Tuesday, May 20, 2014

More Automated Jobs Coming; Higher Minimum Wage a Factor

From the New York Sun:
Retail restaurant robots are coming soon to a checkout counter near you.
. . .
McDonald’s announced this month that it will deploy computer kiosks at 7,000 restaurants in Europe, allowing customers to place their own orders and pay by swiping their own credit card. Another restaurant chain, Panera, is deploying the computer kiosks for customers in the U.S., a development that Bloomberg News reported under the headline, “More Kiosks, Fewer Cashiers Coming Soon To Panera.”
. . .
And it’s not only restaurants. Even Costco, a firm that President Obama has praised for its labor practices, features self-checkout lanes where customers scan the bar codes on their own purchases, then pay by swiping a credit card and signing on a computer scanner. No cash-register employee needed, whether at minimum wage or “living wage.”
Of course, it's not just raising the minimum wage. It's adding mandatory benefits like Obamacare, sick leave and paid vacations. Machines do have down time, maintenance and repairs. But there are no worries about IRS audits and penalties for adding or removing machines or how many hours a week they work.

Few legislators think of the unintended consequences of the legislation they approve. Worse, the "progressives" who "care" about low wage employees don't care enough to boycott businesses that automate or pay extra to those businesses that cannot or do not. Unfortunately, it's about feel good rather than do good.

12 comments:

MAX Redline said...

Well put!

Applebees and other chains are introducing tablets as well, so no need for a server to take your order - they'll just deliver the orders to your table.

Of course, Portland City Council's ahead of the game: I saw an interview on the news while cooking dinner wherein a small-businessman said that between Portland's mandatory time off rule and hundreds of dollars a month in new "street fees", he can't afford to stay here, so he's planning to move his business out of town.

Yay, Portland!

MAX Redline said...

Hey, I figured out how to put a link to this place in the sidebar of my new WordPress site. Man, talk about taxing my technical chops. Sheesh.

T. D. said...

Max, too bad about 25-156 going down so badly. Voters here bring problems on themselves. Like the coming "street fees" as well as the "arts tax". My brother considers his arts tax payment each year to be well worth it for the entertainment value as voters who vote for everything thinking the rich will pay for it have to pay for it themselves. Not to mention the wonders of people imposing regressive taxes on themselves. Any business with an option to move is crazy to stay in Portland.

Thank you for the link and your continuing encouragement. You've got more chops than me in making the move twice(!).

MAX Redline said...

I still haven't paid the "arts tax", TD - I'm waiting for the issue to be decided in the courts, after all, how likely is Portland to refund the money when the tax is found to be illegal?

I've got your place linked on both sites, since Typepad's giving me a few months of free service as a sort of mea culpa for the outages. Gives me time to decide which place to go with. I like the Typepad tools, probably because I've used them for years - but some folks seem to prefer the WordPress display, so....

I must say, learning the WP environment has involved considerable grinding of teeth.

T. D. said...

I think you're smart, Max, not to pay. I can't imagine them giving the money back in a clear, fair way--and surely not expeditiously.

Thank you for the links! My vote is to stay with Typepad if the problems turn out to be temporary. There's enough new learning that needs to be done without adding more unnecessarily. But, then that's why I'm still here at blogger. :-/

ZZMike said...

About Wordpad: I don't use it all that often these days, so every time I go in I have to figure out how to post in text ode, and how to recall a draft. It's not intuitive.

It took me about an hour to find out that you can't just type the Center tag around the stuff you want to center, because Wordpad throws those away when you save. So I gave up and used the Visual editor, and found out that it likes the < p ... style="center" ...

As far as that "art tax" goes, governments small and large take the position that they'll give it back when you take it from their cold, dead hands.

T. D. said...

Heh! Sort of an addition to the only certainties in life are death and taxes--and no government refunds.

MAX Redline said...

Boy, that's about right, ZZ - WordPress is definitely NOT intuitive, and coding html in there is ridiculous; it doesn't accept some of the standard rules.

As for the arts tax - yeah, what you and TD said. It's why I'm waiting for it to get through the courts.

As for Typepad - it's still not acceptable (although it is much more intuitive than WordPress, when it's actually running. But since I get 3 months of service as compensation, I'll keep checking on them.

ZZMike said...

"... Costco, a firm that President Obama has praised for its labor practices ...."

And which donates heavily to Democratic candidates.

But I still can't figure out why they think that a minimum wage is supposed to support a family, an SUV, a college education for the kids, a vacation home in Florida, ...

T. D. said...

Max, one member of our family just got a notice in response to the April filing about the arts tax to submit documents proving exemption. The documents were submitted in early April with the original request for exemption. Nothing about the exemption being denied. Just asking for payment or a new exemption request (with documentation). So, I wonder if this is bureaucratic incompetence or an attempt at getting people confused and hoping for payment.

ZZMike, I often wonder about the rhetoric that raising the minimum wage is in order to make it a living wage. Of course, it isn't. At least not the "living" any of us want. Minimum wage is for beginners or people with no real job skills. And for those people, a higher wage just means fewer jobs and more people receiving zero as their unemployed wage.

MAX Redline said...

I didn't file for an exemption, TD - and they mailed their "pay up" notice just as they did last year: addressed to "Resident". It got the same treatment as last years' notice - I blacked out the address and zip, wrote "return to sender, no such person at this address", and dropped it back into the mail. Let 'em pay both ways.

Stand with Elizabeth Warren to increase the minimum wage!

And enjoy your $25 Big Mac.

T. D. said...

Max, I wonder when the Arts Tax will be adjudicated. It's taking way too long for seemingly meaningless procedural issues. The tax court can't make decisions on local tax laws only state taxes? Crazy.