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Blame Minimum Wage, Not Carl’s Jr. CEO, For Automated Restaurants
Insider's Business Daily ^ | 3-19-2016

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: California; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2016election; california; carlsjr; election2016; liberalagenda; minimumwage; newyork; trump
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To: MarvinStinson

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.


21 posted on 03/19/2016 6:57:26 AM PDT by samtheman (Trump For America.)
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To: Maceman
But using government law breaking as an excuse to end free markets is not something I or any conservative ought to support.

Minimum wage is illegal? Take it it to SCOTUS.

22 posted on 03/19/2016 6:59:57 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: smartyaz

Exactly right.


23 posted on 03/19/2016 7:06:57 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: MarvinStinson

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


24 posted on 03/19/2016 7:07:57 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;+12, 73, ....carson is the kinder gentler trump.)
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To: smartyaz

Kiosks are one thing. Automating the food preparation will be very interesting. A robotic production line will have optimize scheduling during busy times, will always place the pickle slices and various goops at the center of the burger (not slopping over the edges - I hate that), will enable lot sizes of 1 so non-standard preparations will be easy (hold the mustard, no problem), etc.

My first real job was at McDonalds - back when there were only two in Maine. Making milk shakes was pretty much a full time single person affair because it was all manual: grab cub, squirt in syrup, add shake mix, weigh on scale and adjust, put 6 cups on the mixer spindles, remove when the right level is reached, put in refrigerated cabinet, repeat...

Now it’s a one touch operation performed by the counter clerk.


25 posted on 03/19/2016 7:10:38 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
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To: MarvinStinson

Also eliminates diversity training and class action suits against the employer!


26 posted on 03/19/2016 7:15:09 AM PDT by chit*chat
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To: MarvinStinson

The free market will find ways to circumvent government intrusion until the government outlaws the free market.


27 posted on 03/19/2016 7:15:31 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Rope. Tree. Politician/Journalist. Some assembly required.)
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To: smartyaz

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


9. Fight with each other or customers
10. Demand their marihuana breaks


28 posted on 03/19/2016 7:19:40 AM PDT by LMAO (I know Hillary and I think she'd make a great president or Vice President. Don Trump 2008)
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To: LMAO
Kiosk don’t:

Give the night manager oral.

29 posted on 03/19/2016 7:22:43 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Drew68

That has been claimed for a long time now, but hasn’t happened.

Perhaps it could happen, but I don’t see that it needs to happen.

It could happen with welfare, where people choose welfare over low paying jobs. It could happen with taxes on employers (social security, Obamacare, etc.) which discourage employment. It could happen with unions, who threaten disruptive strikes, and make labor more expensive. It can happen with minimum wage legislation outlawing low paying jobs, the first rungs of the ladder of success. Yes, there are many ways we can, and do, shoot ourselves in the foot. But that is not the same as inevitable.

The historical trend has been for shorter work weeks and greater prosperity in the West. The engine is greater productivity. There is no reason why this trend should stop. The rest of the world can join us in shorter work weeks and greater prosperity also.

Before saying this is just pie the sky nonsense, appreciate that this has been the trend for 500 years of so.


30 posted on 03/19/2016 7:24:58 AM PDT by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: central_va

Kiosk don’t:
Give the night manager oral.


So us this an argument for or against Kiosks? :0


31 posted on 03/19/2016 7:26:43 AM PDT by LMAO (I know Hillary and I think she'd make a great president or Vice President. Don Trump 2008)
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To: LMAO
So us this an argument for or against Kiosks? :0

Against.

32 posted on 03/19/2016 7:31:17 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: MarvinStinson
I post some variation of this on every thread where economic or financial issues that relate directly to Americans are discussed:

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.

33 posted on 03/19/2016 7:32:15 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: gubamyster

add:

7) do not stop work to pray 5 times a shift

to that list


34 posted on 03/19/2016 7:33:15 AM PDT by telstar12.5 (...always bring gunships to a gun fight...)
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To: Alberta's Child
In any financial transaction, buyers will seek the lowest price possible.

No they don't. Quality matters.

35 posted on 03/19/2016 7:34:43 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

“Do you have a problem with automation?”

Why would you ask?

Automate when it makes sense. Don’t automate when it does not make sense.


36 posted on 03/19/2016 7:37:40 AM PDT by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: trisham

“They were warned about this, and chose to proceed, regardless. They knew.”

They may not have believed it. Or they may not have believed that the voters do not believed it. It would be interesting to see a survey of the American public (or FR) with survey a question on raising the minimum wage, and another on abolishing the minimum wage.


37 posted on 03/19/2016 7:42:25 AM PDT by ChessExpert (The unemployment rate was 4.5% when Democrats took control of Congress in 2006.)
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To: central_va

It’s not just the increase in the hourly rate that’s the killer but all the payroll taxes that increase as well that’s the killer.


38 posted on 03/19/2016 7:45:04 AM PDT by Crucial (At the heart all leftists is the fear that the truth is bigger than themselves.)
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To: smartyaz

As a customer, number 5 is a good selling point.


39 posted on 03/19/2016 7:48:13 AM PDT by Rusty0604 (oh the stories I could tell. but I really don't think scalia's death is suspiciou.)
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To: central_va
Quality does matter, but it doesn't dictate the decision.

Every buyer who has the option of purchasing a variety of different items in a product line will always ask the same question:

"Am I willing to pay $X for a top quality item, or will I settle for a mid-grade or cheap alternative for a price of [less than $X]."

As the factors I described in my previous bring about the inevitable result where a combination of cheap imports and immigrant labor push more American consumers out of the work force, one of the ways the government deals with the issue is by replacing the question I presented above with the following mandate (not a question):

"You will pay $X for a product or service regardless of whether you need it, even if it has the quality of a mid-grade or cheap alternative that would cost [less than $X] under normal circumstances."

This explains why our economy is now built on a growing pile of government-mandated expenditures instead of normal business and consumer transactions.

40 posted on 03/19/2016 7:48:37 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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