Berman's Argumentative Essay

Now that the positive effects have been discussed there is still an entirely different set of outcomes that have to be looked at and considered. How could this potentially hurt the economy? What types of effects will this have on small businesses and their employees? What do these changes look like for individual families making minimum wage and individual middle class families? It is clear that there is a universal goal to better America, reduce poverty, and maximize social equality. However, this is a tricky solution to find and every potential effect needs to be considered. At first glance the raise of minimum wage looks like a potential solution, but at what point does it become ineffective?

The controversy over the increase in

This relates directly to raising the minimum wage, because a majority of of minimum wage paying jobs are low skill. Berman points out that technology has people doing a lot of the work and that employees for many low skill jobs will simply not be needed anymore (41). There are many places in society today that people find themselves interacting with technology in place of an employee. Some of these situations include customers pumping their own gas and picking up their own boarding passes (“Wage Warriors” 41). Berman points out a recent example of technology becoming more prevalent in a particular restaurant chain in America. He explains the new technology that Chili’s has placed in over 800 of their restaurants (41). This tabletop computer is designed to take your order, but Chili’s claims it is not intended to replace servers (“Wage Warrior” 41). The last time I ate at Chili’s I noticed this new edition. They had a similar look to many of the various tablets that can be found in many peoples homes today. The tablet allowed us to order whenever we were ready, with or without our server coming back to the table. It also allowed us to pay the bill whenever we were ready instead of waiting on the server to bring our check to the table. After, experiencing these first hand it is clear that although the intent is not to replace the server it felt like that was what was