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Ex-McDonald’s CEO says raising the minimum wage will help robots take jobs
The Washington Post ^ | May 25, 2016 | Matt McFarland

Posted on 05/25/2016 7:17:46 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

A former McDonald’s chief executive has warned that raising the minimum wage will spur unemployment as companies will instead employ robots that work for less.

“I guarantee you if a $15 minimum wage goes across the country you’re going to see a job loss like you can’t believe,” said Edward Rensi in an appearance on Fox Business Network Tuesday. “It’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries.”

The minimum wage has been a hot topic this spring, with some states and employers deciding to up their minimum wage to $15 an hour in the coming years. California will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022. New York City will get to $15 an hour within three years.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: government; idiocracy; local; minimumwage; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; oligarchy
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To: MinorityRepublican

The tourists and travelers will have to pay it. Many others will eat at home.


21 posted on 05/25/2016 8:21:47 PM PDT by Ciexyz ("You know who gets hurt? The people who worked hard, lived frugally, and saved their money."- Trump)
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To: MinorityRepublican

The government will tax the robots and use the money to pay welfare so the savings in efficiency aren’t re-invested in new job producing industries but used up in consumer spending!
That’s what we will do.

What we should do is whatever will encourage growth in new production and industry...
The loss of buggywhip production jobs didn’t hurt us, nor the loss of canal boat towing jobs.


22 posted on 05/25/2016 8:26:13 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Ok I am biased because I am California but 2022 is more manageable then 2019.

My guess the job loss will be centered closer to New York...unemployment will spike in California around 2022 but should go down gradually over 5 to 10 years.

So by 2025-2030,California’s wage would still be steep but not impossible.New York would have to wait 6 more years for that to happen.

No way in hell can any other State afford that,I am not sure about California but the work is always going to there anyway.


23 posted on 05/25/2016 8:37:50 PM PDT by Del Rapier
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To: mrsmith

At least robots won’t spit on your food like jesse jackson admitted to doing.


24 posted on 05/25/2016 8:38:08 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

All attempts to limit competition or regulate the relationship between employers and employees are crimes against liberty.

Taxes and regulation always should be minimized. “Public” services should be privatized whenever possible. Unions should be limited or banned outright because they create market distortions that keep the rightful winners down and elevate those who should be the losers. Inequality is virtuous.

Inequality rewards usefulness. It incentivizes wealth creation, which benefits everyone because it enables job creators to emerge. Thus, all efforts to create a “more equal” society create more poverty and are morally wrong.

The market is the mechanism that ensures people get what they actually deserve. Less government, more liberty should always be the mantra of the conservative movement.

If people are destined to fail, we need to let them fail. Only by doing that can we ensure that the virtuous have the liberty, incentives and resources to succeed. If we tax and punish success and reward sloth, we will have less success and more sloth.

Liberal meddling over the past 100 years has brought us nearly to ruin. The tenements, slums and poverty of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were a problem only in that they were exploited by communist demagogues to undermine the success of America. The ability of free, deserving people to become rich was, paradoxically, greater during those days than now.

The solution to all of our problems is to recreate the liberty that made us great. We also have to return to the idea that, if people are poor, it’s not our role to “do something about it.” The proper response is for poor people to do something for themselves, with their own abilities, resources and initiative.


25 posted on 05/25/2016 8:47:33 PM PDT by GodAndCountryFirst
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To: mrsmith

I’d like a Big Mac with no lettuce and no middle bun please.

T H A T. D O E S N O T. C O M P U T E


26 posted on 05/25/2016 8:49:36 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: MinorityRepublican
But what are we going to do with millions of Americans with no skills?

a wise parent would guide their sons and daughters into the electro-mechanical engineering field with a working understanding of machine languages so they can work on those robots, some of which can be as breakdown prone as the old Xerox office copiers.

27 posted on 05/25/2016 9:02:43 PM PDT by blueplum (March 11, 2016 - the day the First Amendment died?)
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To: MinorityRepublican
"Do you want some more?"


28 posted on 05/25/2016 9:17:51 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: hal ogen
At least robots won’t spit on your food like jesse jackson admitted to doing.

Yeah, but can you get a 'computer' virus if they don't wear sanitary gloves while preparing your food.

29 posted on 05/25/2016 9:20:15 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: hal ogen

Jesse Jackson is such a nasty basturd.


30 posted on 05/25/2016 9:31:22 PM PDT by Crucial
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To: gunsequalfreedom

You think this is controversial?????
Just wait till the robots start becoming transgendered!!!!


31 posted on 05/25/2016 9:31:38 PM PDT by Arrian (How predictab)
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To: MinorityRepublican

We don’t have Australia as an option; as, the British did in the early 19th century. They transplanted many Luddites promoting revolution there, as the legal remedy for unrelenting riots against displacement by technological innovations.


32 posted on 05/25/2016 9:35:13 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: mrsmith

See ‘Switzerland-—unconditional basic income’.


33 posted on 05/25/2016 9:37:32 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: MinorityRepublican

Raise it to 15, why not? Robots will take the jobs....not a problem as long as the Robots are designed, built and maintained in the USA. Trump needs to see to that.


34 posted on 05/25/2016 9:38:20 PM PDT by TomasUSMC (FIGHT LIKE WW2, WIN LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I for one, welcome our robot ordertakers...


35 posted on 05/25/2016 9:39:04 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

“Customers will not accept it.”

In the early part of the 20th century, people abandoned live performances (plays, vaudeville, concerts) for movies and mass produced recordings.

Since the 1960’s customers have happily abandoned full service department stores and independent retail shops for shopping carts and central checkouts. Today they enthusiastically embrace impersonal online shopping with no human interaction.

Managers in offices accepted the replacement of human typists and clerks with personal computers.

Workers, managers and unions have been accepting the replacement of factory workers by machines for over a century.

Customers accepted the replacement of human beings providing checking and other customer service at airports.

Billions are currently being spent to remove humans from driving vehicles.

Given a choice between a freshly prepared BIg Mac served by a clean machine, and a cold or stale $5.00 Big Mac served by a poorly trained and uneducated youth with a bad attitude and poor grooming, this customer will gladly interface with the machine.

No matter how much fast food executives express distress over a $15.00 minimum wage “forcing” them to embrace robotics, privately they are delighted as the publicity is helping prepare the public for the change. Ultimately it would happen even at current wages.


36 posted on 05/26/2016 4:45:43 AM PDT by Soul of the South (Tomorrow is gone. Today will be what we make of it.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Fry Robot


37 posted on 05/26/2016 4:51:34 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;+12, 73, ....Opabinia can teach us a lot)
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To: mrsmith

Maybe Robots can get an order right!

I've not eaten at one since the ones in Tennessee stuck up NO GUN ZONE signs.

38 posted on 05/26/2016 5:29:40 AM PDT by GailA (any politician that won't keep his word to Veterans/Military won't keep them to You!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Can you imagine the beat downs the McD’s thugs will lay on a defenseless robot.


39 posted on 05/26/2016 5:31:32 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

So would I. Will it have an option for NO SALT on the FF’s? Even at sit down big name restaurants they get that wrong. And I have to send them back....and what about COLD FOOD? Have gotten a lot of that in both type places. Cold ribs...remake them.


40 posted on 05/26/2016 5:33:59 AM PDT by GailA (any politician that won't keep his word to Veterans/Military won't keep them to You!)
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