Robots take over retail jobs

[Kilgore]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/robots-are-replacing-workers-where-you-shop-1500456602

Last August, a 55-year-old Wal-Mart employee found out her job was being taken over by a robot. Her task was to count cash and track the accuracy of the store’s books from a desk in a windowless backroom. She earned $13 an hour.

Instead, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. started using a hulking gray machine that counts eight bills per second and 3,000 coins a minute. The Cash360 machine digitally deposits money at the bank, earning interest for Wal-Mart sooner than if sent by armored car. And the machine uses software to predict how much cash is needed on a given day to reduce excess.

Now almost all of Wal-Mart’s 4,700 U.S. stores have a Cash360 machine, making thousands of positions obsolete.

[elleng]

1. and will go home and eat her dinner.

[angstlessk]

2. I say THAT ROBOT should pay social security and medicare

deductions at the same rate the employees would...plus the employers share...then used for universal pay.

[Igel]

3. Sure.

Heck, pay triple the FICA.

The robot makes $0/hr. It's gross pay after 40 hours is $0.

All those payroll taxes net $0.

Now, include the employer's share ... and you get $0.

[angstlessk]

4. I said at the same rare as if it were an employee.

Based on what the replaced human was paid before being fired...with income basis raised with inflation.

[yallerdawg]

8. We call it 'progressive taxation.'

As the bosses make more money by not having live employees, we benefit, too!

After all, how many robots shop in Walmart?

[LanternWaste]

6. Walls, ceilings, fire extinguishers and hand rails should pay as well.

Walls, ceilings, fire extinguishers and hand rails should pay that rate as well. Floors only half that rate, and gothic arches one-third.

[Oneironaut]

5. IMO, we are woefully unprepared for automation.

It will be a shock to the system, while the government sits there with its fingers in its ears. We need to put safeguards in place now to help people whose jobs will inevitably be taken by robots over the course of this century.

[NCTraveler]

7. It will be like most things.

Last edited Thu Jul 20, 2017, 03:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Our response will be reactionary.

[Oneironaut]

11. Exactly! That's the scary part.

It will be too late at that point. Automation will probably have more of an impact than the internet. Unemployment will be a huge problem. It's already starting to happen.

[HughBeaumont]

13. Yeah, I and many of us on this board have been saying that for years . . .

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028843780
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10027810059
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7725720
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7701540

Capitalism's great at creating wealth.

It's the distribution of that wealth that it's absolutely shit-horrible at.

[Oneironaut]

16. Capitalism by its very nature is Darwinian

(Not sure if that's a word or valid in this context, but you know what I mean)

People (especially conservatives) tend to get the idea that unregulated capitalism is great because it makes the country as a whole wealthy. The reality is, heavily regulated capitalism makes a country wealthy. Pure capitalism is anarchy and distributes power by wealth (who ever has the most guns, so to speak). It's simply pure hell.

The US accidentally almost found a sweet spot while wrestling between pro-regulation and anti-regulation factions. It's not perfect, but it does ok. However, it's starting to fall out of balance. Automation is starting to "tip" the pendulum towards the unregulated capitalist side. We need an equal force to push back (new regulations and safety nets), and balance is restored! Basically, Democrats need a say, with some Republicans mixed in when necessary to keep it balanced (I may be tarred and feathered for saying such a thing ).

Like you said, Capitalism is great at creating wealth. It also keeps wealth at the top with a few small holes in the seal to allow some trickling down. Every regulation that is removed, the tighter the seal gets.

I'm in favor of a UBI, creating "jobs just to have jobs," exploring shorter work weeks, and doing things that promote competition. While Amazon, for example,is probably one of the most innovative companies out there, I don't like how they're consuming the entire market. Automation will make it worse.

I like the idea of robots doing mundane jobs and making our lives easier, but we need to start planning now. Not everyone is a coder.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Now is the time to talk about what a world without work -- or with much less work -- looks like.

Automation has always come with the promise of more leisure time, yet that's never materialized. Now is the time to make it happen, because many, many jobs will be lost to automation. What does our society look like without a lot of work? We are more than our productivity for profit, so how can we best step into that potential?

[HughBeaumont]

14. I say "dystopian hellscape".

Profit-addicts are never going to concede one red CENT of their wealth to help others. NOT ONE.

As long as you have millions upon millions of voters that see themselves as "just one lucky break away from being Donald Trump" rather than two missed paychecks away from being homeless, the corporate-purchased government is never going to change.

[MissB]

15. Brilliantly stated.

[leftyladyfrommo]

10. My car wash got robots.

They used to have about 6 or 7 people working there. Last time I was there 1 person was doing everything.

They even had a robot that looked like a person. It held a hose and rinsed off soap.

[NCTraveler]

12. "They even had a robot that looked like a person. It held a hose and rinsed off soap."

One of the improvements of automation. I haven't seen a full service car wash that has a human rinse a car down since... Well, I never have. A mechanical rinse uses less water and regulates where most of the water runs off the car. Most of that water then runs into the "reservoir" where is is sent through to be used to rinse the mechanical brushes and pre-rinse cycles.

[Le Gaucher]

17. We are laying off 1000's of Call quality reps

Their job was to listen to audio recordings of phone calls between customer reps and customers and mark quality control issues.

They were replaced by software - the listens to every call - transcribes it, scores it for tone/ sentiment and runs a topic mining algorithm to disposition the call.

The overall process is buggy but will improve overtime.