Excellent video, but let me focus on Gavin Newsom's use of the old analogy between lawmaking and sausage making. The idea is you like the results but you'd be disgusted to see the process. So I guess Newsom's best argument for the bizarre exceptions in California's minimum wage law is that we'd be grossed out by the details if we saw them, but the final product is something we love. But with sausage, the final product has all the strange ingredients blended into one coherent-looking whole. The law Newsom is defending has unexplained exceptions right there in the text. It's more like sausage that has visible chunks of weird things that don't seem to belong and you want to know what the hell is that... and that... and that? You don't eat that sausage. And that's another thing. With sausage, if something about it makes you suspicious, you don't eat it. You're not forced to eat it just because the sausage-factory made it. Don't buy it. If it's served to you, don't eat it. Laws, we're forced to eat.What happens when the minimum wage goes up? Well, California is getting an experiment in that right now. Just ask @gavinnewsom. Reason's @BessByers shares what happened after AB 1228 implemented a government-mandated pay raise for all fast-food workers. 🍔 pic.twitter.com/FFL7hkMOKk
— reason (@reason) December 31, 2025
***
The oldest version of the law/sausage analogy seems to be: "Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made." I'm told that was written by the poet/lawyer John Godfrey Saxe, in 1869, in an article in the Daily Cleveland Herald. You probably heard that Otto von Bismarck is part of the story, but stories are like sausages: Everyone's always imagining what's in there, how it got in, and whether it belongs there.
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Whether Californians are waking up or not is irrelevant to the fact that the law will stay on the books until 2029, "because government programs always end". And that's just the one law. The real problem with California is it has been engineered to be a powerful political machine for the Democrat Party. It is virtually impossible now to take them out of power. Which is why the only discussion for replacing Newsom is who wins the Democrat Primary, and it seems clear that running further to the left will get them more votes. I'm told, using another food analogy, the juice is worth the squeeze because of the weather, the views, and ability to ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon. Enjoy!
So, nobody benefits, not even the employees of fast food restaurants. This is quite a victory.
Detailed carve-outs for specific groups and sectors are a feature, not a bug, for virtually all legislation that rewards or controls economic activity. These exceptions, generally brokered by lobbyists, are the prime source of campaign contributions to incumbent politicians. Sadly, this is true on both sides of the aisle.
The only answer is to just say no. But most blue states now are beyond redemption.
The constituency has a sausage-like constitution. There’s the rub.
Money Manger said...
""Detailed carve-outs for specific groups and sectors are a feature, not a bug, for virtually all legislation that rewards or controls economic activity. These exceptions, generally brokered by lobbyists, are the prime source of campaign contributions to incumbent politicians. Sadly, this is true on both sides of the aisle."
If only there was a name for an economic system where the government is in control of the economy, even as ownership is (only) nominally in private hands.
I'm surprised our ancestors didn't come up with a name for that.
And the Ayn Rand death spiral whirls faster and faster….
We really need to give some thought as to how we permanently end this kind of thing, after we’ve annihilated the Left in the Second American Civil War.
Will Californians learn after being forced to eat Gavin Newsom's sausage? Doubtful.
And with kiosks, there go entry level jobs, and with them the opportunity for the young to begin building skills and a résumé.
When I had employees for a retail business -- up to 29 on occasion [to avoid the ObamaCare debacle] -- I started every one at federal minimum, and I'd teach 'em the basic skills they needed. Or at least TRY to teach them.
They had two weeks to show me they were worth 2x minimum. If yes, I doubled their pay, and retroactively so. If not, we parted ways after the 2 weeks. One was so skilled with people and such a quick learner that after the 2 weeksI made her an assistant manager at 3x. and thereafter *she* handled the newbies.
If employees were called in and we had an unexpected rain-out [ag business, lots of it outside], they got 4 hours pay just for showing up. We'd putter with a few things under cover, and then they could go home.
Talk about employee loyalty ... they were my best recruiters, *and* if they came up with an idea which would improve my net income, either by cutting expenses or boosting revenue, I cut them a check for 10% of the estimated shift in our outfit's net. Nobody shy about sharing ideas, that's for sure, and as operations peeps they saw things I did not.
Now retired from that business, one of the toughest things has been how much I miss the employees and our times together.
That's why you should patronise and support family businesses, because in the good ones, the employees become a bit like family.
No LAW can replicate that.
If discussing constructing the worst possible laws this is elegance and perfection. They have not omitted any horrible policy in the creation. Everything is there. Price control. A central planning commission. Carve outs. Destruction of market forces.
Of course the one thing they missed, which is always missed by the central planners, is the mandated obligation to create the jobs that are subject to the law. So natural forces react by investment in automation, self-service or in the extreme case, closing operations and eliminating existing jobs. In this case the extreme case is the new normal…
Graft, grift, kickbacks, and general corruption are as American as apple sausage.
There’s enough fraud of the federal government sloshing around California that they’ll be able to pretend this law is a success. See- companies aren’t leaving they’ll say, while they make continued exceptions and maybe pass some of the slush money their way to bribe them into staying…
Per my BFF Gemini:
Members of California's Fast-Food Council serve in unpaid positions but receive $100 per day for council business, focusing on setting industry rules for fast-food chains with 60+ locations, representing a split between labor and business interests in regulating working conditions, including wages.
Key Details:
Compensation: $100 per day for days spent on council activities.
Role: The council sets wages (currently $20/hour minimum) and working conditions for fast-food employees.
Composition: The council is split evenly between business representatives and labor/worker advocates.
Purpose: To directly negotiate and create regulations for the fast-food industry, with final decisions going to state labor agencies
The real estate office in my neighborhood just across the border in Nevada is experiencing a year end rush of activity, selling homes that have been sitting on the market all year. I suspect another round of Californians giving up and leaving…
Is the "b" tag for Bess Byers?
I think they call it fascism
Members of California's Fast-Food Council serve in unpaid positions but receive $100 per day for council business
How many other council’s do the members serve? What is the policy on receiving gifts and entertainment?
They had two weeks to show me they were worth 2x minimum. If yes, I doubled their pay, and retroactively so. If not, we parted ways after the 2 weeks.
Geez, how inequitable of you.
What is the “b” tag all about? This seems to be the only post with that tag.
I remember the reporter who told us opening up the states was 'murder' was nearly as Harkonnen in dimensions, possibly huttese
It's really a shame. So much of California is so beautiful.
Minimum wage hikes gentrify entry level jobs. They only hire people who are worth the higher wage and give them bigger responsibilities. That is, it makes it no longer an entry level job.
Sorry wrong gang of monkeys
Although the last shot features the big sign, she didn't mention that In-N-Out, a distinctly California restaurant brand, is moving its headquarters to Tennessee, which has a much more more favorable tax climate. They are also opening restaurants in Texas, and other Midwest states,
That burger and fries meal Bess Byers is eating probably costs $23 with tax.
Anybody who can listen to this shrinking Harpy for more than 5 seconds is mentally ill. Does she really speak that fast or is she using a cash box to speed up her delivery. If you couldn't see the gray roots in her hair, you would think that she was actually an AI creation
Some thoughts on Bismarck and sausage making. Bismarck was considered by his contemporaries and some generations thereafter as the master statesman of his era. Napoleon III, his contemporary and opponent, has the reputation of a klutz.....Bismarck is responsible for the creation of the modern German state. The German state he founded was durable, but it was also the kind of state that the Kaiser could steer into a ditch and Hitler could drive off a cliff. There were lots of unhealthy additives in the sausage he created, but, on the plus side, it has had a long shelf life......His opponent Napoleon III is nobody's idea of a master statesman. The French have Napoleon III to thank for their involvement in Vietnam and Algeria. On the plus side, however, it Napoleon III and not Baron Haussmann who deserves most of the credit for the lasting beauty of Paris. He broke an egg and made an omelet.
Peak Purchasing Power: The federal minimum wage reached its peak purchasing power in 1968, when the nominal wage of $1.60 per hour was equivalent to about $12.50 per hour in 2023 dollars (approximately $14.82 in 2025 dollars).
The bread exception is a pretty big loophole. It would not be that difficult for a traditional fast food restaurant to adjust their kitchen to cook loaves the meet the requirements…
I worked as a lab assistant as a kid for $0.80 an hour.
The worst part about the sausage factory is listening to the cries shrieks and screams from the pigs about to be slaughtered. A close second is the smell of rotting flesh from the rendering side of the assembly line. The heat and humidity inside the sausage factory from the boilers makes Mogadishu in the summertime seem like paradise.
Theres something stinking in sacramento and its not sausage
When I was in high school in the late seventies I worked as a carpet installers assistant for $5 an hour cash. It enabled me to purchase state of the art scuba diving equipment and the finest custom-made wetsuit available from Merle and Bess in Hollywood. It also made taking regular boat trips out to yellow banks on Santa Cruz Island affordable.
As a former Californian (by birth) I can assure you that the depths of Gavin's weirdness are yet to be plumbed by the media. It's extremely ripe, so much so even Jazzhands Elmer Fudd would be shocked at the brazen fraud, insider dealing, ongoing corruption investigations that reach into his inner circle and he even ripped off the victims of the Palisades conflagration and people who donated to help them.
As we learned in MN where television reports and whistleblowers documented TEN YEARS AGO the same exact fraud that is still happening and on a greater scale, the corporate Media can and will obscure and bury these things.
But they are far too numerous to overlook entirely. And creepy like this post subject.
I kind of like the shrinking harpy…
"So, are Californians finally waking up to the unintended consequences of minimum wage hikes?"
No. When they wake up, they cease to be Californians.
If you think that the average McDonalds can just retool to bake thousands of buns on site then you really don't understand the whole fast food industry, nor why bread baking was the Gavin exception.
California strikes me as a state that is on the trajectory for a sort of Neo-Feudalism hierarchy, with everyone clambering to get as high up on the hierarchy as they can, but with most movement being folks in the middle class moving downward to the Neo--Serf class, the main function of the Neo-Serf class being to provide votes to the favored Democrat aristocratic lords.
I didn’t read the specifics- can you explain why they’d have to bake thousands of buns on site? The shrinking harpy made it sound like a bread loaf needed only to be offered on the menu…in my fast food days yes, we had daily pallets of buns dropped off but we also had conveyor toasters that were capable of baking…
I’m reading- no shipped in dough, some vague requirement of ‘significant’, and ‘Historical Operation’, The bakery must have been operating continuously since September 15, 2023…
I sounds like the while covid only establishments that ‘serve food’ can open. Compliance for bars is easy then the lawmakers what mads the sausage get all huffy cause that’s not what they intended…
I love the way Newsome gets all cute and charming when he explains his friend's graft. It's practised. And, as a capper, why does it always work out this way when the state is deciding what 'Fair Share' looks like? It's almost like, I dunno, they shouldn't be getting involved by putting their thumb on the scales when the sausage is being weighed.
I think it is pretty easy to tell Newsome is padding his resume for a Mandami Man run for the Presidency and when the federal money keeps flowing there’s no incentive to stop the growth of corruption and stupid…
The only point made in that presentation that I find dubious is the claim that California's fast food disaster is an unintended consequence. Sacramentans are an usually stupid set, but not that stupid.
Newsome, like every caudillo before him, believes a population of peons is easily dominated. He may be surprised when he discovers they are not.
Like the dictator in san marcos
They’ve been at this a long long time so when we all try to apply ‘bad policy has consequences’ logic to a place where there are no consequences who’s to blame really?
Jesus Howard. Kill the messenger much?
I'll remind of what constitutes a market. A knowledgeable buyer and seller. No third parties.
All McDonalds in my area have kiosks. There are 3 part time employees. This is what happens when third parties get involved in the market place.
"Gee. Where did all the entry level jobs go?"
Well done video.
Newsom has got to be the worst Governor in America. But...he has the best hair, height, and he's handsome. So naturally, he's a lock for the Democratic ticket in 2028. There is nothing he has touched that has not hurt Californians, or our nation at large. But that won't mean a thing to those who run the DNC and media entities. At least he has his wineries, hotel and restaurants intact and doing well.
Interesting that this woman produced the video at an In-N-Out Burger joint. They are a true California brand. And for most of their existence, wanted to be only in California, with a few strays in Arizona & Nevada.
But thanks to Gavin's governance, even the most California of all brands is leaving California. In-N-Out is moving east, to Nashville. Gavin got them thinking about doing stores in more business friendly states. And so they had to pick a place for a new HQ. The owner loves Nashville and Tennessee is very business friendly- as are the Carolinas and Florida, and sometimes Georgia. So...she's moving to Nashville, and in due time I should be (finally) seeing an In-N-Out Burger near me on the Gulf Coast.
The idea is you like the results but you'd be disgusted to see the process.
I suppose that might have been the intention that started the cliche but it's just as easy to view it as the sausage simply concealing all the awful crap that went into making it.
Howard said...
Peak Purchasing Power: The federal minimum wage reached its peak purchasing power in 1968, when the nominal wage of $1.60 per hour was equivalent to about $12.50 per hour in 2023 dollars (approximately $14.82 in 2025 dollars).
That would imply an 18.5% change in the price index over two years 2023-2025.
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...
When I had employees... I started every one at federal minimum, and I'd teach 'em the basic skills they needed. Or at least TRY to teach them...They had two weeks to show me they were worth 2x minimum. If yes, I doubled their pay, and retroactively so. If not, we parted ways after the 2 weeks.
Kansas is anomalous with the state minimum wage equal to the federal. In most states you have to pay a higher state minimum wage.
So California Businesses have to pay Illegal aliens fast food workers $20 an hour. Does anyone think they do it? Maybe the corporate chains (unless they are part of the exemption).
BTW, do the illegal alien workers on Newsome's MJ farm get paid $20/hour. You tell me.
That's why whenever I hear a liberal/leftist or a globalist like Bush, talk about the "rule of the law" I just laugh. They don't believe in enforcing the immigration laws or the drug laws or any other law they don't like. But they want everyone else to live by "the rule of law". Its a bad joke.
So, if I was a small business who had to hire illegals just to compete against other who are doing the same, I'd pay them under the table in cash.
.."BTW, do the illegal alien workers on Newsome's MJ farm get paid $20/hour. You tell me.."
the $20/hr is JUST for fast food restaurants
(that are not Panera Bread, or other Democrat doners)
the minimum wage in California is: $16.90/hr (as of tommorow)
https://www.dir.ca.gov/DIRNews/2025/2025-118.html
To be considered a fast food restaurant, the restaurant must meet ALL of the below criteria:
The restaurant must be a “limited-service restaurant” in California..
The restaurant is part of a restaurant chain of at least 60 establishments nationwide..
The restaurant is primarily engaged in selling food and beverages for immediate consumption.
However, some fast food restaurants are exempt from the law. (See Question 12).
Question 12: Restaurants that operate a bakery that "produces" and sells "bread" as a stand-alone menu item as of September 15, 2023, and are named Panera Bread are exempt from the new law.
At most a minimum wage can serve as a floor to prevent exploitation, particularly in the rare circumstance it can be claimed monopsony exists in the labor market, which artificially depresses wages. According to classical theory, in that rare instance a minimum wage could actually increase employment.
The mistake is a belief that a minimum wage can increase economy-wide incomes. Both the above conceits were posited by the (in)famous Kruger-Card Study, which claimed an increase in the New Jersey minimum wage increased fast food wages and employment relative to Pennsylvania. The flaws in that study based upon the two-period test case in those two states is likely to be revealed and its findings conclusively demolished by Gavin's experiment. So, I guess we'll have Newsom to thank for that.
Krueger was chief economist at the Labor Department under Clinton; in 2009–2010 he was assistant treasury secretary for economic policy under Obama and in 2011–2013 headed Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.) Sadly he killed himself in 2019.
I love Gavin's smirking "whatchu gonna do, it's lawmaking amiright?" response. You're in charge you asshole!
One rule I live by: Never eat a sausage served by Gavin Newsome or Hannibal Lector.
Government. Picking winners and losers. Again.
If ya dont like what they do with the power, then dont let them have the power.
I blame the voters.
I'll join in. Avalon Theater, East 79th Street, Chicago; Sixty-Five whole pennies an hour.
https://www.historictheatrephotos.com/Theatre/Avalon-Regal-Chicago.aspx
After an uproar, the Panera exemption was rescinded, just fyi.
And I hope they bring in and out to Michigan.
Those arent fava beans
As far as I know, In and Out doesn't offer sausages.
Granddaughter is 3rd year chemEng student and visits clients with me when possible.
One of my clients makes canned Vienna sausage. She hates going there says it is the most disgusting thing she's ever seen (she is still young. She'll see worse.)
From August until 2weeks ago she was a congressional aid working on rare earth legislation.
So she is one of those rare people who have worked with both legislation and sausage.
On the whole, she prefers the sausage factory. Cleaner and more honest.
John Henry
'Restaurants that operate a bakery that "produces" and sells "bread" as a stand-alone menu item as of September 15, 2023'
When did Panera stop making bread at its restaurants?
…and might as well add another element of these min wage grifts: union contracts are often tied to minimum wage, not that any union workers work for it. Rather there’s a plus number added to the base then usually an annual ratchet of x percent a year, and in this case that raise would be added to the 3 plus percent ratchet in the minimum wage law. So a good hefty pay raise every annum…
The Democrats, sawdust, pig rectums and messaging.
John henry said...
One of my clients makes canned Vienna sausage. She hates going there says it is the most disgusting thing she's ever seen (she is still young. She'll see worse.)
She done Landfill leach water or a petroleum refinery yet?
Curious what people would find more disgusting.
"One of my clients makes canned Vienna sausage."
I tried to give my dog canned Vienna sausage as a treat one time. She wouldn't eat it.
"The flaws in that study based upon the two-period test case in those two states is likely to be revealed and its findings conclusively demolished by Gavin's experiment."
There was a follow-up to the Krueger-Card study by David Neumark that showed their results were based on crappy data. Better data showed that the higher New Jersey minimum wage caused a decline in employment, as one would expect. But of course policymakers still cite Krueger-Card and ignore the better study.
Howard said...
Anybody who can listen to this shrinking Harpy for more than 5 seconds is mentally ill. Does she really speak that fast or is she using a cash box to speed up her delivery. If you couldn't see the gray roots in her hair, you would think that she was actually an AI creation
She just edited out the white space of breathing.
I still would have sped up the video if it was an inbed option.
Even better, hire that AI spokeslady, she works for nothing.
Fast food restaurants aren't the only businesses leaving California.
Refineries Put Pedal to the Metal, Leave Calif.
Newsom needs to run for President, because he'll soon be persona non grata in California.
Ron, I recently watched one of those "rise and fall" videos on YT. This one was about Panera Bread. Seems at one point they no longer baked bread from scratch and had par-baked bread shipped in from the commissary.
Looking at pictures of Bismarck now, he doesn't strike me as a great wit. "Blood and iron" was probably his high point, but it's more grisly or gruesome than funny.
The impetus for this seems to be the idea that a full-time fast-food worker can't make enough money to support a family. Okay, but isn't that already addressed through all manner of social service programs that provide housing assistance, food assistance, child-care assistance, medical care, etc.?
My takeaway from this is that the totalitarian impulse is so strong among leftists that, even where no reform is needed, they consider it worthwhile to destroy jobs and businesses just for the satisfaction they derive from wielding power over private interests.
California is the disaster (full stop)
For the life of me, I still cannot understand the constitutional justification for minimum wage laws. Perhaps the (ex)Professor could help me out here.
I have noticed employee retention is now much higher at my local Taco Bell. So the same guy has been there for 3+ years now. This suggests that he could not find a higher wage elsewhere.
Also, economics happen at the margin. So, for most high traffic stores, maybe nothing much changes.
But some lower traffic stores will struggle and fail. And that is actually important.
And, OFC, tech comes in to replace labor where possible.
If ya dont like what they do with the power, then dont let them have the power.
The problem with California voters, is they think you mean electricity when you suggest "then don't let them have the power" and vote accordingly.
Terrific, fun post. A friend who ate a lot of McNuggets cautioned not to look at em too close when eating.
“ I kind of like the shrinking harpy…“.
But some prefer the ad hominem. I liked the video but I never listen I read the captions. Unfortunately the captions were right in the middle of her thin white shirt and abs. It was difficult to not stay focused. I blame the evolution of human reproductive strategy.
Large outdoor shopping center has In-N-Out on one side of street, McDonalds 2 blocks away on other side of street. During lunch, the In-n-Out will have almost a block long line of cars while McDonalds will have less than ten.
Must be a big difference for people to be willing to wait in that line. Can't understand it, makes more sense to park and walk inside. Get it to go if you want.
California voters:
"While Trump did not win California’s electoral votes in any of his campaigns, his popular vote count in the state has fluctuated over three election cycles:
2024: 6,081,697 votes (38.3%)
2020: 6,006,429 votes (34.3%)
2016: 4,483,810 votes (31.9%) "
County Shifts: Trump gained ground in 57 of California's 58 counties. He notably flipped several counties that previously voted for Joe Biden in 2020, including San Bernardino and Riverside.
Demographic Gains: Analysis suggests Trump drew a larger share of support from traditionally Democratic constituencies in California, specifically among Latino and Asian American voters.
35% increase since2016
(Gemini)
Best thing about Newsome running is that if R's get down and dirty exposing and publicizing insanity here in California, Repub candidate will be obvious choice.
Start with "no new gasoline powered vehicles allowed to be sold" add in reparations , diverting water from farms to save a fish.
Fish reminds me of crazy local situation. When expanding SFO airport decades ago, construction worker ran over a common garter snake. Company had to build a tunnel for snakes to travel through.
"The impetus for this seems to be the idea that a full-time fast-food worker can't make enough money to support a family."
Where did that retarded idea get started anyway? When I was just out of high school and looking for a summer job (early 70s) *nobody* expected that a fast food (read: entry level) job would allow you to even be able to afford rent for an apartment (unless you had a couple of roommates), let alone support a family.
We love our fresh pan de Agua y pan sobao here in Puerto Rico. We have 5-6 bakeries in Fajardo that bake fresh 3-4 times daily. Yum.
Thanks to Manuel Cidre Cuban immigrant and former Governor candidate, we also have fresh bread in most gas stations, groceries and other venues.
I first met him running a tiny bakery out of his garage in Arecibo in the 80s
He has since developed a helluva biz selling frozen dough. Every n exports to Florida.
The retailer puts the dough in an oven that defrost it, raises it and b as ked it.
It is terrific bread.
If a gastation c as n make it, I would think mcds could as well
John Henry
Around here, it's cheaper to eat at a Chili's vs going to McDonald's. And yeah, pretty much every fast food place has a kiosk to order.
While some may think the messenger’s a little overbearing, the message is clear, well-stated and a ringing indictment of the incompetent California State Legislature and the moronic icon Newsom.
Marty said...
For the life of me, I still cannot understand the constitutional justification for minimum wage laws. Perhaps the (ex)Professor could help me out here.
Supreme Court cases: West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937) and Lochner v. New York (1905).
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937) was a landmark Supreme Court case that upheld Washington state's minimum wage law for women, effectively ending the "Lochner Era" where courts struck down economic regulations based on "freedom of contract". Lochner v. New York (1905) established this era by invalidating a law limiting bakers' hours, but Parrish marked the Court's shift, recognizing states' power to regulate labor for public welfare, signifying a major change in judicial philosophy towards supporting New Deal-era legislation.
Kind of ironic that liberal California would attempt to limit the scope of its minimum wage coverage based upon whether bread baking is taking place, given the history of Lochner and West Coast Hotel.
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