Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by maym86 2809 days ago
> Robots will be able to do the jobs for $15 hour sooner than they'll be able to for $7 an hour

This doesn't make sense. Increasing workers wages doesn't change the rate a which automation technology becomes available. The bottle neck is the availablity of capable automation systems which is unrelated to workers wages.

Even if there was a technology available that cost $15 an hour and worker wages were $7, increasing the workers wages doesn't decrease cost of the technology.
2 comments
ameister14 2809 days ago
>Increasing workers wages doesn't change the rate a which automation technology becomes available.

Sure it does. If your current costs increase significantly, the math on funding research to automate the process changes. Not simply because you may fund research to fix your increase in cost, but also because there is now a more viable market for others to do the same.

link
pixl97 2809 days ago
Hmmm, what you are saying doesn't make sense.

Lets say there is an industrial machine that TCO is $50,000 per year to operate.

Lets say a human doing the same task, same quantity, and same outcome, for low pay only costs $20,000.

It would be crazy not to use humans. Trying to drop the cost of the machine is likely going to be very difficult because there will be no demand.

Now, give the humans a raise and insurance. Lets say that brings up the total human cost to $48,000. We'll, it is actually worth getting the machines now. Seems counter intuitive even when the machine is $2000 more. But it is almost granted the cost of the machines will drop now there is a mass market for them.

link
maym86 2809 days ago
Raising the wages of humans so they are the same cost as machines doesn't make the machines cheaper. Amazon could keep workers wages low and still buy machines and create the market. One doesn't necessitate the other.
link
pixl97 2809 days ago
>Raising the wages of humans so they are the same cost as machines doesn't make the machines cheaper.

And again, that is where you are wrong.

Economies of scale. Building one machine is expensive. Building 10 is slightly cheaper. Building a thousand lowers the price. A million makes them a commodity.

link
maym86 2809 days ago
I understand economics of scale. Amazon could order a million machines without raising workers wages.
link
pixl97 2808 days ago
Amazon doesn't control worker wages, for the most part.

If the politicians and employees were not complaining they would not have raised wages.

link