In reply to an article I wrote about how touch screens and cat robots are replacing low level employees as the minimum wage is increased by “well meaning” politicians who know nothing about economics (Pizza Robots Are Taking Over The World), Dude Spewed said:
WOW! I think you got every single point wrong in this article. Is that a first? Impressive.
The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office ruled Floyd’s death was a homicide caused by “cardiopulmonary arrest” complicated by “restraint, and neck compression” while he was being subdued by police.
McDonald’s did not proclaim they are “replacing all cashiers” with “robots” (or any other form of non-human technology) by the end of 2021. CEO Steve Easterbrook said the company planned to add self-order kiosks to 1,000 stores each quarter for the next eight or nine quarters, an effort which would (if fully implemented) place kiosks in eight or nine thousand U.S. McDonald’s locations by the end of 2021.
From the cotton gin to the Ford assembly line to the ATM, automation is always happening. It’s disingenuous to suggest that employers aren’t always seeking ways to streamline their businesses, no matter what wage they’re paying. there’s no correlation between the adoption of automation and the minimum wage.
Published in 2019, the single most far-reaching study on the minimum wage examined “138 prominent state-level minimum wage changes between 1979 and 2016 in the United States,” only to find that “the overall number of low-wage jobs remained essentially unchanged over the five years following the increase.”
In other words, the gold-standard study, using 40 years of data from around the United States, found that basically no jobs were lost when the minimum wage went up.
And I replied thusly:
Hey Dudapottamus, Starting out with another cheap, grade school insult? I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise. Does it make you feel better about yourself? Does it make you feel SMART? Or do you just want people to think you’re a jerk? Like, does that do something for you?
Hey, great. You do you. Anyway- let’s hit some of your points here:
1. I have an article coming out soon about George Floyd. I see you have a LOT to learn about that. You might want to be wearing a diaper when you read it. Maybe put it on now in anticipation, if you aren’t already wearing one.
2. I never said McDonalds made any proclamation about what they are doing to ALL of their restaurants in 2022. But, thanks for bringing up something I didn’t say. I mean, it was related to the context, so that’s something I guess. Though, not something I said.
3. Well, yes, automation and technological upgrades are always happening, but WHY do you think they happen? It’s because someone at the top sees a way to save or make money. And one of those ways is by replacing hourly employees with a one time purchase of some machine that can do their job.
Also, do you think I said that “employers aren’t always seeking ways to streamline their businesses” or are you replying to someone else’s article? I would think you would read my article carefully before you reply to it, especially since you started off with that sarcastic quip about me getting “every single point wrong in this article.” I would hate for you to look stupid while trying to prove that I’m an idiot. And when you keep debunking points I never made… it doesn’t make you look like the smart one. Even if you’re wearing a stylish diaper.
(This is the point where that little lightbulb went off over my head and I discovered what I was replying to.)
OH, I see. You just Googled “Minimum Wage,” found an article from Business Insider and have been copying and pasting from it as if you understand what the author was saying. Oh. That is so sad. You started off by telling me I was wrong about EVERYTHING, and you decided to answer by plagiarizing an article you didn’t understand or research in ANY way.
Does that make you feel smart? It shouldn’t. You’ve just been caught in a rather embarrassing lie. But, HEY, at least you decided to start off by being really rude. At least you have that going for you. I guess you can brag about it on Twitter or something.
ANYWAY, I guess I’ll continue replying to… Paul Constant (Note: A book reviewer who co-hosts a podcast about economics- so, not actually an economist).
4. Sure, basically no jobs were lost when the minimum wage went up. Unless you count all of those jobs where people were replaced by machines or touch screens. Also, if you look at the “gold-standard study” Paul references, it says “we find no indication of any employment changes in the upper part of the wage distribution.”
So, this study doesn’t prove that minimum wage hikes don’t hurt employment. It proves that it doesn’t hurt the employment of people already making significantly MORE than minimum wage. And, uh DUH. The manager didn’t get replaced by a touch screen. No kidding.
I see you plagiarized this article (https://www.businessinsider.com/debunking-common-arguments-against-15-minimum-wage-2021-2) which seems to have been written by a Seattle Leftist who seems to have failed to notice that Seattle’s minimum wage hike cost nearly one in 10 low wage workers their jobs, and millions more full time hours. But, hey, facts can be SO inconvenient. You should look up the effects it had in Seattle and see what a liar this guy is.
Also, your “gold-standard study” (according to an ignorant Seattle Leftist) is screwed by leftist politics, as explained in this article:
“Liberal economists, such as Paul Krugman, often claim that “There’s just no evidence that raising the minimum wage costs jobs, at least when the starting point is as low as it is in modern America.”But that is not a fair reflection of the academic literature.
“In a recent working paper, economists David Neumark and Peter Shirley assembled the entire set of papers that examine the impact of minimum wage hikes on employment outcomes at the subnational level in the U.S. since 1992. Their overview of the results was clear: the overwhelming majority of studies showed a negative effect on employment of minimum wage hikes (79.3 percent of them). That impact was stronger for teens, young adults, and less‐educated workers.” https://www.cato.org/commentary/case-against-15-federal-minimum-wage-qa
And then there’s the big names on the left who accidentally tell the truth sometimes:
“You have to be a bit careful: If you raise the minimum wage, you’re encouraging labor substitution and you’re going to go buy machines and automate things — or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. And so within certain limits, you know, it does cause job destruction. If you really start pushing it, then you’re just making a huge trade-off.”
Bill Gates
And other economists agree that the hardest hit are those at the economic bottom:
“Employers respond to higher labor costs by hiring fewer workers. Higher minimum wages eliminate entry-level positions that provide unskilled employees the opportunity to gain experience. Less experience makes it harder for workers to become more productive and earn higher wages.” James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation https://www.dailysignal.com/2014/01/23/bill-gates-raising-minimum-wage-can-destroy-jobs/
Sorry to ruin your boffo sarcastic opening. I have developed this horrible little habit of learning about a subject before I write an article about it. As long as you’re already wearing a diaper, you might want to give that a try. Who knows? Once you see what it’s like, you might even come to enjoy it. Or you can keep plagiarizing ignorant dishonest book reviewers from Seattle.
A Bit of Orange 
Interesting to read!
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