Restaurant operators are turning to robots as labor shortage drags on

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,255   +192
Staff member
The big picture: Robotics and automation are more affordable now than they once were, and with more people questioning whether or not they want to be involved in the food services industry due to unstable schedules and relatively low wages, there might be no better time than the present for restaurant operators to further test the waters.

For better or for worse, the pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of modern life. Nowhere is that more evident than in the food services industry.

In just over a year and a half, virtually everything has changed as it relates to food. Online grocery shopping has finally started to gain traction. Many fast food joints closed their lobbies, turning instead to takeout or delivery to keep the lights on. Others that weren’t able or willing to adapt often went out of business.

All of the turmoil has wreaked havoc on the job market, and as The Wall Street Journal reports, it’s forcing yet another rethink by restaurants and executives.

White Castle last year started testing a robotic fry cooker at select locations. “Flippy,” from Miso Robotics, operates 23 hours a day at the Merrillville, Indiana, White Castle – it gets one hour of downtime a day for cleaning. The company is so happy with the bot’s performance that it is planning to bring it to 10 additional restaurants across the country.

According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there were more than 1.4 million job openings in the accommodation and food services sector as of May 2021. That’s more than double the number from a year earlier.

Indeed, with so many unfulfilled jobs and the pandemic still looming, even more restaurants and fast food establishments are willing to experiment with replacing human labor with robots. And the cost isn’t nearly as much of a factor as it once was.

“The 17-year-old fry cook isn’t expensive labor, but the 17-year-old becomes expensive labor if he or she doesn’t show up for work,” said, Ruth Cowan, an expert in kitchen automation.

Image credit Clarissa Bonet, The Wall Street Journal, Orlando Sentinel

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One thing I noticed over the last many months is the high demand for workers. Can't even go into a restaurant without seeing the effect of being understaffed. The Jobs are there, and they have been paying more for people to fill them.

People don't want to work. Replace them. Sorry but your unemployment will run out and if you think you are going to make $20+ an hour as an entry level line cook job. Think again.

Want to make $60K+? There are plenty of job opening out there for such work. But they require 10hr days, 5 days a week. Sometimes working weekends are needed. These lines of jobs don't work for people that just don't feel like going to work one day every other week or like to call in every Friday.

American isn't a country where working 30 hours a week while making a living wage isn't an option. Maybe on HGTV where being a part time candle maker can net you a six figure income.

Robots can't come soon enough, get people out of shitty roles.
 
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I don't eat out cause food service workers generally don't care how they prepare food. If robots made the food they would care and I might eat out. I worked in many restaurants as a youth and speak from experience.
 
One thing I noticed over the last many months is the high demand for workers. Can't even go into a restaurant without seeing the effect of being understaffed. The Jobs are there, and they have been paying more for people to fill them.

People don't want to work. Replace them. Sorry but your unemployment will run out and if you think you are going to make $20+ an hour as an entry level line cook job. Think again.

Want to make $60K+? There are plenty of job opening out there for such work. But they require 10hr days, 5 days a week. Sometimes working weekends are needed. These lines of jobs don't work for people that just don't feel like going to work one day every other week or like to call in every Friday.

American isn't a country where working 30 hours a week while making a living wage isn't an option. Maybe on HGTV where being a part time candle maker can net you a six figure income.

Robots can't come soon enough, get people out of shitty roles.


Part of this is less available time for those with family - , if you are stuck at home 24/7 caring for the suddenly-home-schooled kids (with no daycare options, or grandparents safe enough to hang around kids), you have to find other sources of income, or better hours than open-to-close food service management often get..

Also, being in close contact with the potentiality sick has also scared away others.
 
One thing I noticed over the last many months is the high demand for workers. Can't even go into a restaurant without seeing the effect of being understaffed. The Jobs are there, and they have been paying more for people to fill them.

People don't want to work. Replace them. Sorry but your unemployment will run out and if you think you are going to make $20+ an hour as an entry level line cook job. Think again.

Want to make $60K+? There are plenty of job opening out there for such work. But they require 10hr days, 5 days a week. Sometimes working weekends are needed. These lines of jobs don't work for people that just don't feel like going to work one day every other week or like to call in every Friday.

American isn't a country where working 30 hours a week while making a living wage isn't an option. Maybe on HGTV where being a part time candle maker can net you a six figure income.

Robots can't come soon enough, get people out of shitty roles.

Having been a fast-food worker relatively recently, I could write a whole essay but my 2 cents:

It's not worth working a crappy job with crappy pay and crappy benefits with customers that give you crap because you forgot to put tomato on a sandwich. The pay is still low compared to easier jobs with no customer interaction.

There are other jobs out there that offer more pay (like you said). You say people don't want to work (I hear this a lot) but it seems more a problem with the aging and retiring population. We can see the same issue if we look at China with a labor shortage there too because the ratio of retirees to workers are growing, and they even canceled the one-child policy, but it's too late. The worker shortage will get worse. Also, the percentage of the population currently collecting unemployment seems to be low in the US. I'm just not seeing this issue. Most of these people have either moved on and gotten a new job or just trying to look for something better that will work around their schedule.
 
Having been a fast-food worker relatively recently, I could write a whole essay but my 2 cents:

It's not worth working a crappy job with crappy pay and crappy benefits with customers that give you crap because you forgot to put tomato on a sandwich. The pay is still low compared to easier jobs with no customer interaction.

There are other jobs out there that offer more pay (like you said). You say people don't want to work (I hear this a lot) but it seems more a problem with the aging and retiring population. We can see the same issue if we look at China with a labor shortage there too because the ratio of retirees to workers are growing, and they even canceled the one-child policy, but it's too late. The worker shortage will get worse. Also, the percentage of the population currently collecting unemployment seems to be low in the US. I'm just not seeing this issue. Most of these people have either moved on and gotten a new job or just trying to look for something better that will work around their schedule.
I wasn't really talking about fast food. More Restaurants in general. Where making a decent chunk of money was already common place. I have a couple of family members that make upwards of 200 a night waitressing. Sometimes near 300 on really good nights. And this is just as normal chain restaurants.

I'm from Wisconsin so doing a fish fry on a friday is common. About once or twice a month we'll go to one. I like to limit going out to two times a month, but that easily creeps up to 3 for some months.

I agree fast food sucks. If there was one service industry that needs to be automated it would be fast food. Its crap work, and at the same time I shouldn't have to question of people are capable of making my order correctly....

I learned from a early age that I need to work as much as I can, even if I hated the job. I went years working at one job I hated simply because I couldn't cope with the idea of not getting money transferred into my 401k every paycheck. That long term dedicated lead to another job that has been great to me, and again 401k every week. Kids these days have no clue that they need to start young when it comes to retirement savings, even if that means flipping burgers. In a job world like that you should always be looking for something better, but never be jobless.
 
I wasn't really talking about fast food. More Restaurants in general. Where making a decent chunk of money was already common place. I have a couple of family members that make upwards of 200 a night waitressing. Sometimes near 300 on really good nights. And this is just as normal chain restaurants.

The problem with your assumption is that anyone of these people are going to clear over a hundred a night, now that covid restrictions are in place

you have half as many tables open in most states, which means your available tip pool shrinks dramatically - Much like the cruise industry, the only thing that will fix the restaurant industry is-real vaccinated immunity (over 75%).

Why should any wait staff come back yet, when there's only table scraps to fight-over?
 
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When the government pays people to sit home and not work they can expect to be replaced. I can't wait till that money stops flowing and all those fools are crying about how their jobs are gone.

And then crime rates go up. Good logic.

In Australia, waiters are paid properly (unlike "the lucky country" USA),and with no tips. And doesn't effect prices that much. Think your joints are just greedy. But hey, no staff, no business, it is that simple.

You want food made for you, pay for it. Swear America doesn't realise it's the least lucky country and has the least amount of freedom.
 
I'm seeing food places and gas stations around me offering upwards of $18 an hour. That's around $37k a year if you were to work 40 hour weeks, which shouldn't be hard to do with the staff shortages some places have.

That's nothing to shy away from considering the same places were paying around $12 an hour the previous year. Which was only about $25k for 40 hour weeks.

If I saw a 150% raise in my wages in that same span I'd be thrilled....helI, I'd be happy with a 10% raise to help offset the spike in grocery and gas prices over the past year. Right now I'm on pace to spend between $1500-1800 more on groceries and gas this year over last year while making the same wages I was last year.

I know food jobs can be a pain, I worked bussing tables for five years, but I made good money.... but I did work my a$s off. Help with running food, getting drink orders, clearing and setting tables, cleaning, dealing with entitled pricks (like some of the late 1990s to early 2000s MN Vikings - although some of them were extremely nice) and working 10 hour days multiple days in a row. It does take some work and it very well may be hard work, but I see less and less people everyday wanting to do less and less work and get paid more and more. It's like society here is, every day, more and more, comforming to the pathetic and weak. Maybe I just can't understand this swing in thought process society seems to be embracing.....
 
Two reasons... Who wants to work when it's ridiculous you are making more money at the moment unemployed then employed...

And second, you want $15 to take orders with a crappy attitude on a fast food joint which isn't made as a career job (working for corporate isn't the same, before I get chewed up).

So yeah welcome to the future, reboots will and are replacing the jobs many are crying for $15. Self checkouts, self ordering, reboots taking food to the tables. I mean the signs are there, it's happening.
 
One thing I noticed over the last many months is the high demand for workers. Can't even go into a restaurant without seeing the effect of being understaffed. The Jobs are there, and they have been paying more for people to fill them.

People don't want to work. Replace them. Sorry but your unemployment will run out and if you think you are going to make $20+ an hour as an entry level line cook job. Think again.

Want to make $60K+? There are plenty of job opening out there for such work. But they require 10hr days, 5 days a week. Sometimes working weekends are needed. These lines of jobs don't work for people that just don't feel like going to work one day every other week or like to call in every Friday.

American isn't a country where working 30 hours a week while making a living wage isn't an option. Maybe on HGTV where being a part time candle maker can net you a six figure income.

Robots can't come soon enough, get people out of shitty roles.

AMEN! Been saying that since this crap all started! I drive past industrial plants, metal fabrication places etc...hiring bonus, no experience, on the job training, benefits etc...STILL can't fill them because a lot of kids have been told, you can't get anywhere without a 4 year college degree.
It's a simple law of supply & demand.
If you have 100,000 college degree graduates coming along in May of each year, and only 30,000 degree jobs available, the EMPLOYER is in the drivers seat. They can DROP the wages because they know there are more people looking for the job, than jobs available.
THAT is why "trade" jobs are paying more. A lot of kids are just not willing to get their hands dirty, sweat, ie: hard labor in some cases.
When I graduated high school in the 70's, I went to a two year trade school for electronics. Never been unemployed or UNDER employed.
 
AMEN! Been saying that since this crap all started! I drive past industrial plants, metal fabrication places etc...hiring bonus, no experience, on the job training, benefits etc...STILL can't fill them because a lot of kids have been told, you can't get anywhere without a 4 year college degree.
It's a simple law of supply & demand.
If you have 100,000 college degree graduates coming along in May of each year, and only 30,000 degree jobs available, the EMPLOYER is in the drivers seat. They can DROP the wages because they know there are more people looking for the job, than jobs available.
THAT is why "trade" jobs are paying more. A lot of kids are just not willing to get their hands dirty, sweat, ie: hard labor in some cases.
When I graduated high school in the 70's, I went to a two year trade school for electronics. Never been unemployed or UNDER employed.

My stepdad did it all growing up - was a certified electrician, plumber, mechanic and so on. He's 72 now and with all his knowledge, about 5 years ago he started his own side business to help keep him busy since he "retired", doing handyman work (repair work on appliances, mowers and so on. But with his age and bad knees, he refuses to do plumbing working and car mechanic work, too hard on him) and he's constantly turning away work because he can only do so much. He does 3-4 jobs a day and he says he turns away easily the same amount of jobs every day because there are so few handymen out there.

A kid I know who's dad is a plumber, his dad is constantly busy and turning away work. His dad makes really good money because the demand is so high, but the work force in the field is so low. The kid doesn't want to learn what his dad does because he said he doesn't like dealing with people's $hit, literally. He has no stomach for foul things and he said it makes him puke so he won't go into plumbing.

I know my dad installed flooring for 40+ years (he finally retired from it about 4 years ago). At one point in time when him and one of his younger brothers were the only installers in about a 100 mile radius of where we lived, they were both pulling in $100K+ a year, but they were also constantly working. It was hard work, but it paid really well (and this was back in the late 80s).

There just aren't enough folks willing to learn a trade skill because they think it's a $hitty job or not worth it or too much work. There is very good money to be made doing these jobs, folks just need to stop thinking that these jobs are beneath them.
 
When the government pays people to sit home and not work they can expect to be replaced. I can't wait till that money stops flowing and all those fools are crying about how their jobs are gone.
I don't think this is fair or even accurate. If you got paid to stay at home why would you go back to work until the money stopped? If a person was paid the same amount of money they would make working at a minimum wage job going to work would cost a person more money. Fuel isn't free.

One thing I noticed over the last many months is the high demand for workers. Can't even go into a restaurant without seeing the effect of being understaffed. The Jobs are there, and they have been paying more for people to fill them.

Do you think every person who worked in the food industry could afford to wait for the rules to change so they could go back to work? Many people who were put out of a job due to the pandemic found jobs not as affected by the pandemic. Many restaurants closed because they couldn't keep paying the rent. This isn't about people being lazy or being too good for the work, the work just isn't reliable any more and working in the food industry is a physically demanding job with terrible hours in hot environments, with little if any chance of promotion.

A kid I know who's dad is a plumber, his dad is constantly busy and turning away work. His dad makes really good money because the demand is so high, but the work force in the field is so low. The kid doesn't want to learn what his dad does because he said he doesn't like dealing with people's $hit, literally. He has no stomach for foul things and he said it makes him puke so he won't go into plumbing.

There just aren't enough folks willing to learn a trade skill because they think it's a $hitty job or not worth it or too much work. There is very good money to be made doing these jobs, folks just need to stop thinking that these jobs are beneath them.

Money isn't everything. If someone hates a job they aren't likely to ever make good money doing it because their work is likely to be of poor quality. If a person can't stand sewage why would anyone expect them to teach themselves plumbing just because you might be able to make good money doing it?

It's not like trade schools are a popular career path in the US and there is very little career progression unlike Europe where you can progress on a path to be a master in your trade and making hundreds of thousands of Euros a year.
 
Over here in Germany, restaurants also appear to increasingly look for employees.

During the height of the pandemic, many establishments let at least part of heir staff go since they were closed.

The problem for restaurants is that many of their former employees looked for other jobs (often in retail) and found out that they were better wrt working conditions / hours / schedules and pay, so they have no interest of coming back.
 
Money isn't everything. If someone hates a job they aren't likely to ever make good money doing it because their work is likely to be of poor quality. If a person can't stand sewage why would anyone expect them to teach themselves plumbing just because you might be able to make good money doing it?

It's not like trade schools are a popular career path in the US and there is very little career progression unlike Europe where you can progress on a path to be a master in your trade and making hundreds of thousands of Euros a year.
There is a lot of potential in the States for these professions. Go to a trade school, learn the ropes. Do some actual work to learn and gain experience and go into business yourself. You can make a lot of money right now being a good electrician or plumber or HVAC tech - it does require dedication and hard work, but with the demand so high you'd never be hard to find work and you'd make a lot of money as long as you're good at the work and honest (word of mouth is big in these businesses).

Some of the larger companies around my area that does plumbing or HVAC, they have some of the worst (most worthless) workers that are incompetent and shouldn't be in the profession (maybe they hate the work? maybe they just suck at it? either way, they shouldn't be allowed to do the work). The wife's aunt was having issues with draining in a kitchen sink, 3 different big name plumbing companies came through and couldn't figure out what the problem was. I'm no plumber, but I know draining issues can happen if the garbage disposal fails. I went and took a quick look and found the garbage disposal was dead and clogged. Seriously....water from the tap goes into the garbage disposal and from there runs into the trap....not one of them checked the disposal. I offered to replace the garbage disposal for her, but the wife's dad said he would come back in a few days to her aunt's place and do it for her. After the garbage disposal was replaced her sink was no longer draining poorly and the problem was resolved.

HVAC workers, I've found one company (it's a small company that has about 10 techs that work for them) that's extremely good at their job. The techs are knowledgeable, know how to find and fix issues and get them resolved on the first visit. Several other big name companies are awful, do $hit work and don't correctly fix the problems. I had one company come through and said the AC unit was low on Freon and charged the AC system back up. I asked why an enclosed system would be low on Freon and they just kind of shrugged and said it happens sometimes.....a few months later the AC unit was blowing warm air again. I tried another company - was told the same thing. AC charged with Freon. A couple months later the AC unit was blowing warm air again. I found a third company and an older gentleman came out, said an enclosed system shouldn't be leaking Freon and he brought out his sniffer. He found that the A coil was leaking. He said this is why the Freon is low and needs to be refilled, but he couldn't do it until the A coil was replaced.

The small company is the only ones I call for checkups and if there are problems. They come out quickly, properly identify the problem and get it resolved. I've suggested to multiple people to call this company for AC and furnace issues that live in my area.
 
The future will including much increasing robot labor as technology advancing. It will happen anywise, but human labor shortage is catalyst.
 
The problem with your assumption is that anyone of these people are going to clear over a hundred a night, now that covid restrictions are in place

you have half as many tables open in most states, which means your available tip pool shrinks dramatically - Much like the cruise industry, the only thing that will fix the restaurant industry is-real vaccinated immunity (over 75%).

Why should any wait staff come back yet, when there's only table scraps to fight-over?
Our restaurants are severely understaffed with signs all over the place asking for new hires. Its not uncommon for a place to need to shut down indoor dining for lack of staff.

It's simply because people don't want to work. Every place I've gone to is packed with people waiting to get in. Many including myself have spent over 2 hours waiting to get into places, luckily texting services allow you to run to the store and do much needed shopping while waiting.

Covid is still pretty low risk for 99% of working class. Masks have been gone for awhile now. People not getting the vaccine is not the issue.

All we know is the likeliness of getting another government handout is slim, and for good reasons. Once the unemployment ends we'll see a decent uptick in workers. Kids were at school for most of last year, and this next year will be at school.
 
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It's not like trade schools are a popular career path in the US and there is very little career progression unlike Europe where you can progress on a path to be a master in your trade and making hundreds of thousands of Euros a year.
This is where you are wrong. I'm the Datacomm expert at an electrical company, we specialize in automation and safety equipment of agriculture facilities like grain elevators, fertilizer plants, mills, etc.

We have plenty of journeymen that make six figures. Its more about how much you want to work. Simple as that. And moving up to become a master is more about bookwork than anything, nothing more than a test you need to take. Many are not cutout for the master test.

We have a pretty high turn around. Most of our guys travel, so really you only gets the weekends off. Unless you are on a two week trip. It is a great way to make money, but personal life can suffer. It is really hard to keep new guys around. Either too lazy or they can't handle the hours. Any Trade job is crap work for the first year. Expect to be pushing a Broom quite often, along with digging holes, bending/treading pipe, and all the other crap fetch work.


Sadly kids these days are not taught what a 401k can do for you and what stocking money away into such programs at a young age can mean for you when you are older.
 
My stepdad did it all growing up - was a certified electrician, plumber, mechanic and so on. He's 72 now
Using the Boomer generation as an example is an exercise in futility because their circumstances were completely different to today. I'll explain further down.
There just aren't enough folks willing to learn a trade skill because they think it's a $hitty job or not worth it or too much work. There is very good money to be made doing these jobs, folks just need to stop thinking that these jobs are beneath them.
I wish it were as simple as you say but it's not. Back in your stepdad's day (the Boomer Era of the 70s and 80s), you could still own a home, a car and raise a family on a single income. It was harder than 20 years earlier, but still very possible. You also didn't need any kind of degree to get most jobs like you need today.

Your stepdad is about my own father's age which means that, if he went to university instead of learning a skilled trade, he'd have started in the late 60s. Do you know how much it cost to go to university in the USA back then? In 1968, the average tuition for university was $367 for public and $1,487 for private. When you adjust for inflation, tuition has increased 340% between 1969 and 2019.

Housing has become even worse. In 1970, the median household income was $8,734 and the average cost of a house was $17,000. I'll wait for people who just read that to pick their lower jaws up out of their laps. So basically, you could have a house paid off effortlessly in five years. Of course, we know that this isn't the case today, eh? The median home price in the USA increased by 416% from 1980 to 2020.

People today are scared to death that they'll not be able to get a house and raise a family without some super-high-paying job and since suit-wearing professionals have historically made more money than overalls-wearing tradesmen, they're turning away from the trades. Sure, you know people who are making money hand-over-fist and turning away work but they weren't able to be so choosy about what they did before the trade shortage and their lives today would be as crappy as everyone else's if there weren't so few of them.

What your stepfather lived through was an absolute CAKEWALK compared to what people have to face today. A country that is economically broken and politically fractured. Ironically, all of this happened under the watch of the very Baby Boomer generation to which your stepdad belongs. You might want to check yourself and get all the facts before being so quick to worship them as you do. More than any other generation, the Baby Boomers have completely FiretrUCKed this world. They are NOT to be admired because the damage that they caused far outweighs any good that they did. The generation before them are the ones to be admired.

Our reality is cushier then theirs for the small stuff like tech but for the big stuff like owning a home and raising a family, the Baby Boomers were the ones on easy street. Cushy tech is of no use when you can barely afford to keep a roof over your head and live in a country that blames you for the economic mess that the Baby Boomer generation created through their own greed, ignorance and arrogance.

They lived a charmed life compared to us when it came to actually living a carefree existence. I'll never accept the BS that spews out of their mouth because, let's face it, they're the last uneducated generation. They talk like they know everything but, trust me, they don't know a damn thing. I have two parents from that generation and they're both completely clueless about anything that has nothing to do with the job that they did because their education was a joke in those days.
 
Think they are saving money? Just wait 10 years when the robots become self aware and demand back wages.
 
Using the Boomer generation as an example is an exercise in futility because their circumstances were completely different to today. I'll explain further down.

I wish it were as simple as you say but it's not. Back in your stepdad's day (the Boomer Era of the 70s and 80s), you could still own a home, a car and raise a family on a single income. It was harder than 20 years earlier, but still very possible. You also didn't need any kind of degree to get most jobs like you need today.

Your stepdad is about my own father's age which means that, if he went to university instead of learning a skilled trade, he'd have started in the late 60s. Do you know how much it cost to go to university in the USA back then? In 1968, the average tuition for university was $367 for public and $1,487 for private. When you adjust for inflation, tuition has increased 340% between 1969 and 2019.

Housing has become even worse. In 1970, the median household income was $8,734 and the average cost of a house was $17,000. I'll wait for people who just read that to pick their lower jaws up out of their laps. So basically, you could have a house paid off effortlessly in five years. Of course, we know that this isn't the case today, eh? The median home price in the USA increased by 416% from 1980 to 2020.

People today are scared to death that they'll not be able to get a house and raise a family without some super-high-paying job and since suit-wearing professionals have historically made more money than overalls-wearing tradesmen, they're turning away from the trades. Sure, you know people who are making money hand-over-fist and turning away work but they weren't able to be so choosy about what they did before the trade shortage and their lives today would be as crappy as everyone else's if there weren't so few of them.

What your stepfather lived through was an absolute CAKEWALK compared to what people have to face today. A country that is economically broken and politically fractured. Ironically, all of this happened under the watch of the very Baby Boomer generation to which your stepdad belongs. You might want to check yourself and get all the facts before being so quick to worship them as you do. More than any other generation, the Baby Boomers have completely FiretrUCKed this world. They are NOT to be admired because the damage that they caused far outweighs any good that they did. The generation before them are the ones to be admired.

Our reality is cushier then theirs for the small stuff like tech but for the big stuff like owning a home and raising a family, the Baby Boomers were the ones on easy street. Cushy tech is of no use when you can barely afford to keep a roof over your head and live in a country that blames you for the economic mess that the Baby Boomer generation created through their own greed, ignorance and arrogance.

They lived a charmed life compared to us when it came to actually living a carefree existence. I'll never accept the BS that spews out of their mouth because, let's face it, they're the last uneducated generation. They talk like they know everything but, trust me, they don't know a damn thing. I have two parents from that generation and they're both completely clueless about anything that has nothing to do with the job that they did because their education was a joke in those days.
Yep. The same thing will be said about your/our generation 30/40/50 years down the road. We were the fukups and it's our fault for the situation the world is in. It's just a revolving door.
 
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