Human workforce under severe threat as hyper-automation spreads rapidly

globinfo freexchange 

 

Remember when US workers in fast-food industry were fighting for higher minimum wages? In September, there has been some news circulation about such a prospect concerning the state of California. Yet, while workers struggle hard to achieve even a small raise, the fast-food industry is at least three steps ahead using robots and hyper-automation as what appears to be an unbeatable competitor against human workforce!

 

Indeed, the first almost fully automated McDonald's opened recently in Texas:

 

At one McDonald’s location in Texas, robots are now serving up Big Macs.

Amid a growing desire for fast food giants to automate their processes, the first mostly robot-run McDonald’s restaurant is currently being tested in Fort Worth, Texas.

At this location, there are no human cashiers in sight. Even the restaurant itself is smaller and has no seating, designed to serve the grab-and-go crowd, rather than sit-down diners.

 

Upon entry, digital tills take customer orders and robots push food through on conveyor belts in designated pick-up areas.

Customers can order through the drive-thru, the company’s mobile app or the touch screen kiosks in-store.

 

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A McDonald’s spokesperson told The Guardian that though the new store is highly technical, it “is not fully automated.” There are still human workers employed in the restaurant, though interaction between customers and human employees is very limited.

 

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Many people on social media felt the automation is a way for fast food giants to avoid paying employees higher wages, a request that has been made by McDonald’s workers for years now.

 

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A 2021 Institute for Policy Studies study found that McDonald’s was one of 300 companies with the lowest median worker wages in all of the U.S.

 

Recall that as we warned recently, when literally every sector of the economy goes fully automated, there will be an unprecedented mass-layoffs bloodbath:

 

If you think you've seen it all when high-tech billionaire oligarchs left thousands of workers unemployed in the blink of an eye, wait til billionaires fully automatize production in literally every sector. It's going to be a mass-layoffs bloodbath you've never witnessed before. pic.twitter.com/jMv7LUZYDH

— failedevolution (@failedevolution) November 25, 2022

 

In a recent demonstration for some members of the UK Parliament, a humanoid robot showed that hyper-automation and AI may soon dynamically penetrate in sectors you couldn't probably even imagine:

 

 

So, we are now in a situation where two things may be happening:

 

One. Capitalist elites have gone fully blind because of the enormous power they accumulated. Therefore, driven by their endless greed, they are unable to see that a sudden mass destruction of human jobs will lead to a severe loss of consumers for their products. The system will go into an accelerating instability mode with unpredictable consequences for all.

Two. Capitalist elites know what they are doing. With the rapid technological developments in AI and hyper-automation, they will use highly advanced machines in their possession to change the system from capitalism into something even worse for the rest of us. Just only to eliminate the slightest possibility to lose power and control over societies.

 

Bernie Sanders probably saw that coming and recently achieved something that he was pursuing for years: the first step towards significant expansion of worker ownership of businesses.

Either way, workers have only one choice to save themselves and the planet from the capitalist threat: seize the means of production before it's too late and set the foundations for a 21st century grassroots Socialism that will give real hope to the entire humanity.