DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

We have seen the future, and it sucks.

Australia’s Bricklayers Face Robot Challenge

17th November 2015

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SYDNEY—What do you do when a hot property-market has driven bricklayer salaries to nearly $100,000 a year in Australian cities like Sydney? Call in the robots.

When the price of labor goes up, automation becomes more cost-effective. Eventually the lines cross, and the robots are cheaper. Duh.

This is a lesson that the minimum-wage-bloviators never learn — possibly because none of them have to worry about only making minimum wage.

Fastbrick’s remote-controlled Hadrian robot—named after the Roman Wall built by the emperor Hadrian across the north of England in the second century A.D.—could eventually lay 1,000 bricks an hour. That compares with roughly 100 bricks an hour for an experienced human mason. A prototype version lays about 300, according to Mr. Pivac.

 

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