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Regardless of where you are in the United States, if you stop into a McDonald's you know what to expect. The buildings look fairly similar, the staff will be dressed in pretty much the same attire, and you'll be offered the chance to buy food that will make you spend the next four hours either sleeping or moaning as you regret your purchase.
THAT is absolutely ridiculous to say! Completely untrue, unwarranted and stupid!
Well. I dont know where you are getting your numbers. My own SSA is higher than what you state, and if I had waited until age 65 it would have 3-4 hundred higher.
I have little reason to believe any of your numbers without further evidence.
I was referring to the monthly grants for Supplemental Security Income- SSI- not social security benefits which, of course, vary according to how much taxes you've paid in and what your wages were over the years.
SSI is a federally based welfare program administered by the SSA- recipients have to be disabled, blind or over 65 and must meet income and financial asset tests. Individuals who reach the age of 65 or are disabled and have not paid enough in taxes over the years, can apply for the checks as they are based on poverty not just being old enough.
The amounts I cited were the maximum SSI cash grant, which increase each year, just like people's social security checks.
Ok but the fact of the matter is that tech jobs have been increasing significantly.
Google nearly doubled their workforce in four years. Ford has never grown that fast and neither has GM.
Ebay has double their workforce in four years, Amazon has grown THREE FOLD in four years etc.
So you might argue on raw numbers but the growth is sky high. Automotive is the last thing anyone wants to enter. It has been on the decline since the late 1970's. Unless you have a tech degree I wouldn't advocate for it because everything with cars these days is computerized and automated.
Google is growing because of acquisitions. What became Google Docs was acquisitions. Blogger was an acquisition. Android came from acquisitions. Zagat is owned by Google, Motorola is owned by Google and of course YouTube. They have really done a lot even through acquisitions and R&D as compared to Twitter, the other one 313 mentioned. As of right now, Twitter is buying some smaller companies but I don't see the end game from these yet. I don't see where they are going similar to Google prior to 2008/9 when they launched Android. I think Twitter (the company) may be a smaller Google down the road judging by what they purchased but the problem is Google has that marketshare and goodwill. Let's face it, part of Google's market share in the Android market is Google's name (that and how it is on many phones.)
I was referring to the monthly grants for Supplemental Security Income- SSI- not social security benefits which, of course, vary according to how much taxes you've paid in and what your wages were over the years.
SSI is a federally based welfare program administered by the SSA- recipients have to be disabled, blind or over 65 and must meet income and financial asset tests. Individuals who reach the age of 65 or are disabled and have not paid enough in taxes over the years, can apply for the checks as they are based on poverty not just being old enough.
The amounts I cited were the maximum SSI cash grant, which increase each year, just like people's social security checks.
I am friendly with some of the cashiers at my supermarket. They only recently installed automated self-checkouts. I use them when I have 15 items or less. There is a master station that oversees the activities of all six stations. A human checker must monitor this station. I am told that 80% of customers cannot use the self-serve stations without human assistance. Many items need human authorization before the machine will accept them. Alcohol, cigarettes... razor blades... cough syrup... on the fast food side if 80% of customers will need help ordering from touchscreens there will still be work for human staff. Just fewer of them. Lots fewer. Tell the truth, when you shop at Safeway, how often is one of the self-serve stations "out of service"?
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Big difference between fast food and supermarket self service checkouts.
Fast food, you're creating an order.. Supermarket is handling coupons, many, many payment methods (WIC, EBT, debit, credit, etc), is handling weighing items to verify that what you rang up goes into the bag (and nothing else) and is scanning an inventory of THOUSANDS of items.
Fast food.. You've got a menu of at most, 100 items. You can make pictures on the screen so that people don't even have to read english.. They point and touch what they want. The hardest part is handling modifiers. Think ordering a Whopper with Heavy Mayo, no lettuce and light tomatoes plus bacon.. That screen and functionality is more difficult to idiot proof.
Now, I don't disagree.. People in the restaurants are never going away.. And I think what you'll see is the self-serve aspect being optional to start.. With it becoming the go-to option in a few years time. But, you're still going to have the little old lady who's a technophile, or someone who is blind.. I haven't seen a touch-screen system yet that handles that well. Yes, some of them speak, but.. Not well.
I could certainly see the day where rather than having 4 people running a register in a store, you have 1 person overseeing 4 registers where people ring things up themselves.
I read something about Moe's Southwest Grill.. Their POS guru was evaluating some self serve kiosks and was not a fan, not because of the technology, but because of what you lost in using the technology. Any of you who have been to Moe's knows the whole "Welcome to Moe's" thing (Which I despise).. So, their business model is partially focused on being personal with the customer.. So, self-serve kiosks were not something they were recommending.
On the other hand.. We have some Fro-Yo shops that are 100% self service. You get the yogurt yourself, put the toppings on it.. Set it on the scale, hit a button, it rings it up.. Asks "More items?" and if you answer no, asks how you're paying.. If cash, the person manning the store takes cash and makes change.. If credit, you swipe the card.
There is a place for self serve technology.. But it will never 100% replace people. The bad part is.. It can 90% replace people.
Then, of course, there's a whole new market that opens up for people like me.. Who repair, program and write the software for the self serve kiosks and their associated peripherals.
That one seems to be a horrible idea to me. Of course.. I'm not a fan of drive thrus in the first place.. I have the Joe Pesci mentality about drive thrus.
This is just a FOX News phrase uttered by the pundits. FLSA meant any full time job was supposed to be livable.
Not exactly. FLSA has established minimum wage, overtime and limits child labor. It's not really about livable wages. http://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/ If we went by that law (throwing out amendment and the whole another minimum wage laws), the minimum wage is only $0.25.
I'm actually surprised that they haven't tested this sooner. Cashiering will be one of the next jobs to almost be phased out. I was actually thinking the other day about all of the jobs to leave - remember Laverne and Shirley? I'm sure bottle caps have been done by machines, it really is surprising when you sit and think of the jobs to leave. The hard thing is new jobs are not popping up, if you get laid off for being a cashier then what will your new job be?
This is part of why our economy sucks the money isn't there to create new jobs as fast as they are phased out.
Current POS systems are pretty bulletproof.. Literally, the touch screen terminals that you see are computers.. Most are fairly limited power.. Talking Atom processors.. But, there are some that are pretty powerful. As with anything.. Things break from time to time, but it's pretty few and far between. The terminals that we generally use have about 4 common issues..
1) Network port failure.. Generally tied to electrical storms in the south
2) Touchscreen failure. Commonly due to being touched too hard or people who use pens to 'touch' the screen
3) Screen failure. Just wear. Backlight goes out, inverter goes out.. Screen is REALLY touched too hard and is cracked..
4) Power brick failure. Most terminals run off 24vDC power, which uses an external power brick to convert your 120AC to the 24vDC.. Those do alot and usually get stuck in a place where they get wet, or overheat and shorten their lives.
But, even with all that.. With the advancements in technology.. A POS system has a lifespan of about 5 years before it is hopelessly outdated.
Regardless of where you are in the United States, if you stop into a McDonald's you know what to expect. The buildings look fairly similar, the staff will be dressed in pretty much the same attire, and you'll be offered the chance to buy food that will make you spend the next four hours either sleeping or moaning as you regret your purchase. However, one location is very different. It's in Romeoville IL, and it's next door to what's known as the "McDonald's Innovation Center."
I can see it happening to some degree, but I really don't think they are going to get rid of all their cashiers. Too many Americans are helpless and refuse to do anything for themselves. I work with customers and I am surprised some haven't asked me to wipe their asses for them. They are that helpless and can't figure things out and don't want to read directions.
Walmart and Kroger haven't been able to get rid of all their cashiers. I doubt McDonalds will. Automation will likely be used to fill in the holes where a warm body can't be found.
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THAT is absolutely ridiculous to say! Completely untrue, unwarranted and stupid! 
