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 ...
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.
Never let anyone try to convince you that the left cares about the poor. They do everything in their power to destroy them. Minimum wage destroys jobs, Obamacare has made insurance unaffordable, welfare has destroyed the family. There is NOTHING good the leftists have produced.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbyqUOObdU
A look at the Horn and Hardart Automat and its Legacy.
3 minutes long
They were warned about this, and chose to proceed, regardless. They knew.
$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.
Do you have a problem with automation?
Zum Zum!
The government has no business trying to set prices and wages.
The government lets in millions of immigrants a year so with no minimum wage it is a race to the bottom. Seal the borders and stop immigration and then we can talk.
Kiosk don’t:
1. Go on strike
2. No healthcare needed
3. NO FICA, unemployment, workman comp.
4. NO sexual harassment lawsuits
5. NO spitting/ urinating on food
6. NO overtime
7. NO “scheduling” issues
8. NO paid vacations
We are increasingly moving towards a world where large segments of the population are unemployable. The world of the future will be a small population of highly educated stewards, enjoying a leisured lifestyle, who clock in to "work" periodically only to ensure the machines are running smoothly. There will be no place for today's countless billions of illiterate and unskilled peasants.
Getting there from here will not be pretty but it's going to happen.
Businesses that have a negative cash flow don't exist very long.
I agree with you about illegal immigration. But using government law breaking as an excuse to end free markets is not something I or any conservative ought to support. Maybe without a minimum wage, protest against illegal immigration would be even stronger.
Kiosk Do:
1. Speak English
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.