‘Dispossessed of Their Pathetic Livelihoods’ 

On Sen. Josh Hawley’s plan to ‘save’ low-wage jobs from artificial intelligence.

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A car goes through the drive-through at a Burger King restaurant on February 15, 2022 in Daly City, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Josh Hawley is a familiar type: the prep-school/Ivy League toff who grew up wealthy and has, for obviously self-interested reasons, appointed himself tribune of the plebs, champion of the working class, and zealous defender of literal McJobs—in this case, jobs working the drive-through window at fast-food restaurants.

I suppose that young Josh Hawley might have learned something about the drive-through window at the bank of which his father was the president, but here is the voice of experience from an actual graduate of Burger King University and a veteran of the drive-through window at University Avenue and Loop 289 in Lubbock, Texas: 

Don’t save these jobs.

Really. Don’t.

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  1. Ben

    "Some people will try to tell you that the middle classes have not seen any real economic progress since the 1970s or 1980s. This is pure baloney. (Unless you are getting it from the New York Times, in which case, it is mortadella.)"

    This is my favorite political quip in years.

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  2. Marc Whipple

    Thanks for the good discussion! Regarding my market idolatry, it is only a rumor that I have shrines in my house to Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman. 😉

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    Ben Connelly

    This is all spot on. Reminds me of the Milton Friedman “why not use spoons” story.

    “She seems like a fun date, but I still think my theater-ejection story is better.”

    Ha! I didn’t know that story (I was a senior in high school and a year or two away from reading National Review). Good for you!

    “I interview a different guest each month: Veronique de Rugy is up now, and soon to come are Bryan Caplan, George Weigel, Klon Kitchen, and others.”

    Great episode. Although I disagree with her on the populism thing. Excited for the Klon and Caplan interviews!

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    Paul Britton

    Other-wordiness:

    “all right”, not “alright”

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    Cscottkillgore

    As a Missourian who usually votes Republican, I am increasingly embarrassed by Josh Hawley, who is proving himself to be one of the most opportunistic politicians of our time. He ran for state Attorney General just so he could run for the U.S. Senate two years later. I'm sure he fancies himself President some day - probably soon. I have long had much respect for former Missouri Attorney General and U.S. Senator John Danforth who initially endorsed Hawley and then later said his endorsement of Hawley was a mistake. Hopefully Missouri voters will also realize the mistake in electing Josh Hawley to anything, and show him the exit door in the next election.

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  6. Ted Williamson

    When I was in high school in the early ‘90’s, I worked at Domino’s Pizza taking orders over the phone. That job is essentially obsolete now. Today, when you order a pizza, you don’t call it in, you place the order online. Would Senator Hawley argue that we’d all be better off if we banned pizza companies from accepting online orders and required all pizza orders to be placed by phone in order to force pizza companies to employ people to answer the phones?

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    CP

    You know, I’m sure the o, g, and h in “drive-through” will be okay and find other words to be a part of. Anyway, we don’t need them anymore—why should some sense of nostalgia keep us from spelling things more efficiently? I think someone’s sense of aesthetics is still lagging behind his philosophy.

    Also—what’s up with these gloaty posts about schools shutting down programs? I expect that from some conservatives, but not from you, Kevin. It’s not the faculty who are bleeding schools like that dry. We don’t make enough (and at some point, presumably, the school could afford math and sculpture classes). It’s the ridiculous amount of administrative bloat and spending on campuses for the sake of attracting parents who think their children still need to be baby-sat rather than treated like adults and educated.

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    1. Kevin Williamson

      What makes you think it is gloating?

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      1. FreddySez

        In the aftermath of your run-in with The Atlantic, I saw one commenter describe your "I Am Cancer" column as "Williamson bragging about evicting people from a house he owned."

        There's no accounting for people who decide first what they think about you and then go on from there.

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        CP

        "Eventually, the money runs out"

        and

        "Protest all you like. Complain all you like. Call it racist or sexist or monocisheteronormative or anything else. In the end, the math is the math—in West Virginia and down the road in Washington."

        If not gloating, at least endorsing the decision of the board? Could other aspects of WVU's budget (and countless other schools' budgets) have not been cut?

        Progressive or not (and I'm not), professors care about students' intellectual development and want to teach them. I've had quite a few very progressive professors I've learned a great deal from and who respected me for disagreeing with them. Reducing us all to adjuncts really does impoverish those institutions y'all at The Dispatch are so fond of talking about.

        From a fellow English major, too!

        (Also, I'm adversarial here, but I'm a big fan. Just had to say that.)

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          Joe Delanis

          To your first point:

          The O, G, and H leaving "drive-thru" should grab the U and stay in "doughnut."

          Because spelling it "donut" means the word would be properly pronounced as "dew-nut."

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            CP

            But no one does pronounce it "dew-nut." And if you want to get persnickety about pronunciation, it's far less logical to keep them there. No one makes that phlegmy "gh" sound when they say it anymore. The only reason to leave them in is tradition, which I happen to like and find stabilizing, all other things considered.

            My point, then, is that we all continue to do things that aren't economical, even in our spelling...does job security for the old and economically vulnerable matter less than spelling rules? We could save a lot of ink-and-paper money without that g, h, and u, as well as time.

            Also, eventually, if someone does say "dew-nut," following the spelling, I can think of worse worlds to live in. Will that really make them taste any worse?

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    MattA

    With all due respect, that “5% of income spent on groceries” number is straight up fake news. The median household income is roughly $75k. You’re telling me the average household spends $312.50 per month on groceries?

    Maybe I’d believe it that if everyone I walked past on the street had the BMI of Eritreans, but they don’t.

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  9. Matthew.Whinery

    Very interesting piece. I agree with the main points. Perhaps as I’m an economics undergrad and grew up near you Kevin (Amarillo)
    Curious if you’ve read much Wendell Berry? He writes a lot about the loss of community and sense of dignity in farming towns after WW2 and attributes much of this to the mechanization of farming. Certainly the average consumer has benefited from much less expensive food. But, at what cost to farming communities and perhaps our appreciation of food as a whole?
    I certainly do not think the government getting involved in regulating this “progress” is the answer.

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    Reepicheep (Judd)

    Looking forward to Kevin's chat with Bryan Caplan. I give it a couple years before Bryan wins him over on the open borders argument, especially given that immigration restrictions area just affirmative action for natives.

    https://betonit.substack.com/p/immigration_res_1html?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Faffirmative&utm_medium=reader2

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