Progressives also worry that robots will take everyone’s jobs away but that, empirically, raising the minimum wage doesn’t cause workers to be replaced by machines.
It is a subject that is starting to pop up more and more – the advancing of robotics and AI are creating much higher skilled and paying jobs but those at the bottom rungs are certainly at risk. We’ve posted a lot about the hamburger robot and the advancing of computers (e.g., ordering kiosks) in fast food restaurants that will all but do away those same entry level jobs.
So Progressives worry about the encroaching robotic horde but they won’t acknowledge that due to their insistence that low skilled wage earners be paid far beyond their economic value to a company (e.g., Fight for $15), they are all but calling for these workers to be replaced by automation. But it makes for great politics for them – call for more robotic incursions via mandating pay levels even as they scream against them. A two-fer politically because they get to have causes at both ends of the candle.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
