The $30 Minimum Wage Fallout: Why We See Workers Replaced by Robots in California
In our recent video on our YouTube channel, we explored the immediate and “spectacular” backfire of the demand for a $30 an hour minimum wage, a reality now unfolding in certain cities, particularly in California. While we would never fault people for wanting a better life and to be paid what they are worth, we highlighted how the concept of a minimum wage fundamentally conflicts with capitalism, describing it as a “weird form of communism”. As we explained, under a truly capitalistic system, if you feel undervalued, you simply seek employment elsewhere that recognizes your worth.
California recently passed a $30 minimum wage, and Los Angeles proudly announced it would be the first place globally to implement this rate. However, our observations reveal immediate, concerning trends. Despite the higher wage, workers in California are still finding themselves at “half the poverty level”. We pointed out that in Los Angeles County, a staggering $110,000 is now required annually to stay above the poverty line, a significant increase from $100,000 less than a year ago. We stressed that for those who don’t already own a home in California, it’s becoming a “perpetually screwed” situation where keeping up with the cost of living feels impossible.
Our analysis shows that these high minimum wages do not reduce company profits. Instead, as we noted, companies “just pass it on to the consumer” by raising prices. We cited Los Angeles’s 10% year-over-year cost of living increase as evidence of this. We argued that this “neverending onslaught of minimum wage increases” directly contributes to such inflationary pressures.
Perhaps the most significant consequence we’ve identified is the accelerated shift towards automation. Amazon, a company we acknowledged as having “evil” tendencies, has already made “pretty expected move[s]” to replace workers demanding these “insane wages”. We predict this transition to robots will occur “faster than you think” and will likely become a major political issue in the upcoming presidential election. We revealed that Amazon is actively training humanoid robots for package delivery, intending to deploy them from Rivian vans. Our sources indicate Amazon is developing advanced AI software to enable these robots to operate as delivery drivers, and they’ve even constructed an “indoor humanoid park” for training purposes at one of their San Francisco offices.
We noted that Amazon is already employing various autonomous robots in its warehouse operations and acquired the robo-taxi company Zoox in 2020, signaling their desire to “fully automate end to end package delivery from warehouse to your front door”. We believe this push for automation is also motivated by challenges in securing a reliable human workforce, citing issues with workers who “can’t stay off drugs,” “show up for work,” or consistently work in various weather conditions. While we humorously acknowledged the potential for robots to “enslave” us, we also highlighted that a humanoid robot is unlikely to engage in illicit activities or theft, unlike some “sketchy Amazon drivers” we’ve encountered.
In our video, we emphasized that while this automation trend was always inevitable, the demand for an “insanely high minimum wage is only going to bring it about much quicker”. We concluded by warning of a “hellscape that has coming to us all over the next few years” as these economic and technological shifts unfold.
