A study by the American Enterprise Institute looked at Seattle’s recent minimum wage hike. After it began phasing in a series of hikes in 2014, Seattle lost 10,000 jobs between just September and November, and its unemployment rate jumped a full percentage point. As AEI economist Mark Perry notes, Seattle’s minimum wage hike from $9.32 an hour to $15 an hour amounts to a $11,360 tax on every minimum wage job.
A 2014 Congressional Budget Office study estimated that raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to just $10.10 an hour would kill half a million jobs. Worst of all, those who suffer most are the young, minorities and those with little education or training.
“”””“I want to try it,” CEO Puzder said. He’s looking at something “where you order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person.” “”””””
Carls Jr already did that in Idiocracy.
It’s not a new idea. Horn and Hardart restaurants in NYC where way ahead of their time.
I loved plinking my coins in the slot and opening the glass door to pull out anything from meatloaf and mashed potatoes to apple pie. Yum.
The bet Horn and Hardart was nearby Radio City Music Hall.
Doesn’t this lower fast food to the same level as vending machine food?
I think Japan has been using vending machines to get a quality bowl of ramen noodles for years. Not sure it will catch on here.
$15.00 is to much IMO. But this a states right issue. To go above the Federal Minimum is fine.
“With government driving up the cost of labor, it’s driving down the number of jobs,” said Puzder. “You’re going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants.”
Higher wage, fewer jobs demanded. This sounds like economics 101, the Law of Demand. This is totally predictable, yet was seldom predicted by politicians, news people, and people in the general public. Too many people treat economics as “theory.” A lot of economics is very real. (Marxist economics, like Marxist anything, is bunk.). Economics - learn it.
Businesses that have a negative cash flow don't exist very long.
Basic understanding of economics was targeted in the 70s by a new generation of teachers and professors at all levels throughout the education regimes in the US and Europe. Now, to possess even a passing acquaintance of the mere existence of the concept of supply and demand is to be guilty of a major thoughtcrime.
There is another major factor in play...... in China. That factor will eliminate the robots envisioned here. They are already obsolete.
In China the young people have taken to their phones by the millions to make transactions. there are aps that call up other aps to make transactions. You go to a fast food place and point your phone camera at a graphic on the wall. the ap calls the restaurant’s bot that connects with your payment mode and produces a menu. you select from the menu and are given a receipt. the order is produced, you show the receipt and get your already paid for food.
This is but one example of many many company bots that work with your specific ap to transact all business transactions. They are real and in very wide use at present
Source: Forbes
Also eliminates diversity training and class action suits against the employer!
The free market will find ways to circumvent government intrusion until the government outlaws the free market.
1. In any financial transaction, buyers will seek the lowest price possible. At the same time, sellers will look for the highest price possible.
2. An employment arrangement involves a "buyer" (the employer) and a "seller" (a worker).
3. One of the simple realities of an economy is that a worker will usually demand far more for his/her services than he/she would ever pay another worker for the same services.
Point #3 underlies almost every policy decision that is made by a government in a modern, advanced country like ours where labor costs are extremely high. It also underlies almost every business decision that is made by employers in this country, too. Automation is a natural response to a business climate where labor costs for one or more routine functions that can be replicated by a machine have gotten too high to make it practical to use human labor anymore.
But can they design a kiosk that says “Wa fo u”, ignores your reply, and gets your order wrong?
My mom and I stopped at a McDonalds recently while traveling. They had the touch-screen kiosks, but you could only order certain things through them, so we went to the counter. After seeing the quality of employees they had, I could see why the owner wanted to automate!!! So many mistakes in such a small order . . .