Former fast food CEO says raising the minimum wage will spur robot use

[Legion Troll]

ROBOTS ARE STEALING AMERICAN JOBS​

“I guarantee you if a $15 minimum wage goes across the country you’re going to see a job loss like you can’t believe,” said Edward Rensi in an appearance on Fox Business Network Tuesday.

“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.”

Rensi, who was McDonald’s CEO from 1991 to 1997, isn’t the only fast food executive to be concerned about the consequences of raising wages. Wendy’s is currently testing self-service kiosks in a few of its restaurants and exploring broader uses of technology to mitigate rising labor costs.

Rensi says states should set the figure based on cost of living in their region. He warned that a higher minimum wage would damage the economy and leave more citizens dependent on government support.

“We’ve got unemployment in the black community which is staggering. Young black men over 50 percent unemployment, and we’re talking about a $15 minimum wage?” said Rensi, who most recently served as CEO of the restaurant company Famous Dave’s.

Rensi told The Washington Post that when he started working at McDonald’s there were 70 or 80 people working in the store, a number that has been cut in half today.

Robotics and artificial intelligence are hot areas in the technology sector, and the World Economic Forum estimated earlier this year that their rise would cause a net loss of 5.1 million jobs over the next five years.

Some experts are so concerned about looming unemployment that they are calling for a basic income, a regular stipend to be paid to citizens who are likely to lose their jobs and cannot be retrained. Several European countries are planning experiments to test the impact of a basic income.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/05/25/ex-mcdonalds-ceo-says-raising-the-minimum-wage-will-help-robots-take-jobs/

 

[Dale]

“I guarantee you if a $15 minimum wage goes across the country you’re going to see a job loss like you can’t believe,” said Edward Rensi in an appearance on Fox Business Network Tuesday.

“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.”

Rensi, who was McDonald’s CEO from 1991 to 1997, isn’t the only fast food executive to be concerned about the consequences of raising wages. Wendy’s is currently testing self-service kiosks in a few of its restaurants and exploring broader uses of technology to mitigate rising labor costs.

Rensi says states should set the figure based on cost of living in their region. He warned that a higher minimum wage would damage the economy and leave more citizens dependent on government support.

“We’ve got unemployment in the black community which is staggering. Young black men over 50 percent unemployment, and we’re talking about a $15 minimum wage?” said Rensi, who most recently served as CEO of the restaurant company Famous Dave’s.

Rensi told The Washington Post that when he started working at McDonald’s there were 70 or 80 people working in the store, a number that has been cut in half today.

Robotics and artificial intelligence are hot areas in the technology sector, and the World Economic Forum estimated earlier this year that their rise would cause a net loss of 5.1 million jobs over the next five years.

Some experts are so concerned about looming unemployment that they are calling for a basic income, a regular stipend to be paid to citizens who are likely to lose their jobs and cannot be retrained. Several European countries are planning experiments to test the impact of a basic income.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/05/25/ex-mcdonalds-ceo-says-raising-the-minimum-wage-will-help-robots-take-jobs/

lol

That's the typical corporate talking point. Raise wages and we'll hire robots to do the work instead. It's ridiculous. If they could cook hamburgers with robots they would already be doing it and everyone knows it. Besides, robots need to be built and maintained (by humans). So these greedy corporations can spare us their threats about terminator technology taking over the work force. I've been hearing this same crap for over 30 years.

That being said - raising the Federal Minimum wage to 15$ an hour is not a solution to our unemployment problems, because it will increase unemployment and only make things worst. The debate over minimum wage is largely a misnomer anyway - as States are already free to raise their min. wage if they want.

The only way to fix our unemployment problems is to bring back our manufacturing sector. That is and always was the foundation of our economy and the source of good-paying jobs. It can be again - we have only to implement the right kind of policies to make it happen. Because we are deluding ourselves if we think we are going to be able to survive as an economy of McDonald and Wal Mart workers. We have to start making things over here again.

 

[Legion Troll]

The only way to fix our unemployment problems is to bring back our manufacturing sector. That is and always was the foundation of our economy and the source of good-paying jobs.

It was?

In 1900, 20% of Americans were employed in industry. There were twice as many Americans who earned a living in agriculture.

Then came two World Wars.

Massive government spending (finance by staggering government debt) drove what many Trumptards regard as the "golden era" of employment - the military industrial complex.

The wages, job security,pensions, and working conditions your grandfather enjoyed were provided courtesy of labor unions and government regulation - two things Trumptards despise.

America could afford keep wages high and run inefficient productions and distribution after WWII destroyed the competition in virtually every other industrialized nation.

Our manufacturers enjoyed a virtual monopoly because they had the raw materials, factories, workers and transportation to export American goods to a world that has been starved of consumer goods for years.

Then something happened.

Foreigners began rebuilding. They could hire hungry, desperate workers for next to nothing. Their governments needed growth, and the environment and the well-being of the workers wasn't a big consideration.

Our products became uncompetitive. Our own people wanted - and got - low prices everyday. Asia became the world's factory.

Now we can't compete - unless you want to blight out nation with unregulated industries that exploit workers in a lassez-faire free for all that values "jobs" above all else.

Are you willing to work for the wages that Asians are paid to toil in factories where safety is an afterthought and pollution is unchecked?

 

[Dale]

It was?

That is correct. It was. Our manufacturing sector has always been the bedrock of our middle class. Which is why our Middle Class has disintegrated in recent decades as businesses continue to move off shore and manufacture to take advantage of cheap labor around the world.

You really need to stop misspelling my name Fale btw. Its childish, dumb and makes it difficult to have a serious discussion with you.

 

[Legion Troll]

That is correct. It was. The manufacturing sector has always been the bedrock of our middle class. Which is why our Middle Class has disintegrated in recent decades as greedy corporations moved off shore to manufacture to taking advantage of cheap labor around the world.

You should open a history book.

Manufacturers became the dominant force in the American economy after the First World War.

Prior to that, workers who were engaged in industry tended to be poorly paid, and many were children.

What you believe to be the golden age was brought to us by labor unions and government spending, financed by massive borrowing.

Other nations have now outpaced us by sacrificing their quality of life and exploiting their people in brutish ways.

Are you willing to try to turn back the clock by submitting to Asian labor conditions?

 

[Dale]

You should open a history book.

I'm afraid I don't need a history book. I'm old enough to remember what our economy was like before the 1990's when NAFTA and the China Trade Agreement were passed through congress.

It's no coincidence our middle class has shrunk along with our manufacturing sector. Because they are basically one in the same.

With the availability of cheap labor abroad - it takes all the bargaining power away from Americans. Union's can't bargain for better wages as the Business will simply say fuck you, I'll move my factory to China or I"ll go to Bangladesh and pay workers there a few pennies an hour so I don't have to bother with any such nonsense as a wage Americans can live on. Which is exactly what they did.

And now every business basically has to do this - else they will be put out of business by those who do. It's called race to the bottom economics. And both Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders are correct about this. We have to put a stop to it. Otherwise we are going to end up as an oligarchy with a permanent underclass serving the few.

 

[Legion Troll]

I'm afraid I don't need a history book. I'm old enough to remember what our economy was like before the 1990's when NAFTA and china trade agreement were passed through congress.

Yet you can't resist repeating incorrect information. America's population was largely agrarian until the turn of the 20th century. Most Americans did not live or work in urban areas. If you read history, you'd know that.

It's no coincidence our middle class has shrunk along with our manufacturing sector. Because they are basically one in the same.

Think so?

Perhaps you should try looking at some statistics. IT and other industries pay more than factory jobs, and the US manufacturing sector is larger now than it was in 1990. Although manufacturing produces less of our GDP today, we're more efficient now, so fewer workers are needed. How come you don't know that?

With the availability of cheap labor abroad - it takes all the bargaining power away from Americans. Union's can't bargain for better wages as the Business will simply say fuck you, I'll move my factory to China or I"ll go to Bangladesh and pay workers there a few pennies an hour so I don't have to bother with any such nonsense as a wage Americans can live on. Which is exactly what they did. And now every business basically has to do this - else they will be put out of business by those who do.

You want big government intervention?

Tariffs? Punitive taxation? Those don't sound like conservative free market solutions.

Maybe Trump will start a war and destroy the industrial capacity of the Chinese and Indians. I don't see how else we can ever turn back the clock, and I don't think I want to.

 

[Dale]

Yet you can't resist repeating incorrect information. America's population was largely agrarian until the turn of the 20th century. Most Americans did not live or work in urban areas. If you read history, you'd know that.

As I just told you, I don't need to go read history. I lived it.

I experienced first hand as those trade polices of the 1990's caused all the factories in my town to move abroad to places like China, India, and Mexico. Everyone lost their jobs. And that sad story was repeated all across America (and still is being repeated).

So if more people are working in cities now - that's because all of the factories across rural America moved to other countries to take advantage of cheap foreign labor, forcing millions of Americans to move to more populated areas attempting to find new jobs elsewhere.

And my story is the same story of millions of other Americans all across this country. This is why the economic message of both Trump and Sanders is resonating so much and both men have had such unpredicted success.

It's pay back time for the political establishment on both sides of the aisle that sold us out so their corporate buddies could get rich off near-slave labor around the globe.

 

[Legion Troll]

As I just told you, I don't need to go read history. I lived it.

You can keep thinking you don't need to read history. That doesn't make your version of it true. Are you seriously claiming that you've "lived" since America became a nation?

The only way to fix our unemployment problems is to bring back our manufacturing sector. That is and always was the foundation of our economy and the source of good-paying jobs.

Maybe you don't know what "always was" means.

 

[Dale]

Perhaps you should try looking at some statistics. IT and other industries pay more than factory jobs, and the US manufacturing sector is larger now than it was in 1990. Although manufacturing produces less of our GDP today, we're more efficient now, so fewer workers are needed. How come you don't know that?
[/center]

I don't know where you get your information. Must be some corporate/partisan rag or think tank filling your head with corporate myths and misleading information.

Our economy used to be built on making stuff. Agriculture and Manufacturing used to employ one in three workers. Now it's barely one in eight. We have basically been transformed from a manufacturing economy to a service economy - and we are seeing the results of that. Record debt, record poverty, record wealth disparity... yeah we're real efficient let me tell you. Strangely global corporations are still raking in record profits despite all this misery. Hm... I wonder why that is?

Don't be so quick to believe everything you read. Much of the media is controlled by corporate America with a vested interest in keeping people ignorant as to what is really going on.

 

[Dale]

You can keep thinking you don't need to read history. That doesn't make your version of it true. Are you seriously claiming that you've "lived" since America became a nation?
.

I'm not talking about since America became a nation. So your response doesn't make any sense to me.

I am talking about the negative impact the trade policies of the 1990's has had on our economy. And I don't need to go read a book for that. I experienced it first hand. That's like telling someone who fought in World War 2 they need to go read a history book before they can talk about what the war was like.

The context of this discussion is not 1776.

 

[Legion Troll]

I'm not talking about since America became a nation.

You weren't?

The only way to fix our unemployment problems is to bring back our manufacturing sector. That is and always was the foundation of our economy and the source of good-paying jobs.

 

[Legion Troll]

I don't know where you get your information. Must be some corporate/partisan rag filling your head with corporate myths.

Think so?

Maybe if you'd gone to school, you wouldn't be crying about lost jobs today.

Know what I mean?

 

[cancel2 2022]

That is correct. It was. Our manufacturing sector has always been the bedrock of our middle class. Which is why our Middle Class has disintegrated in recent decades as businesses continue to move off shore and manufacture to take advantage of cheap labor around the world.

You really need to stop misspelling my name Fale btw. Its childish, dumb and makes it difficult to have a serious discussion with you.

Seriously you are wasting your time with that twat, all he ever does is play mindfuck games, just ignore the toerag!

Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

 

[Dale]

You weren't?

That is correct. I wasn't.

I would have thought that had been fairly obvious.

 

[Dale]

Think so?

Maybe if you'd gone to school, you wouldn't be crying about lost jobs today.

Know what I mean?

Not really no, considering I did go to school.

I'll take this silly response as you ceding the debate. Unless you have something better to offer than this. Because any media telling you that the trade policies of the 1990's did not have a negative impact on manufacturing in this country is clearly lying to you and you should stop reading that crap.

 

[Dale]

Seriously you are wasting your time with that twat, all he ever does is play mindfuck games, just ignore the toerag!

Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

It's looking that way.

I tried to have a serious debate with him since his OP interested me. But if he's just going to resort to childish insults ignoring him probably is the best option.

 

[Legion Troll]

It's looking that way. I tried to have a serious debate with him since his OP interested me. But if he's just going to resort to childish insults ignoring him probably is the best option.

Since you apparently think that your personal "memories" trump the history of the American economy, maybe you should run with that.

I accept your concession.

 

[Legion Troll]

Not really no, considering I did go to school.

What did you go for, if you didn't learn American history?

I'll take this silly response as you ceding the debate. Unless you have something better to offer than this. Because any media telling you that the trade policies of the 1990's did not have a negative impact on manufacturing in this country is clearly lying to you and you should stop reading that crap.

Reading is FUNdamental, Fale.

I never said said "the trade policies of the 1990's did not have a negative impact on manufacturing in this country", did I?

 

[Dale]

Since you apparently think that your personal "memories" trump the history of the American economy, maybe you should run with that.

I accept your concession.

No I accept yours.