"No, it won't cause all the low-end jobs to disappear. Automation is causing all those service jobs to disappear. "
When the cost of purchasing & operating kiosks & self service is less than the cost of an employee, then the $15 hr job will be eliminated
Originally posted by: tom
"No, it won't cause all the low-end jobs to disappear. Automation is causing all those service jobs to disappear. "
When the cost of purchasing & operating kiosks & self service is less than the cost of an employee, then the $15 hr job will be eliminated
In real dollars the minium wage is at a historic low. The minumium wage would have to be $19.77 to equal what it was in 1968. Your arugment isn't vaild because employees have and are being replaced with kiosks despite this historic low. If a kiosk cost $1200, lasts three years, operates24/7 and isnt required to be coverd by workers comp and unemployment insurance what hourly rate would the employee have to work for to be competitive with that?
Do you get my point? Employees that can be replaced by kiosks will be replaced by kiosks if they haven't already been. The minimum wage rate has no impact on that because the employee would have to work for pennies (or less) an hour to compete with a kiosk. There is also the added bonus of getting to depericate a kiosk.
depericate?
Your argument indicates no knowledge of finance & accounting, so a further discussion is of no value.
Originally posted by: tom
depericate?
Your argument indicates no knowledge of finance & accounting, so a further discussion is of no value.
A computerized Kiosk would be depreciated like any other piece of computer equipment would it not? Of course, I suppose it is possible it could also be expensed entirely in year one. I am not up on the latest regulations, so I will defer to your expertise on that.
I had a job working in a hospital kitchen in the summer of 1968 when I was 15 (my 16th birthday was at the end of September). It was an unskilled job - washing dishes and sometimes delivering meals to patients. It paid $1.60/hour, which was the minimum wage in 1968. I had to quit the job when school started. That job helped me develope a work ethic and I was happy to have it. That's what minimum wage jobs are supposed to do. That, and to be an entry level job and wage to to train people to get promotions and raises. Very few people stay at minimum wage for very long, and less than 3% of people employed today are making minimum wage.
I don't know where you came up with $19.77/hour to be equivalent today to $1.60/hour back then, but that is way more than inflation adjusted dollars today. WAY MORE.
I would think by now that any knowledgeable human being would have gotten the message that Mark just makes up shit to suit his constant twisting of the truth.
Bob Orme writes: "I don't know where you came up with $19.77/hour to be equivalent today to $1.60/hour back then, but that is way more than inflation adjusted dollars today. WAY MORE."
DonDiego likes economic-stuff, . . . and checking math-stuff, . . .
So a simple check at usinflationcalculator.com reveals that $1.60 in 1968, . . . the year President Nixon was elected, . . . is now equivalent to $ 11.61 inflation-adjusted 2018-dollars, . . . a 625-per-cent increase but, indeed, WAY LESS than $19.77.
Current wage growth has been better in recent years - largely due to a tightening job market. I am a happy Wal*Mart shopper again as they have decided to pay their employees a living wage. Target too. Amazon and Costco too. These are positive developments.
Its worth noting that these companies have not been "forced" to pass those wage increases onto their customers as was argued by conservatives. Wal*Mart has said their wage increases were motivated to stop high rates of turnover and get better attitudes from their people. And that is indeed what has manifested along with better productivity.
It is also true these wage increases will result in more money going into the Social Security/Medicare funds which is a good thing. But those increases will largely be offset by irresponsible fiscal mgmt by the federal government. Dynamic Scoring kinda f@cked everything up.
Originally posted by: Don
Bob Orme writes: "I don't know where you came up with $19.77/hour to be equivalent today to $1.60/hour back then, but that is way more than inflation adjusted dollars today. WAY MORE."
DonDiego likes economic-stuff, . . . and checking math-stuff, . . .
So a simple check at usinflationcalculator.com reveals that $1.60 in 1968, . . . the year President Nixon was elected, . . . is now equivalent to $ 11.61 inflation-adjusted 2018-dollars, . . . a 625-per-cent increase but, indeed, WAY LESS than $19.77.
Don Diego's calculations fail to factor in productivity. I confess my number was wrong too. I should have stated it was $21.72, not $19.77.
Ref: Mark's post of Nov 1 3:25pm.
Umm, . . . Mark's number is more wrong than he suggested.
The chart is from an article entitled The Minimum Wage is Too Damn Low published by the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in 2012. So your figure of $21.72 should be raised to $23.88.
Or one might just say the number should really be $52.76 or $217.07, because that would make everybody rich and round numbers are suspicious.
Or one might read Ten Reasons Economists Object to the Minimum Wage for a more Conservative viewpoint.
