The future of the hamburger is here, and it's great . . .

I stood in line to order a custom burger from a futuristic McDonald's kiosk and now I get why the company is betting on them

. . . the second shoe to drop in the future of the hamburger is here:

Here's The Burger-Flipping Robot That Could Put Fast-Food Workers Out Of A Job

Touch screen ordering, easy credit/debit card payment, automated machine to grind and cook the meat, slice the accessories, and plate the cooked burger. These devices would be easy to install outside of places where people congregate just like we see RedBox kiosks today. The small footprint, will allow placement without the cost of owning, and maintaining a large piece of land. On the other hand, some people will still want to eat at a "restaurant" so some physical locations will likely remain. 

I expect these devices to become more common as we see strong inflation of the minimum wage laws around the country.

Oregon's Minimum Wage Seen as 'Historic'

Minimum wage effect? Seattle area restaurant jobs have fallen -900 this year vs. +6,200 food jobs in rest of state - AEI

The Portlandia increase is indeed "Historic," historically foolish, as it will promote a rapid move to automate as many of these minimum wage jobs as possible, and no wage is never better than a low wage. I will keep my bias under wraps, but I do expect to see the total number of these minimum wage jobs to fall in Oregon, and particularly in Portlandia. 

I expect Seattle will see continued declines in minimum wage jobs, a ring of restaurants immediately outside of the minimum wage boundary, and lots of automation of these lower wage jobs. 

As for the ultimate goal of these laws, it will not be met. One cannot legislate a persons pay because that pay is directly related to the value the individual provides to the employer. Where the value provided to the employer is far less than the pay, the job will disappear, or be consolidated.

All of our wishful attempt to legislate homicide, and violent crime out of existence has failed, our attempts to legislate out economic fundamentals out of existence will, likewise, fail.

I, for one, can't wait to take a share ride self drive car to the hamburger kiosk, for a robotically produced hamburger, fries and a Coke.