Raising minimum wage eliminates low-skill jobs. Who would've thought that?

The legislators and activists will tell all the newly unemployed "but we meant well". Meanwhile, they will be off "helping" the next group of people.

It's not about really helping people, of course. It's all about feeling those pure motives. The activists want to feel good about themselves, because of their super-pure intentions. The last thing they want is to have to face up to a more complicated reality.

But then they'll need the state more because they'll all be on welfare.

Socialism. Screwing stuff up, since always.

Family restaurants like Applebee's will most likely be following the model of my local Walmart - one checkout person covering 6 self checkouts.

This model works. And not just for cost; I always go through the self checkout because it is quicker than the checkouts that have a person.

And, Amy, you are spot on with your comment at 5:35.

Yes, if the employees get to keep their job at the higher wage the politicians will claim that they got that higher income for them; if the employees lose their hours, then, the politicians will blame the "greedy" company; if the employees lose their jobs then the politicians will blame the "greedy" companies and claim that they (the politicians) will help rescue them with welfare, etc.

It makes you wonder when automats will start reappearing...

"It's not about really helping people, of course. It's all about feeling those pure motives. The activists want to feel good about themselves, because of their super-pure intentions. "

Well, of course, the real motivation is to move those people from the productive class to the entitlement class. Which means more votes for Big Brother.

Not to worry, Oregon has the solution to job loss. Oregon is one of two states that prohibits pumping gas into your car. You have to wait around for some teenager to grudgingly stick the nozzle into your gas tank and stick your credit card into the pump. Then you have to wait for the person to grudgingly remove the nozzle and screw your gas cap on wrong. Efforts to allow self serve gas, by ballot measure, were blocked by claims of lost jobs and the needs of the disabled.

Oregon already has among the highest minimum wage in the nation. Unsurprisingly, Oregon also has among the highest gas prices in the nation. Granted, there are other contributing factors.

So, I predict that laws will be enacted simply prohibiting you from self check out or self serving.

Govt always has a law waiting to fix the unintended consequences of prior laws.

Interestingly Chillies and Applebee's have found people order dessert more often when they order thru the tablet. I suspect there are two things going on here. One, some people worry about their servers judging them. Two, the tablet is always there. So when the impulse spikes you can instantly respond instead of waiting around for the waiter to check up on you. And by then you no longer want desert.

Family restaurants like Applebee's will most likely be following the model of my local Walmart - one checkout person covering 6 self checkouts.

Nah, it'll all be done on an tablet at the table. You pick up the iDevice, review the menu, punch in your customized order, it'll get sent to the kitchen, it'll be prepared and a runner will bring your food to you. After dinner, you could punch in dessert orders, or close out the tab and pay via credit card.

The only problems would be anything that is refillable - drinks, breadsticks, or in the case of Red Robin, fries or coleslaw. But I could see programming in refill buttons for those relatively few items, that can be sent in to the runners and they can deliver refills.

The only real problem will be places serving adult beverages: they'll want to check your ID before allowing you to order. Perhaps a button of "I would like an adult beverage, please come and check my ID" button?

They only reason that corporate stores haven't already done this is that a) change is difficult, and b) they don't want to upset the customer experience, c) they're worried that the technology isn't mature enough.

Give them adequate financial incentives and it'll all be over but for the crying.

IRA,

Some places we can swipe our IDs in the machine. Of course it doesn't check the picture vs. your real face, but plenty of people don't do that either. Once you get busted you crack down for a while and then you go back to the self scanned.

"Interestingly Chillies and Applebee's have found people order dessert more often when they order thru the tablet. "

This doesn't surprise me. At a lot of fast-casual places these days, there's a tendency for the wait staff to mysteriously disappear once your entrée has been brought out. When you finish that, you might decide that you'd like a dessert, but if it takes 25 minutes to get a waiter back to your table, then the heck with it. I also suspect that places that are using the devices that can accept payment and print your tab find that they turn tables over faster, for the same reason.

Goddamned Socialists with their fancy tablets and electronic menus.

heh, at RedRobin, they have the little kiosk things on your table, and already the waitstaff are getting sloppy about checking on you... but the newer ones are especially shocked when I ask for a check... "you can pay on the kiosk..."
'I'm paying cash.'

Waiter seemed a bit put out by that... I have also noticed less waitstaff, and more runners.

The real bottom line is that the really good waitresses will have a problem, because there will be no tipping, and THAT is how they make money.

The disinterested idiot will make the same wage as the chica working her way through school, who always seems to appear when needed.

I'll still tip her well, but she'll prolly need to get a new gig.

Some may be about helping certain people, there are some union contracts that are based on minimum wage. If your contract is you get paid double or triple minimum wage, you will support passing this.

They only reason that corporate stores haven't already done this is that a) change is difficult, and b) they don't want to upset the customer experience, c) they're worried that the technology isn't mature enough.

Sure would be nice. :)

Of course, that'll also give them way more tracking info on us then they already have... far too much of.

It was already like that at two places I ate at in Japan. You ordered from a tablet like think at the table and a few minutes later a waiter dropped off our drinks. Awhile later a waitress dropped off our food. We paid in cash at the front desk as we left.

We have gone to Red Robin as a work lunch and both times the payment thing as screwed up.

I went to a talk and in the Q/A the went onto how he was going to propose a $20 minimum wage. His reasoning didn't make much sense beyond the most superficial. It was a bit off topic so maybe he was not prepared. Something about farmers in year Y produced X bushels of wheat per acre per farmer and now 10 bushels are produced so minimum wage should be 10 times what it was in year Y.

Full disclosure: My employer had something to do with the units used at Applebees...I imagine something to do with the hardware. I only remember seeing it a little article about it in the company news.

I can't wait for people to insist the minimum wage be raised. I say, "Cool! You want my wages raised, too, for the exact same work?"

They blink a lot at that idea. Then, wham!: "You want soldiers to make more than the burger-flipper, right?"

It works a lot better than trying to explain that no one can legislate a change in the unit, "one hour of work".

Raddy, that reminds me of the discussion we had a few years ago about what an hour of unskilled labor would be worth on an open market. I had guesstimated, from looking through some stats from Third World economies, that it would be in the range of $3-4 per hour. Not sure what it would be now; maybe more, maybe less.