@gondwanalon: “I suspect that if you told a fast foods restaurant owner that the minimum wage has nothing to do with automation that (s)he would likely disagree.”
They could not disagree. They might lie to you, but it has nothing to do with the fact that the minimum wage has been $7.25 (peanuts) for so long, and McDonald’s has been rolling in their automated cashiers for a really long time. Target and most grocery stores have been relying on eliminating cashiers in favor of self-checkout.
You know what else has been happening this whole time? These corporations have been making a large profit. They do so because they underpay their employees.
If the company cannot pay its employees and is being effectively being subsidized to under-pay these people, there are only a few options:
1. It’s not a viable business and they should close.
2. The profits are too high, and someone is getting paid too much at the top.
3. Capitalism doesn’t work.
4. all of the above
You are implicitly arguing that #4 is correct.
Automation is happening everywhere and eliminating jobs. A robot doesn’t attempt to unionize. A robot doesn’t need benefits. A robot doesn’t need a living wage and doesn’t complain. There is much theoretical work being done now in the area of the post-work economy. That is, what happens when most jobs become obsolete and production is the same? There are those in the tech industry that support UBI specifically because they can’t move forward with their plans if the population ends up unable to earn a wage once there are very few jobs, etc. It’s a side-step to avoid a revolution, and I don’t support this. But it emphasizes the problem that is on the horizon.