Steve Berman:
While it seems liberals may think that raising the minimum wage will raise living standards for poor Americans, they should have seen this coming.
With Los Angeles joining Seattle in setting a $15 minimum wage (Los Angeles by 2020, and Seattle by 2021), it stands to reason that McDonald’s would find a way around simply paying workers more, as Vox pointed out the obvious fact that “the reality is that McDonald’s just wants to make money.”
In a very real-world example of big business’ response to liberal policies, a conservative Twitter user sent Labor Day wishes from McDonald’s workers whose minimum wage never goes up.
.@ericbolling Happy Labor Day, from $15/hr Cities. pic.twitter.com/RkbNVojr6w
— Topher Carlton (@TopherCarlton) September 7, 2015
According to a Business Insider report last month, McDonald’s franchisees see the minimum wage issue as “a major threat to the survival of the operator community,” and are encouraging the company to put “every resource available” into reducing labor costs through technologies such as kiosks and automatic fry dispensers.
Liberals never learn.
Gee who would have thought this would happen. All you out of work fry cooks enjoy that almost $15/hr. It was a stupid idea from the outset.
Yes.
When the costs of labor are less than the costs of automation, labor will be used.
When the costs of labor are more than the costs of automation, automation will be used.
Simple, right?
Easy to understand, right?
The politicians know this, but they also know that unemployed people tend to vote for those who promise to take care of them.
The people who lose their jobs will vote Liberal out of fear of doing without.
The people who keep their jobs will vote Liberal out of gratitude for the raise.
Either way, the politicians win.
They increase human suffering, decrease human value, and degrade the individual, but gain more power.
But the politicians still win.
This isn’t about a “living wage”
This is about control.
Cities of Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley have all approved phased-in increases that eventually will take their minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Now, add New York State.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-State-New-Minimum-Wage-15-Dollars-Hour-First-State-326456581.html
The Gov might be able to circumvent elected officials but he won’t be able to circumvent the laws of supply & demand.
@Nanny G: #3
Next, in New York, California, et al, a ban on burger flipping robots and automated ordering.
And all businesses will be required to have a set ratio of employees to gross income.
On our vacation trip this summer to Colorado, we stopped in Childress, Texas for fuel and breakfast. The McDonald’s in Childress, Texas (take the time to find it on a map) has automated ordering and paying. Childress. Texas.
When liberals raise taxes and businesses move overseas, they vilify the businesses for moving overseas. When liberals drive labor costs up and manufacturing goes overseas, they blame the manufacturing for going overseas. Inevitably, when the simplest and most basic jobs are lost to machinery due to liberal meddling in the basics of business, liberals will blame businesses for replacing burger-flippers and order takers with machinery.
With technology being what it is (and, thanks to unions and high taxes, the equipment being built cheaply overseas) even the lowest paying jobs are on the bubble if a machine can be conceived to replace it. The answer is not raising the wages of low-skilled jobs but encouraging education, skills and training for better jobs.
But when have liberals ever looked for the actual answer? Petercat makes an excellent point… one which will be reinforced by the corrupt left wing media.
@Bill: #5
Thank you.
I would love a mechanized fast food restaurant.
If I could walk in, place my order and pick it up and eat it knowing that it would always be freshly cooked and consistent, and that my skin color or occupation would not cause the machine to add foreign objects or spit in it, that the machines would treat me exactly the same as every other customer, I would shop there.
As it is, I haven’t eaten fast food in years.
I miss my Big Macs.
It’s not racism, it’s experience.
And who will profit from this? Many of the leftist Silicon Valley industries who have been trying to replace American technicians with foreign-born work visa holders.
Oh, and perhaps the few workers who will be retained to maintain the robotic transformation of the fast-food industry.
This sounds like something straight out of Atlas Shrugged. Pass an ill-concieved law, then when the what should have been obvious consequences happen, pass another law to ban those.
The only thing more stupid than a liberal is……
Dang, I can’t think of anything.
@drjohn:
Two Liberals 😉