"Here's what middle-class business owners, who live in the real world, will do when faced with a 40 percent increase in labor costs," he wrote in October 2014. "They will cut jobs and rely more on technology. Such changes are already happening in banks, gas stations, grocery stores, airports and, more recently, restaurants. Almost every restaurant chain in the country from Applebee's to McDonald's is testing or already implementing automated ordering with tablets or kiosks."