It'd be larger if wealth inequality werent so staggeringly high.
The first automated-server restaurants (Horn and hardart) appeared in the 1930s during the depression. They were popular because they were cheap.
Far from being the wave of the future, they went out of business in the 1950s when people started having disposable income.
Part of the reason we accept slop, impersonal service and mass produced crud is not because "demand" is indifferent to it, but because disposable income is so often politically repressed, meaning the market is forced to prioritize price.
It'd be larger if wealth inequality werent so staggeringly high.
The first automated-server restaurants (Horn and hardart) appeared in the 1930s during the depression. They were popular because they were cheap.
Far from being the wave of the future, they went out of business in the 1950s when people started having disposable income.
Part of the reason we accept slop, impersonal service and mass produced crud is not because "demand" is indifferent to it, but because disposable income is so often politically repressed, meaning the market is forced to prioritize price.
I have doubts on the quality and how automated a 1930s restaurant could have been.
They are talking about automating the serving process, not the cooking process.
Specifically, you can read about Automats, which were basically early vending machines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
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