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Yes, mostly due to their inputs, as I pointed out.
I sure eat fewer apples. When we moved to Okinawa the fruit bill shot through the roof and you know what we did? We reduced our fruit diet. To answer his point, though, if you can hire multiple low skill workers, or buy some machines and one or two medium-low skill workers, then which path you choose will depend upon your relative return for each.
You have lots of options, particularly over time.
Ah yes. That is why none of (for example) Krispy Kreme's donut-making processes are automated. You have to have a person to stand there and flip those donuts, doncha know.
This is where I stopped reading. Of course you can replace a cashier with a machine. Has this man not been in a store that features a self-checkout machine? Do you know when they started incorporating that technology? Right after the last time we raised the minimum wage.
The jobs that you can't replace with machines and that you can't offshore are typically ones whose value-added comes from both knowledge and physical access. So, for example, you can out-source analysis of X-Rays (it only requires knowledge), you can automate a cashier (you require only physical access) but you cannot outsource or automate an electrician (he requires both knowledge and physical access).
Skimming through the rest, he also buys into the Spending>Saving fallacy (there is no such thing as time, apparently) as well as "Businesses make it back through increased business" fallacy (you cannot get back more of what you put out when you are guaranteed to lose portions of it). This man would be wrecked if he tried this argument on this site.
We are obviously not going to agree. However, I would point out that a low skilled worker will be replaced with a machine if a company can do so regardless of whether the minimum wage is raised or not. Menial jobs are always going to be automated when possible and it has nothing to do with having a minimum wage.