Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Talk to the Screen for Your Fries, Not the Hand

Restaurant owners in California are dealing with higher labor and production costs, as well as cash-strapped customers

Letter to The WSJ

"Walk into any fast-food restaurant today and you’re as likely to place your order with a touchscreen as with a human. California’s nobly christened “Fast Food Franchisor Responsibility Act” certainly seemed to reduce job opportunities, but these and other laws that establish price floors in the labor market naturally motivate businesses to seek technological alternatives.

Economists Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok suggest that minimum wage laws should be named “The Robot Employment Act.” Others suggest the more sardonic designation “The Robot Subsidy Act.”

Prof. Blaine McCormick

Baylor University

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