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voguy wrote: Just remember, KBOT, no politician was ever elected because they had an ability to help people, or the wisdom to solve problems.

They were elected on the same merits we elected our prom King and Queen in high school. The basis is if you "like them"

Which I might add shows the intelligence of the average Canadian and United States voter.

BTW, on minimum wage, I've never seen any evidence that raising a wage in this manor significantly improves the business, quality of goods, or the overall well-being of the employees. However, our local McDonald's franchise (28 stores) is looking at cutting people, reducing FT employees, automating more (processing food), and closing inside services. So tell me again how just tossing money at minimum wage is good?

voguy wrote: However, our local McDonald's franchise (28 stores) is looking at cutting people, reducing FT employees, automating more (processing food), and closing inside services. So tell me again how just tossing money at minimum wage is good?

Use deep capital reserves to automate as much as possible to avoid paying the wages they promoted, pay the high minimum to a workforce that is a fraction of the size it once was. This results in an overall reduction of overhead

President Obama’s proposal to increase the federal minimum wage from .25 to .10 per hour could make it worthwhile for employers to adopt emerging technologies to do the work of their low-wage workers.

Based on a 2013 paper by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne of Oxford, occupations in the U.S. that pay at or near the minimum wage — that’s about one of every six workers in the U.S. — are much more susceptible to “computerization,” or as defined by the authors, “job automation by means of computer-controlled equipment.” The researchers considered a time frame of 20 years, and they measured whether such jobs could be computerized, not whether these jobs will be computerized. The latter involves assumptions about economic feasibility and social acceptance that go beyond mere technology.

The minimum-wage occupations that Frey and Osborne think are most vulnerable include, not surprisingly, telemarketers, sales clerks and cashiers. But also included are occupations that employ a large share of the low-wage workforce, such as waiters and waitresses, food-preparation workers and cooks. If the computerization of these low-wage jobs becomes feasible, and if employers find it economical to invest in such labor-saving technology, there will be huge implications for the U.S. labor force.

With a conveyor belt-type system the burgers are freshly ground, shaped and grilled to the customer’s liking. And only when the burger’s finished cooking does Alpha slice the tomatoes and pickles and place them on the burger as fresh as can be. Finally, the machine wraps the burger up for serving.

And while you fret over how many people you invited to the barbecue, Alpha churns out a painless 360 hamburgers per hour.

Riddick wrote: So what do you see as the end-game to all this automation/mechanization/computerization, Squid?

Specifically I mean, what's to become of the surplus human population? Being that idle hands are the devil's workshop, I can't imagine TPTB not having something in mind to keep the masses in line...

• A handful of global economic "prime movers" will "own" all of the automation IP (intellectual property, i.e. patents on algorithms, methods, key hardware components, data troves, etc.)
• The motivation to own these things is, as always, ability to profit on a massive scale
• With the traditional role of "worker" relegated to the dustbins of history, the former (now incomeless) "workers" will need a new way to procure cash, and pay for automated services and robot produced goods. This might be a kind of "basic income" strategy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income ). The "success" of an individual will need to be de-coupled from that persons ability to earn money, because very few people will be in a position to earn much at all. The "prime movers" will ensure that some sort of fee schedule, or tax, administered by the state (at public expense) is collected and from that revenue the "basic income" will be leveraged. The fees/taxes will never cover the "basic income", thereby ensuring inflation (which is a profit vector for a certain group of people - I can explain that, if you wish). This will all result in the "prime movers", who are after all in control of what legislation is passed, being in a perfect position to direct all economic activity to their own benefit.
• Any unsanctioned economic activity taking place in meat space, or in cyberspace will be dealt with extremely harshly.
• In the longer term, populations will be drastically reduced, until something along the lines of the inscriptions on the "Georgia Guide Stones" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones ) is achieved ( + profit ), and the "Power Elite" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Elite )have moved off planet to various moons within our system -- the ultimate "gated communities". Much of this is happening now. Today.

SquidInk wrote: Guess I missed this, Riddick -- apologies.

The end game of all the automation? I firmly believe in a coming "singularity" scenario. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity ) Don't know exactly how it will all play out. Some trans-humanist nightmare, no doubt.

As for the surplus human populations? I really have no idea. But it has to work in the same old way, really. Specifically, something like this:

• A handful of global economic "prime movers" will "own" all of the automation IP (intellectual property, i.e. patents on algorithms, methods, key hardware components, data troves, etc.)
• The motivation to own these things is, as always, ability to profit on a massive scale
• With the traditional role of "worker" relegated to the dustbins of history, the former (now incomeless) "workers" will need a new way to procure cash, and pay for automated services and robot produced goods. This might be a kind of "basic income" strategy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income ). The "success" of an individual will need to be de-coupled from that persons ability to earn money, because very few people will be in a position to earn much at all. The "prime movers" will ensure that some sort of fee schedule, or tax, administered by the state (at public expense) is collected and from that revenue the "basic income" will be leveraged. The fees/taxes will never cover the "basic income", thereby ensuring inflation (which is a profit vector for a certain group of people - I can explain that, if you wish). This will all result in the "prime movers", who are after all in control of what legislation is passed, being in a perfect position to direct all economic activity to their own benefit.
• Any unsanctioned economic activity taking place in meat space, or in cyberspace will be dealt with extremely harshly.
• In the longer term, populations will be drastically reduced, until something along the lines of the inscriptions on the "Georgia Guide Stones" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones ) is achieved ( + profit ), and the "Power Elite" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Elite )have moved off planet to various moons within our system -- the ultimate "gated communities". Much of this is happening now. Today.