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> There are obviously places where it makes sense, but a $15/hr human is preeeetty cheap compared to the price, programming, and maintenance of a robot.

But such a robot is a good insurance against further increases of minimum wages.

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It also is great if the tariffs get dropped, since you were going to invest in robots anyway and this just moves your R&D forward in time. Which is better, relocating your entire factory & supply chain permanently only for the tariffs to disappear and render the entire exercise moot, or prioritize robots (even more than you were before, given coronavirus) and then regardless of what happens, you still enjoy the benefits of the robots? This and coronavirus and the recession are playing their usual role of shocking entities out of local optima... in this case, towards more automation & remote working. It is deeply ironic that Trump is essentially gouging Americans' welfare by forcing jacked-up prices which will subsidize the very automation & trade dynamics the Rust Belt blames their woes on.

Cynically: you don't even need a real, working robot in-hand in order to threaten minimum wages. Even cheaper.

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