Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks

Forbes ^ | Nov 29, 2016 @ 01:37 PM | Ed Rensi

[expat_panama]

Mr. Rensi is the former president and CEO of McDonald’s USA.

McDonald’s restaurant employees rally after walking off the job to demand a $15 per hour wage and union rights during nationwide ‘Fight for $15 Day of Disruption’ protests on November 29, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)

As the labor union-backed Fight for $15 begins yet another nationwide strike on November 29, I have a simple message for the protest organizers and the reporters covering them: I told you so.

It brings me no joy to write these words. The push for a $15 starter wage has negatively impacted the career prospects of employees...

...start with automation. In 2013...

...this month, McDonald’s announced the nationwide roll-out of touchscreen self-service kiosks. In a video the company released to showcase the new customer experience, it’s striking to see employees who once would have managed a cash register now reduced to monitoring a customer’s choices at an iPad-style kiosk.

It’s not just McDonald’s that has embraced job-replacing technology. Numerous restaurant chains (both quick service and full service) have...

...not all businesses have the capital necessary to shift from full-service to self-service...

...out-of-state labor groups who funded these initiatives aren’t shedding tears over the consequences. Like their Soviet-era predecessors who foolishly thought they could centrally manage prices and business operations...

...money has bought the union a lot of protesters and media coverage. You can expect more of it on November 29. But the real faces of the Fight for $15 are the young people and small business owners who have had their futures compromised. Those faces are not happy ones.

[Jack Hammer]

Marxist/collectivists simply fail to grasp the most elementary laws of economics.

Raise labor costs, less labor gets hired or employers go out of business.

End of story.

[connyankee]

Saw this coming. LOvely! Paybacks come naturally!

[Spktyr]

The break-even point for fully automated burger preparing bots is $10/hour. Yeah, I think we can see where this is going - even if the “Fight For 15” idiots can’t.

[SolidWood]

Automat fast food is also a lot more hygienic than the spit and snot burgers.

[ari-freedom]

from a living wage to no wage. The dems can only counter by banning new technology. That will really go along well in Silicon Valley

[prov1813man]

They also seem immune to the FACT that ALL tax and price increases are borne by the consumer. The lower income consumers are hit the hardest. When some pointy head succeeds in taxing the evil oil companies, every single mom struggling to get to work and feed her kids is directly impacted at the pump. it almost seems as if there is a clever plan to make it easier to sit home on welfare and be fully dependent on the government.

[MAexile]

It brings me no joy to write these words. The push for a $15 starter wage has negatively impacted the career prospects of employees...

It's OK, I received great joy by reading them.

[Spktyr]

Exactly. Reduction in lawsuits is another benefit of using bots.

[JimSEA]

A few small improvements in robots that build and fix robots and we can have a $500 minimum wage!!!

[Spktyr]

And to vote for the people who say the other guy is planning to cut off your welfare check, thus creating a permanent captive voter base.

That was actually the scam in New Orleans that was revealed by Katrina.

[ari-freedom]

It would happen eventually though.

The only future proof solution is to revamp our educational system...12 years of school and they only know how to flip burgers? 4 more years of college and students can only work as baristas because they majored in journalism or gender studies.

[ari-freedom]

No sick days, health insurance, OSHA regs...

[expat_panama]

A very Happy Last Month to all and the NASDAQ pegs up another distribution day --it's now at 9 but for some reason IBD insists we're still in a "confirmed uptrend".  Today's stock index futures are offish so we'll see where it goes.

Metals are seen by the futures folk off even more as gold and silver punch down to new lows at $1,169.05 and $16.44.  The pundits may be spouting about the Trump rally (Why Bulls Will Stay In Charge of the Market, Goldman: Trump Presidency Will Benefit Almost All Stocks) but for a couple day's the trend's got to be blamed on, say (Democrats Double Down On Failure, Put Clueless Pelosi Back Into Power )Pelosi?

Also: Curious Connections: Trump + Goldman Sachs

More reports:

8:30 AM Initial Claims
8:30 AM Continuing Claims
10:00 AM Construction Spending
10:00 AM ISM Index
10:30 AM Natural Gas Inventories
2:00 PM Auto Sales
2:00 PM Truck Sales

--and yesterday's reports were all about a booming econ w/ no inflation!

New FR econ threads:

• Goldman Says Trump's Presidency Will Benefit Stocks in Almost Every Sector
• President-Elect Trump Announces Economic Nationalist Dream Team: Mnuchin, Ross and Ricketts
• Trump’s Path to Mount Rushmore
• 6 million Americans have stopped paying their car loans, and it's becoming a 'significant concern'
• Confirmed: Donald Trump Picks Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross for His Cabinet
• Trump and the Climate Change Clown Show
• Pending Home Sales Edge Higher, Midwest Factories Rev Up
• Professionals in These Two Asian Cities Say Donald Trump Will Be Good for Business

[Spktyr]

No strikes, no union, they can work longer than 8 hours and don’t have to be paid more, since they don’t leave the building they can’t show up tardy...

[wastoute]

Really. Invent a self flipping burger and no one will work at McDs.

[WKB]

Automat fast food is also a lot more hygienic than the spit and snot burgers.

and those curly black hairs

[Spktyr]

That’s not likely to happen for a while, but burger cooking automation was already at the point where it could replace humans about two years ago. The break-even point that was calculated at that time was $10 per hour.

They already make vending machines containing pizza making bots, by the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyrav_9Pbsc

[BwanaNdege]

Exactly. Reduction in lawsuits is another benefit of using bots.

Ambulance chasers are very creative, especially for their 35% cut! This won't slow them down for long.

[wastoute]

I saw that.