Posted on 03/19/2016 5:57:49 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s CEO Andy Puzder has people all in a huff over his idea to automate restaurants.
But why be upset with Puzder? This is an inevitable consequence of massive minimum wage hikes by the government.
“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.”
Is he heartless? No. Just responding to the government’s foolish plans to jack up the minimum wage and put restaurants, hotels, bars and other service industries out of business. “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.”
He’s right. That’s why whenever the minimum wage rises above the market-set prevailing wage, jobs are destroyed. Who would pay someone $15 an hour to do a job that’s worth less than that?
This isn’t rocket science. It’s plain common sense — something that demagogues on the left are missing entirely.
The proof is overwhelming.
Consider:
IBD’s Jed Graham surveyed six big U.S. cities that hiked the minimum wage in 2015 and found they took a serious jobs hit. “Wherever cities implemented big minimum-wage hikes to $10 an hour or more last year, the latest data show that job creation downshifted to the slowest pace in at least five years,” Graham wrote.
During the 1970s, Congress forced Puerto Rico to adopt the U.S. federal minimum wage. The result, according to a 1992 study by economists Alida Castillo-Freeman and Richard Freeman: “Imposing the U.S.-level minimum reduced total island employment by 8%-10%.” So Puerto Rico lost 1 out of every 11 jobs to the minimum wage.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
There problem is middle class prosperity has dropped off precipitously. Increasingly, we have two groups: the super wealthy and everybody else.
I believe the government lawbreaking reference was to illegal immigration.
But can they design a kiosk that says “Wa fo u”, ignores your reply, and gets your order wrong?
Cheeburger cheeburger cheeburger coke.
“There problem is middle class prosperity has dropped off precipitously.”
Perhaps. It would be good to see that in a quality statistical analysis. Looking at my family, my standard of living is higher than my parents, my child’s is higher yet. Some in the family have not done so well. Life decisions.
I guess you mean over a shorter time span. Well, if the middle class has shrunk in the last 8 years or so, the question is why. The economy was rebounding under Bush until the housing/financial crisis hit.
The housing/financial crisis was due to a mostly Democratic party initiative for Fannie Mae and the banks to hand-out mortgages like candy. Community organizer, later Senator, Obama was the most ardent supporter for that idea. Even as President he thinks it’s a good idea.
Correct. To amplify, the left intends to drive the poor to desperation so they start a revolution. The purpose is to establish a communist airistocracy. That means a royal class for any libs reading.
Wild and crazy guys...
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 . . .
Yes, that would be interesting.
“The government has no business trying to set prices and wages.”
Correct. Yet it does so directly in many markets.
We should also seal the border. Illegal is, well, not legal.
Current illegal immigration does lower wages for many Americans. We can legalize it, but the effect will be the same.
Here’s a question from an economics class I took decades ago. Why is a barber paid more in the US than in Seville (or Mexico city)? After all, the services are the same. Answer, the prevailing level of wages is higher in the US. You are competing with employers in different fields when you get your barber.
That made sense then, somewhat less so today. If you erase the border between Mexico and the US, there will be some equalization of wages between barbers in the US and Mexico.
I don’t think Americans should compete with foreigners on US soil, be it in construction or academia. That is just one of the perks of being an American.
Still, we can have a discussion on LEGAL immigration. Do we want the world’s poor, it’s striving, brains, moneyed, a mix? Do we want immigrants to assimilate to America? Do we want America to look like the rest of the world?
A country that is purposely de industrializing doesn’t need any more immigrants of any kind ever again.
Why bother?
They're working on that.
Obviously, the SCOTUS would uphold it.
Then again, they legalized abortion too. The US Supreme Court has very little to do with natural rights anymore, or with the Constitution itself for that matter.
I think, though, that the founders would absolutely have been opposed to the government setting prices and wages between private citizens. In fact, the concept was likely so alien to them that I doubt it ever occurred to them that there would ever be such thing as federally fixed wages and prices.
Had they been able to imagine such a thing, I'm sure they would have explicitly denied the power to do such a thing.
Between the progressive tax system, the eroding of the nuclear family structure and manufacturing jobs shipped overseas, I would say the future of the middle class looks grim.
Why so many voters are drawn to Donald Trump
The way the presidential campaign is shaping up, Ventura musician Jon Gindick may do something he's never done before. "I've never voted for a Republican," the registered Democrat told me. "I like Trump." A waiter told me he thought Trump's trade restrictions would create more jobs at higher wages. A couple wearing matching red, white and blue shirts told me their healthcare costs had tripled under Obamacare -- a program Trump says he'll shred. To Gindick, Trump's remarks about criminals coming across the border were refreshingly honest, and not at all a condemnation of all immigrants or Latinos in general. He thinks Trump's critics misrepresent him, that they're unfair in calling him a racist. "I saw it as a huge lie being repeated by the GOP establishment and Democrats," he said. [Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times]
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