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Automation Coming To Restaurants, But Not Because of Minimum Wage Hikes
dcblogs writes: McDonald's this week told financial analysts of its plans to install self-ordering kiosks and mobile ordering at its restaurants. This news prompted the Wall Street Journal to editorialize, in " Minimum Wage Backfire," that while it may be true for McDonald's to say that its tech plans will improve customer experience, the move is also "a convenient way...to justify a reduction in the chain's global workforce." Minimum wage increase advocates, the Journal argued, are speeding along an automation backlash. But banks have long relied on ATMs, and grocery stores, including Walmart, have deployed self-service checkouts. In contrast, McDonald's hasn't changed its basic system of taking orders since its founding in the 1950s, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a research group focused on the restaurant industry. While mobile, kiosks and table ordering systems may help reduce labor costs, the automated self-serve technology is seen as an essential. It will take the stress out of ordering (lines) at fast food restaurants, and the wait for checks at more casual restaurants. It also helps with upselling and membership to loyalty programs. People who can order a drink refill off a tablet, instead of waving down waitstaff, may be more inclined to do so. Moreover, analysts say younger customers want self-service options.
Don't worry; our job as Anonymous Coward will be replaced by a 'bot soon too!
Tell me more about it.
It may be good for the economy. It may not be so good for the people who can no longer support themselves because they just lost their minimum wage job to a robot. It may not be good for the people who then get mugged by said hungry person either.
If you are attacked by said unemployed maximized minimum wage person, perhaps you should just beat them with your buggy whip until they back off.
And people who drive Teslas have a higher average wage than people who don't. We should force everybody to buy a Tesla!
You got your cause and effect backwards.
I see. People who disagree with you have no empathy. Did it ever occur to you that people who oppose raising the minimum wage are doing so because they see it as a benefit to society in general? I am instantly suspicious of anybody who has to cast there opponents in an evil light in order to make an argument.
My brother is poor. He has a $800,000 house with an underwater mortgage that he bought with a down payment from his wife's 401K plan, leases a new car every other year, and wear $180 designer jeans. He bitches and moans about not being able to retire in ten years. This is the American dream.
The problem is that government programs often don't provide enough to help people escape poverty, or they are structured so they penalize people for saving money or getting a better job.
I would argue the best way to fight poverty is to donate money to local charities that fight poverty. We also need to be encouraging people to work hard, graduate high school and not get pregnant out of wedlock. For a great many people in poverty that's an uphill battle against cultural expectations.