“There is no shortage whatsoever of people willing to take jobs in fast food, where the pay might be low, but the benefits are multiple.”
Rick, this may be true for densely populated areas but in many places, like the Cape, there are no available workers. The reasons are many, but the impact is real. There are many businesses that will not open for business this summer.
True. The Cape is like many resorts, and not as bad as some, like Nantucket, where house prices are so high that even highly paid workers can't afford to live there. But that has been the case for many years and is known when people open up restaurants, and they take it into account. Plus the shortage of unskilled workers makes their wages naturally higher than in other areas where there is ample supply.
Automation of restaurant functions on the Cape and similar places solves a genuine problem. Automation where the reason wages are high is government fiat and not an excess of demand may be necessary for restaurants to survive, but makes life for the unemployed even harder. It doesn't do them or the public any good to keep them on unemployment or welfare, and the higher prices the restaurants need to cover their artificially higher costs are broadly harmful.
“There is no shortage whatsoever of people willing to take jobs in fast food, where the pay might be low, but the benefits are multiple.”
Rick, this may be true for densely populated areas but in many places, like the Cape, there are no available workers. The reasons are many, but the impact is real. There are many businesses that will not open for business this summer.
Maybe not a bad thing.
True. The Cape is like many resorts, and not as bad as some, like Nantucket, where house prices are so high that even highly paid workers can't afford to live there. But that has been the case for many years and is known when people open up restaurants, and they take it into account. Plus the shortage of unskilled workers makes their wages naturally higher than in other areas where there is ample supply.
Automation of restaurant functions on the Cape and similar places solves a genuine problem. Automation where the reason wages are high is government fiat and not an excess of demand may be necessary for restaurants to survive, but makes life for the unemployed even harder. It doesn't do them or the public any good to keep them on unemployment or welfare, and the higher prices the restaurants need to cover their artificially higher costs are broadly harmful.