Even if McD's could get workers at $2.00/hr they would have still automated. The automated because they'd rather deal with machines than with human employees. There is no wage floor that would have stopped this from happening. It wasn't even a considerations.
This is the same as the steam shovel replacing thousands of ditch diggers. Their labor was no longer needed at any price.
Wrong.
How do you know ‘they rather deal with machines’?
Change wont happen unless it makes economic benefit. If the Kiosks were more expensive than labor it would not make sense to deploy them, and they would not do it.
It is only because of the increase in labor prices that they did it.
Well, let me rephrase that. Alternatively, from the trend in labor prices they could predict that (lets say) in two years the cost against the Kiosks would be about equal and then start the changes to day, but that doesn’t change the gist of what I said.
Really? Then why do China and a host of Third World countries still prepare and repair roads with humans using picks and shovels. Could it be that labor costs less to remove a ton of dirt than the capital cost of a steam shovel? (Hint: Yes)