# Here comes Flippy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264 "2017-09-13T19:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/21 "2017-09-14T00:11:01Z")
Have you talked to relatives after they retired? Everyone I talked to had these big plans. Golfing every day. Fishing & hunting every day. Travel. That lasted about a year or two. My dad took up crochet. He had several boxes of stuff he made. He gave away shawls, tablecloths, throws for the sofa to friends. He had always been very active. Crochet kept his hands busy and he enjoyed it. I’m getting close to retirement. Life got very quiet at home after our kids left. I occupy my time studying and practicing music. I can burn through several hours a day that way. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/22 "2017-09-14T00:13:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Have you talked to relatives after they retired? > > Everyone I talked to had these big plans. Golfing every day. Fishing & hunting every day. Travel. > > That lasted about a year. > > My dad took up crochet. He had several boxes of stuff he made. He gave away shawls, tablecloths, throws for the sofa etc. to friends. So they are doing things they want to do rather than what they are forced to do? Sounds awesome! I wish I could do that everyday! > [@](#): > > I’m getting close to retirement. Life got very quiet at home after our kids left. I occupy my time studying music. I can burn through several hours a day that way. So you’ll get to do what you want when you feel like it instead of being forced to do something when you don’t feel like it? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/23 "2017-09-14T02:09:43Z")
Can you imagine a booming economy with a structural unemployment rate of 15, 20, 25%? I can. I just can’t imagine it lasting for long. Income inequality that will make today’s America look downright egalitarian? Don’t worry. One thing we know about income inequality is that it doesn’t last. Confiscatory taxation, war, or revolution are the historical methods of correcting such imbalance. Which do you prefer? Or the alternative is a police state that would make Stalin envious. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/24 "2017-09-14T02:42:16Z")
So you’ve got a robot that flips burgers. When you’ve got robots that can assemble and wrap sandwiches, deal with special orders and customer questions, stock the kitchen, clean the other robots, clean the front of house and back of house, chase off loiterers, sweep the parking lot, sanitize the bathrooms, and repair themselves when they break, I’ll be impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/25 "2017-09-14T03:59:48Z")
I live in California and never heard of CaliBurger, so I went looking them up, they only have nine stores in the US, so the idea that they’re going to use robots because American employees want $15 an hour is bullshit. I doubt if the employees in their locations in United Arab Emirates, which is where the largest number of their stores is located, are asking for $15. [https://caliburger.com/locations](https://caliburger.com/locations) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/26 "2017-09-14T04:01:06Z")
A robot that flips burgers is a really stupid idea. What you want is a grilling system where you load frozen patties into a hopper, and when you need one it plops out a grilled burger. No “flipping”. That’s like imagining a robot standing there with a scrub brush and an apron doing the dishes. As for the notion that automation is going to ruin low wage jobs, guess what? Lawyers and bankers and managers are getting hammered by automation as well. It’s not just low skill jobs. Often it is precisely high skill jobs that get replaced by automation. Look at all the skilled workers put out of work by mechanical looms. We don’t even recognize automation sometimes, because it just looks like a tool that enables one guy to do the same work but faster and easier. Is it automation when one guy with a nailgun can drive three times as many nails as a guy with a hammer? It is if you can fire the other two guys. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/27 "2017-09-14T05:16:21Z")
Eh. Nobody’s panicking or anything. It’s just one of **Okrahoma** ’s “Make snide remarks about a living wage” threads. Good to know you’re still punching down, man. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/28 "2017-09-14T05:55:30Z")
And I thought this thread was going to be about another bloody hurricane… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/29 "2017-09-14T13:54:32Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Eh. Nobody’s panicking or anything. It’s just one of **Okrahoma** ’s “Make snide remarks about a living wage” threads. Good to know you’re still punching down, man. I don’t know what kind of cabbage that guy makes, for all I know he’s punching up! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/30 "2017-09-14T14:05:10Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > We don’t even recognize automation sometimes, because it just looks like a tool that enables one guy to do the same work but faster and easier. Is it automation when one guy with a nailgun can drive three times as many nails as a guy with a hammer? It is if you can fire the other two guys. Your company can take on more work and make more money. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/31 "2017-09-14T14:27:22Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > [http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/09/13/robot-fast-food-burger/](http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/09/13/robot-fast-food-burger/) > > \*"As fast food employees across the U.S. continue to protest for higher wages, a California chain restaurant has decided to hire a new staff member that works for free. The competition for the company’s low-wage workers: a burger-flipping robot named “Flippy.” > > CaliBurger has announced they will be installing the high-tech replacement in 50 of their locations around the world. “Flippy,” the robotic kitchen assistant, was created by a California startup company called Miso Robotics and is expected to roll out in 2018. > … > Ironically, the futuristic short-order cook has been developed to replace workers in one of the most progressive states in America. Several California cities have already raised the minimum wage as the state plans to push the rate to $15 by 2022."\* > > They say “ironically”. I don’t think it’s ironic. I think it is directly related. Do you know that Burger King was using a “robot” to cook their burgers long before minimum wage hit even $7. Oh, my! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/32 "2017-09-14T14:42:13Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > Do you know that Burger King was using a “robot” to cook their burgers long before minimum wage hit even $7. Oh, my! I do recall a conveyor belt carrying “hamburgers” through flames when I ate there during college. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/33 "2017-09-14T14:45:49Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Your company can take on more work and make more money. Or fire two guys and have more money without having to scale up the rest of the non-nailing-related operation to accommodate taking on more work. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/34 "2017-09-14T15:08:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > So you’ve got a robot that flips burgers. > > When you’ve got robots that can assemble and wrap sandwiches, deal with special orders and customer questions, stock the kitchen, clean the other robots, clean the front of house and back of house, chase off loiterers, sweep the parking lot, sanitize the bathrooms, and repair themselves when they break, I’ll be impressed. Just saying, if I were a loiterer, [this’d](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giS41utjlbU) scare me off. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/35 "2017-09-14T15:10:00Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Or fire two guys and have more money without having to scale up the rest of the non-nailing-related operation to accommodate taking on more work. Or, fire two guys and lower your prices, making your competition have to do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/36 "2017-09-14T15:21:16Z")
Automation is very bad for the economy. People need to work. Why I won’t even buy a car that isn’t 100% hand made by humans. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/37 "2017-09-14T15:29:06Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Your company can take on more work and make more money. Work isn’t exactly a zero-sum game (lower prices will draw some more people into a market), but if my company takes on more work, some other company is probably going to lose it. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/38 "2017-09-14T15:54:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A hundred years ago, some large percentage of the American population worked in agriculture. If you told them then that many of those jobs wouldn’t exist in the future, they couldn’t imagine what they would do. Fifty years ago, some large percentage worked as secretaries or file clerks in offices. Again, they couldn’t imagine that in the future there would be much less need for those professions. > > It’s the same thing today. Twenty or fifty or a hundred years from now, people will be employed in ways we can’t imagine. I know. This document: [Manpower Planning for Technological Change](https://books.google.com/books?id=tS1qavNeHiIC&pg); Case Studies of Telephone Operators, Issue 1574 from 1968 says that there were 200,000 telephone operators in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are currently 8,860, and we’re making about ten times the calls. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/39 "2017-09-14T16:03:21Z")
Actually, that one I’m well aware of. My mother was a directory assistance operator in Connecticut for a couple of decades. At the time, Connecticut had multiple offices with hundreds of directory assistance operators in each. Now, I believe a small group in San Antonio provides directory assistance for the entire country, since everyone can look up phone numbers themselves using computers and smartphones. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264/40 "2017-09-14T16:19:37Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A hundred years ago, some large percentage of the American population worked in agriculture. If you told them then that many of those jobs wouldn’t exist in the future, they couldn’t imagine what they would do. True, but it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride either. “Don’t worry, Mr. Farmer. Someday you and your family can cram into tenements and your children can scramble to pull loose threads out of large textile machines until they lose a finger and then you have labor riots to look forward to… Automation!” I mean, yeah yeah buggy whips and all but the buggy whip people still had to eat and pay rent while waiting for the Next Great Thing to happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-comes-flippy/796264.md?page=3)