Fast-Food CEO Invests In Machines Because Regulation Makes Them Cheaper Than Employees (yahoo.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The CEO of Carl's Jr., Andy Puzder, has been inspired by the 100-percent automated restaurant, Eatsa, as he looks for ways to deal with rising minimum wages. "With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs," he says. "You're going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants." Puzder doesn't believe in [the progressive idea of] raising the minimum wage. "Does it really help if Sally makes $3 more an hour if Suzie has no job? If you're making labor more expensive, and automation less expensive -- this is not rocket science," says Puzder. What comes as a challenge is automating employee tasks. This is where he draws the line and doesn't think that it's likely any machine could perform such work. But for more rote tasks like grilling a burger or taking an order, technology may be even more precise than human employees. "They're always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case," says Puzder in regard to replacing employees with machines.

Comments

Re:Suzie can vote. Suzie can get a pitchfork.

[KenDiPietro]

A CEO I worked for once said "People are idiots, they think they can raise minimum wadge or add taxes to a company to pay for some social benefit. Corporations pass the added expense on to the customer. Thus they never realize they are the ones paying the taxes not the company.

What your CEO missed in his rationalization is that society has little to no use for his corporation. In other words, he is running a failed business model which should be taxed out of existence because it adds no value to society.

In a just world, this asshole would then be forced on the dole and enjoy how wonderful a life he leads being pampered by the government. /snark

Re:That's called Detroit, offshoring, capital flig

[cayenne8]

The main thing that actually works is vocational training / education. I started to just write "education", but getting a bunch of people degrees in Russian Literature isn't all that effective; we can get better results from our limited resources with training in welding, IT fields, etc. If someone is 36 years old and they're worth the same wage as a 16 year old, if they haven't managed to improve their skills and knowledge in 20 years, that's something we need to look at.

We also have to recognize a very uncomfortable fact. Gas stations and fast food places around Texas are offering $10-12/hour to start, which, with the low cost of living in Texas, is a decent wage. That's just the starting wage, for teenagers with no experience, show up on time for a year and you start getting raises. Yet there are a bunch of people not working! There are even people getting fired from Taco Bell because they won't show up on time and when they do show up they're stoned. It's a lot harder to help those people. I'm not sure how to help people who won't show up, except I've done one thing that has helped in some cases. I've given them two choices - show up, sober, and get paid well, or don't get paid at all. They'd like to show up drunk or stoned, figuring they are then worth about $6/hour, but I don't give them that option. About half of them then decide they'd rather have a job where they show up on time, sober, for $10, then have no job and no money for beer. The other half - I don't know how to help them.

I wish I had mod points, you put this so well.

I've often joked that if you're 30yrs old and you still wear a name tag that says "Hi my name is...", you've made some serious vocational errors in your life.

And the thing is, we can't legislate away lazy, stupid and bad decision making.

I do believe in a safety net for the elderly and the truly infimed. But anyone who is able bodied, should pursue work. And right now, with current social welfare system....you have a lot of folks that are happy living at that level and will not do anything to try to better their life or contribute more to society.

One thing that does work is...having benefits run OUT. If people get desperate, they will act.

Maybe that will light a fire under their asses, to get out, and get jobs or pursue more education to get a better job. We also need to promote more...especially in the poorer areas of towns, that EDUCATION is important.....moreso than emulating the latest professional athlete, or rap "hero".

Unfortunately, I think we're now being stuck with the "everyone gets a trophy for just showing up" millennial kids, and they DO act like you described. That they can just show up whenever, or come to work high. I dunno personally, how we can combat this attitude that has been fostered in them since youth by their overbearing helicopter parents.

But perhaps....greater doses of reality are needed.

• You're fired.
• You're out of the house.
• You'd better do something, or you'll starve and sleep out in the rain.

They then have two choices. Get busy trying to make something of their lives and have work ethics and responsibility for themselves, or crime.

If they choose crime, then fsck'em, jail them.

We could legalize things like pot, and free up prison space (stupid to use up resources like this for non-violent crime). We could open up that industry and create jobs.

I have no problem with folks partying on their own time.....just be in good shape for work hours.

I think the time for coddling is over....and at some point, we have to get back to what made for great working and living in the US...personal responsibility.

And we reintroduce the REAL risk that if you don't do some work and struggle to make yourself competitive i the real world....there are REAL consequences....you go hungry.

Re:Basic income is NOT inevitable.

[kelarius]

Quite the opposite: Detroit is such a basket case precisely because most of its residents already receive a "basic income" from the government.

Spoken like a true believer (drank too much of the koolaid). Ok, so I'm guessing that you're going on the traditional "everyone on welfare are lazy sacks of shit, go get a job" bullshit, ok fine. What jobs are there in Detroit? Have you ever been there? Have you looked? Please explain your statement. What jobs are the people that may have worked in heavy manufacturing going to be qualified for, mostly retail and food service, right? And when those jobs don't pay enough to get by, what are they supposed to do then? So what should they do, move to where there are jobs? How do you do that without money? Without transportation? Without a clear idea of where to go? No answers yet? Ok, so let's go back to your next likely argument, the evil government makes working in the US too expensive, if wages could be down around $3 an hour we'd have tons of jobs. Ok, I'll give you that, but how the hell is anyone going to be able to afford to buy anything at $3 an hour? Do you think that deflation is going to automatically kick in once there are 25 million more workers? Probably not, more likely those companies (especially profit driven ones) will take the extra money they save from not having to pay employees as much and pocket it.

If you think I'm wrong, great, I welcome an open debate about this. My only request is that before you speak, actually stop and consider the situation the residents of Detroit, and of anyone else on government assistance for that matter, and what their real options are. Don't just repeat Libertarian platitudes, stop and think about the real effects of the situation that they're in. Also, don't just assume that everyone is fucking lazy, that in of itself is fucking lazy.

Oh, and keep in mind all you libertarian fuckwits out there, even Ayn Rand accepted government assistance.

Re: Suzie can vote. Suzie can get a pitchfork.

[Bartles]

We all know that. But if the idiotic left is going to continue to use that number, we are going to throw it back in their faces during arguments. Use it when it is advantageous, use the other numbers when it is advantageous.