As we all know, capitalism breeds innovation. Just take Amazon’s A.I. “Just Walk Out” system that was actually found to be powered by contractors in India instead of artificial intelligence — it’s a whole new method of screwing people over! Now a viral tweet has shown us what the future of food service work could look like: Cashiers zooming into work from developing countries.


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According to the OP, the company behind this setup is called Happy Cashier, and while they don’t yet have a website, they’re operating in at least five Asian fast-food joints in New York City, including Sansan Chicken in the East Village, where Goldstein took this photo.


Elaborating on his experience in an interview with Fortune, Goldstein explained that the service was significantly friendlier than what you’d receive from the average New Yorker, and the cashier was on standby to answer any questions as Goldstein ordered using a self-service kiosk.


Happy Cashier confirmed to Fortune that it hires employees from the Philippines, presumably because they’re able to pay them far less than what they’d pay local employees (this is also why Amazon outsources the operation of its “Just Walk Out” system to workers in India).



One author and disability rights advocate pointed out that this technology could be used to employ more disabled people who might need to work remotely for whatever reason, instead of seemingly being solely used to employ and exploit overseas workers — there’s even already a restaurant in Tokyo that does this exact thing.


In his interview with Fortune, Goldstein, who doesn’t appear to have any connections to Happy Cashier but, being a tech guy, felt compelled to defend them anyway, argued, “Put yourself in the restaurateur’s shoes. Minimum wage is going up. Rent is going up. Either they’re going to have to increase the cost of the food, which you can only do to an extent… or you can cut costs.”



In a later tweet, Goldstein walked back some of his initial excitement, describing his fears of a “dystopian future where you live in this concrete jungle and none of the businesses you interact with have actual humans in them.” That does appear to be the future many in Silicon Valley want — one where humans have been automated out of countless jobs and replaced by A.I., and one where local workers continue to be passed over in favor of cheap overseas workers with fewer legal protections.


Yay capitalism!