Jester,

Re: Self-serve kiosks at Wendy's. Only the beginning of a trend. Or the beginning of the 'end'. The whole operation will be run by robots, with one human 'manager' on site to read error codes and 'reset' machinery accordingly. He can afford to buy a burger at Wendys - all the laid off staff cannot, as commercial eateries do not accept food stamps. Or may s/he isn't needed - have all outlets managed from 'Wendy's Central' in.....Vietnam, or the Phillipines. 

So, yes, the irony is apparent. A permanent class of unemployable workers, and meager spending customers.

Bernie gave a speech in a city in my state the ohter week. It was locally televised, and man, was it 'no punches pulled.' He started spewing figures, such as the twenty richest families in America have greater wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans combined. Approx. 140 mln people. Bernie said listen up, because you won't hear these kinds of wealth figures on TV. And yes, you won't.