Tag: jobs
Gig workers are not employees and no one should make them be employees

Gig workers are not employees and no one should make them be employees

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In order to understand why California’s new Assembly Bill 5, (AB 5) is lousy you have to decipher who wins and who loses in the gig economy. If the losers are politically connected, it is logical that the losers will try to change the rules.

This is the downside of most government interventions. The goals of the “do-gooders” are overwhelmed by the special interests. Laws should be simple and have as little interference in the personal lives as possible.

The gig economy has provided opportunities for millions of Americans to make money. That’s not the same as having a “job” but that’s the point. Many gig workers have other jobs and many of the ones who don’t are in school or want to work part-time to make a little extra cash. Obviously, some of these people would like to have a different job which they can freely look for while doing gig work without any repercussions from an “employer” looking for loyalty or firm work hours.

The reason the “gig economy” took off is because of the freedom it provides people who are willing to hustle to make extra money. You could set your own hours, accept work when you had free time, and not worry about an employer having that control. If you’re an employee, you might get benefits, but you lose that freedom and control.

The gig economy put millions of people to work in one way or another. Those new service workers upset many people that were being displaced by gig workers.

Any law that has lots of “exemptions” means it is a bad law. Lawmakers are saying what is good for one group (that may not be politically connected enough to get an exemption) is not good enough for another group (where they are politically powerful).

But people don’t sign up for gigs because they’re looking for health insurance, overtime, and a retirement plan. A gig means freedom, extra cash, and a chance to have control over when and how you work. Those other things are all important, but if that’s what you’re looking for, you look for a job, not a gig – and maybe you use a gig to pay some bills while you are looking for the perfect job.

Don’t kill one just because you think it should be the other.

Hopefully, this law doesn’t infect the rest of the country and hopefully, it stays in California, which is essentially a politically screwed up state anyway.

Here is John Stossel’s take on all of this.

Photo by raezer

Restaurant Automation Is Almost a Guarantee

Restaurant Automation Is Almost a Guarantee

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Consumer preferences, reduced technology costs, and government policies that increase labor costs are driving a trend toward automation in the restaurant business. If you make something more convenient and less expensive, it tends to catch on. This can also be said for the way the restaurant looks, a new structure/design can make people notice a new restaurant. An example of this is that there are now modular restaurants (https://bmarkostructures.com/modular-restaurants/) that can be made from shipping containers and designed in a specific manner rather than just a building. This can be intriguing and make people want to see what it is all about, combining that with updated automation it can bring in customers who love a modern eatery that satiates their food cravings and is aesthetically pleasing.

As recently as the 1960s, gas-station employees would rush to fill your car’s tank, wash the windows, check the oil and put air in the tires. Telephone operators made your long-distance calls and bank tellers cashed your checks. Those jobs now are either gone or greatly diminished.

Today, we reduce jobs whenever we shop on Amazon instead of our local retail outlet, use an Uber app rather than calling a cab dispatcher, order a pizza online, use an airport kiosk to print boarding passes, or scan groceries. Each of these changes in behavior has increased convenience and reduced labor costs-and competitive businesses pass the savings to their customers.

Just like there are kiosks replacing airline workers that check you in to your flight, the restaurant industry is ripe for order automation.

I fly a lot. Several airports have already automated their restaurants. In the Delta concourse (most of C & D) LaGuardia LGA, every seat with a table or counter has an iPad and a card reader in front of it. You order anything you want on the iPad from any of the restaurants in the concourse and it gets delivered to your table. They serve thousands of people simultaneously with a fairly small wait staff. Those businesses that haven’t already automated their restaurant may want to visit this page, as this looks like the direction the hospitality industry is heading.

In fact, Minneapolis MSP has a similar setup in several of the remodeled areas.

When was the last time you walked into a bank to get some cash for the weekend? The ATM has been a fixture in the banking world for decades now. That automation has increased to include scanning checks on your smartphone, so even paper checks are no longer a reason to walk into a bank building.

In 2015, 14 cities and states approved $15 minimum wages-double the current federal minimum. Additionally, four states, 20 cities and one county now have mandatory paid-sick-leave laws generally requiring a paid week of time off each year per covered employee. And then there’s the Affordable Care Act, which further raises employer costs.

Dramatic increases in labor costs have a significant effect on the restaurant industry, where profit margins are pennies on the dollar and labor makes up about a third of total expenses. As a result, restaurants are looking to reduce costs while maintaining service and food quality.

Part of the problem is that those with technical skills make good livings, while those who don’t have those skills are being priced out of entry-level jobs.

The low-labor concept may be a harbinger of the future. If consumers prefer it, or if government-mandated labor-cost increases drive prices too high, the traditional full-service restaurant model, like those old gas stations with the employees swarming over your car, could well become a thing of the past.

Source: Why Restaurant Automation Is on the Menu

Marc Andreessen On When The Robots Come To Take All Our Jobs

Marc Andreessen On When The Robots Come To Take All Our Jobs

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It’s one of the great mysteries of our time, why there are so many insisting that this time around is different. That automation, as it proceeds, is going to leave everyone out of work and idling away their time with nothing to do and no income to do nothing with. It’s as if no one is willing to believe that the Luddite fallacy was in fact proven wrong. What’s worse is that all too many of those getting this wrong are setting themselves up as thinkers, philosopher kings, on the subject and as a result of their complete misunderstanding of the basic situation then they’re proposing all sorts of nonsense.

The simple fact is that as long as there’s things that humans can do which add value then humans will continue to have jobs. And when there’s nothing left that humans can do which adds value then no one needs to have a job so who in heck cares whether there are any or not?

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Let’s instead go and look at what happened the last time technological change wiped out 95% of all jobs. Take it away Professor Friedman:

“When the United States was formed in 1776, it took 19 people on the farm to produce enough food for 20 people. So most of the people had to spend their time and efforts on growing food. Today, it’s down to 1% or 2% to produce that food. Now just consider the vast amount of supposed unemployment that was produced by that. But there wasn’t really any unemployment produced. What happened was that people who had formerly been tied up working in agriculture were freed by technological developments and improvements to do something else. That enabled us to have a better standard of living and a more extensive range of products.”

Source: Marc Andreessen On When The Robots Come To Take All Our Jobs – Forbes

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