A $16,000 robot is doing a $52,000 welding job.
All day. No mask. No breaks.
No fumes in its lungs.
No shoulder that gives out by year ten.
A welder costs $52,000 a year.
Every year.
The arm cost $16,000.
Once.
It paid for itself in a season.
Then it ran every shift
for the price of the power it pulls.
Nobody called it a layoff.
The line just came back one Monday
with no one standing on it.