But automation gets more efficient over time. Twenty years ago, an automaton that could drive you around city streets required a whole university research lab a

But automation gets more efficient over time. Twenty years ago, an automaton that could drive you around city streets required a whole university research lab and barely worked. Today, it's very realistically possible. Twenty years from now, it's hard to imagine it being more expensive than a taxi driver. Twenty years ago, we had drip coffee makers and early Keurig machines. Today, we have latte art printers. Twenty years from now, vending machines that produce Instagram-worthy iced lattes with whipped cream and caramel drizzles will likely be commonplace. If your minimum wage plan is taking automation into account, your plan would have to be to slowly lower minimum wage over time so that, as robots get more efficient, humans are always paid a little less than them. That would be a coherent policy - for a few years. But eventually that leaves you with a minimum wage under a penny. What's your plan then?