Wendy’s (WEN) said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year as minimum wage hikes and a tight labor market push up wages.
To see why, it’s best to first think of investment in entrepreneurial endeavors like a coin toss. Heads, we earn $100 in capital gains; tails, we lose $100. If there are no taxes on a winning coin toss, then we have to believe that the odds of winning the toss are better than 50% to play the game. . . Let’s add in state taxes for that other wellspring of west coast innovation, Silicon Valley. At California’s top tax bracket of 13.3%, and with Hillary Clinton’s proposed rate of 45% on whatever is left, we get to keep $48 for each heads, and lose $100 for each tails. We need to expect at least a 68% chance of “heads.” And we’re taxed on inflation. If it takes 10 years to cash out, and inflation has boosted the cost of living by 25%, we need to win more than three out of four coin tosses to justify making these kinds of bets!