a 24 hr location (most are).

If it cost even $100K for a computer cashier you would come out ahead within 2
years, and you'd still have 3 years to deduct the remaining $60K in CapEx
assuming a 5 year deprecation period. Why on earth wouldn't you do this?

This is why we need to start thinking about how to handle the loss of these
low-skill jobs now. It's going to happen, and it's not going to be pretty if
we don't plan for it.

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mc32
Well, they can generally be handled by attrition.

The US is pretty much ZPG, if you discount immigrants. So, one way to address
the issue, is to be more selective on who you let into the country.

Europe and East Asia (but not SEAsia) are also naturally decreasing in
population. So, there may be a natural effect which may counteract the
contraction in jobs in highly industrialized/mature economies.

Places which have not addressed their pop growth may be in trouble; however,
if we look at China, they proved pop growth is manageable.

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srcmap
Make more sense be just an simple "App" in phone.

Customers drive to a store, order with the app, wait in the car or in store.
When the food is ready, pickup in drive thru/in person.

Also, with the "App" it is easier to "log" customer's preference, allow
customer to feedback on quality and select from older orders or suggest trying
out new choices.

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thatgerhard
This constant chase for more and more profit is going to be the end of us.

Corporations needs to start paying an "automation tax".

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tmnvix
Or maybe just start taxing wealth more (and, ideally, income less) then using
the revenue to fund a UBI.

