The pervasive implementation of automated order taking at McDonald’s (http://fortune.com/2016/11/19/gop-2018-midterm-elections/ ) demonstrates the weakness of trying to turn back the clock and attempt to force companies to hire workers at wages that don’t make sense competitively. It won’t happen! To be manage costs and remain competitive, companies will automate rather than hire overly expensive (compared to alternatives) workers. It doesn’t matter whether it is the $15 per hour minimum wage (see this article) or bringing iPhone production back to the US. In either case the people who are out of work won’t be affected (at least not at the magnitude Mr. Trump and his followers would have us believe), that work will be automated and the work that is added or wages raised won’t mean more/better jobs for those who are hurting.
The real answer (the hard one, because it will take time and cost money) here is to educate/retrain workers to do the skilled jobs that are there and that need staffing. This is where we should be focusing our efforts, not on strategies designed to grab headlines, but that are doomed to failure.
Leave a Reply