Well, as you know, or should know, there has been
much talk this primary season about fairness and the need to raise the minimum
wage to a rather unrealistic level. And
most, if not all of such talk has been heard coming from those on the
left. And while I suppose it sounds
pretty good, we need to keep in mind that such talk is coming from those who
have never in their life actually been responsible for the running of any sort
of business, be it large or small. So
entering into the fray is former CEO of McDonald's Ed Rensi, who has made the
point that a proposed $15 minimum wage would accomplish nothing more than to
drive restaurants to use automation more, and therefore to hire far fewer
workers.
And it was during a recent interview on Fox Business
Network's "Mornings with Maria" program that Mr. Rensi slammed the
idea of raising the minimum wage, saying, "If a $15 minimum wage goes into
effect across the country, you're going to see job loss like you can't
believe." And he then went on to
add that "it's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an
employee who's inefficient making $15 an hour bagging french fries." The former CEO said automation will be the
result of a higher minimum wage because "if you can't get people a
reasonable wage, you're going to get machines to do the work. It's just common
sense, it's going to happen whether you like it or not."
Rensi said he favors the idea of leaving the minimum
wage issue up to the states and eliminating a federal minimum altogether,
saying, "The states ought to decide what the minimum wage is based on cost
of living in the regions they're in."
Which would seem to make much more sense. Mr. Rensi also believes the minimum wage
debate is little more than "a sham and it's destroying this country"
because low-wage employers, such as fast-food restaurants, shouldn't be focused
on minimum wage, but on training employees to grow.” He said, "They shouldn't be minimum-wage
workers their entire life. That's wrong."
However, I would argue that if one remains a minimum their entire life
the fault lies with them, not with their employer.
Mr. Rensi is one who has been quite vocal in the
ongoing minimum-wage debate, including writing an article in Forbes, in which
he places blame on union organizers for the $15 minimum wage proposal. He said,
"I suspect the labor organizers behind this campaign for a $15 minimum
wage are less interested in helping employees, and more interested in helping
themselves to dues money from their paycheck." Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that
roughly 3 million workers, 3.9 percent of all hourly paid workers, made the
current $7.25 minimum wage or less, and 1.7 million had wages below the minimum
wage, while 1.3 million had wages at the minimum wage level. But again, moving beyond that rests with the
individual.
Look, once again we have the law of unintended
consequences kicking in. Why do you think that manufacturing is moving towards
robots to do everything? They don't complain, they don’t strike, they don’t
call in sick, they don’t take a vacation or require union negotiations and
their cost is pretty much predictable over any period of time. And what these protesters don’t seem to be
able to grasp is that while they may have gotten away with their idiotic antics
15, or so, years ago, today automation has gotten so good that these days they
can, and very often are, be replaced relatively easy and at a cost that is
recouped in a relatively short time. And
the end result there is that you end up getting better service with a lot less attitude!
Conservatives have long tried to tried to tell these
lefties who insisted on "feeling good" by pushing the minimum wage
increase that the end result would be a LOSS of jobs. Did they listen? Do they EVER listen? Oh, no, they use ear
plugs and now hundreds of thousands of kids who aren't worth that minimum wage
will be sitting at home or out causing mischief. Do the math. If 5 years is the assumed life
expectancy of the typical robot: Depreciation, $35,000/5 = $7,000 per year,
upkeep $30,000/year for 10 Robots = $3,000.
Add the need for maybe 4 techs to keep everything running for 16 hours/week
= $50,000/year and there you go: $7,000 + $30,000 + 50,000= $87,000/year, which
is less than 2,000 hours x $15/hr x 4 employees = $120,000/year.
It’s so simple you’d think even a liberal Democrat
could understand it. But apparently not!
When you raise the minimum wage the price of everything goes up, there’s
simply no way to stop that. The only thing that raising the burger flippers’
wages to $15 an hour will do is to make the job that real people work, for 15
bucks an hour, worthless too. People who get paid $15 an hour for construction
jobs that are actually skilled laborers, you have to actually be good at what
you do. Minimum wage jobs are job that teenagers
gets to gain experience and to develop a good work ethic that allows them to
move up the ladder to better jobs. What
the policies of the left make clear is that they are trying to destroy this
country and its people.
No comments:
Post a Comment