Hundreds march at McDonald's HQ over low wages

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: expat
Too often (around d here, anyway) an increase in minimum wage means a lay off or reduced hours for staff.

I wonder if McDonald's have considered a machine that can flip Burgers?

As an aside.
I knew a guy that started flipping burgers at McDonald's, they sent him for training at their Hamburger University. He went on to manage a branch, then moved on to a higher end restaurant, and now, in his late 30's owns 3 restaurants of his own.

It need not be a dead end job.


Wait, wait!

You mean... That he became...a...gasp...GREEDY FRANCHISE OWNER??!?!

No way.

That can't happen in a free society. Look at how we think that we need the government to help us. Can't you see the logic? We can't make it on our own, hard work doesn't pay off...don't you see that?

No way this is true..

 

[Shannow]

It's not $15 and hour that brings in the robots. Robots will go where ever they can be programmed to...e.g. robots build cars, call centres go off shore. It's harder to programme a human interaction, however flawed the culture gap is.

Ordering a service at a Mercedes Dealership is probably less complicated than an automated McDonald's machine. Mercedes are much less interested in them than MacDonalds.

Accountants (IMO) desire to end their careers with simple rules applied that could be programmed by an 8th grader

 

[4D-56]

Its obvious that none of us here have all the answers, especially me.

Im disgusted by corporate greed and the great inequality.

I do wonder, having looked over the comments, who here does not have white skin? I'd say that us that do have little idea of what its really like to be of color in the US.

The system is broken and I maintain that until we change how money works, we'll change little, if anything.
Fiat money breaks societies and its breaking this american empire, this is a society on its way down, the signs are screamingly clear.

How much do I make?...enough to live a simple life, to run a 15 yr old car. Im many things but greedy aint one.

As for McDonalds being a stepping stone to other things, for many that is the case but not all. If its a longer term job, I ask the same question, why should ANYONE that works 40+ hours still be poor?

We come here and discuss things, we clash, we disagree, but every single person on this planet deserves at least a basic standard of living and to be provided with clean water, food and shelter. It aint happening.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Why don't these workers get an education or learn a skill that will allow them to make a better living ?

Probably because they can't afford to work less while shelling out money for their education.


Student loans, grants, scholarships etc?


Student loans? an easy answer and another joke (on the part of the students) since, as quoted by Senator Elizabeth Warren over a year ago: "The [student] loans from 2007 to 2012 [loan portfolio] are on track; right now, to produce 66 BILLION dollars in profits for the United States government."


Who cares what granny warren says? So what is the taxpayers get interest on the loans made to students or anyone for that matter, can you borrow money from the bank for 0% interest? If you can tell me where i will go and borrow it so i can use their money and not my own.

Their plan of everyone with higher eduction and high paying job, all chiefs and no Indians so we can send out menial manufacturing jobs overseas to those uneducated masses has gone sideways.
We got what we ordered. Not everyone can be a degree holder and some people still need to work but now there are no jobs so they try and support families on jobs previously reserved for housewives and students.

So now we have totally unskilled workers demanding unrealistically high wages with health care and other benefits.

 

[4D-56]

To get a deeper understanding/different perspective of whats going on, things that you will not hear/see on mainstream media, I'd highly recommend watching Chris Hedges on YouTube. He also writes a weekly column on Truthdig.com

He's highly qualified and experienced to tell us what I'd say is undeniable truth.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Trav

So now we have totally unskilled workers demanding unrealistically high wages with health care and other benefits.


They already get my money through the EITC and I get to cover unreimbursed ER visits too. I'm cool with society demanding a better floor for them. I can't fathom waking up in the morning feeling good about oneself when there are, or were, ~60 million people without health insurance. How can one be smug about that? How can you have a guy shine your shoes or (insert menial job here) and think, "Hah, this loser got C's in high school and dropped out of community college, if he gets cancer, he's GONNA DIE FROM NOT BEING TREATED because he made some bad choices in life... I am both educationally and moraly superior and have a Blue Cross card to prove it!"

And they aren't totally unskilled-- customer service is a skill, and when I do, rarely, visit a fast food franchise I see around two employees rather frantically scurrying around while various devices beep at them.

 

[Mr Nice]

The retail and food industry is generally low paying for hourly Non management positions. At some point you have to make a career decision not to be stuck in a low paying job.

When I was 15 years old I was working in a supermarket at 6:30 AM on the weekends, I'm white and laugh at when people say 'white privileged folks' having an easy road in life. My sister worked at Burger King in high school, now is a lawyer.... She is also white and unprivileged.

 

[OneEyeJack]

The scary part of all this is that it will be decided by a group of politicians that could not manage a lemonade stand without a start up grant, a running absurdity and finally a bailout and the ability to hire help under current minimum wage laws and without benefits like they do with support staff in DC because those laws do not currently apply to them.

 

[Trav]

A friggin lab rat can learn what happens when a buzzer of light bulb goes off. Customer service? Half the time they cant count change. LOL

As long as he shines my shoes right i don't care what he does, and no i don't care either who has health insurance, i have mine and thats whats important to me. I pay my taxes.
No i don't have a gold plan, i have a platinum plus plan. LOL

 

[eljefino]

Yes, I'm afraid that politicians are going to pay unreasonable attention to the working poor and their campaign donations. Just saw a $2/plate bean supper, in fact.

 

[opus1]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
...And they aren't totally unskilled-- customer service is a skill, and when I do, rarely, visit a fast food franchise I see around two employees rather frantically scurrying around while various devices beep at them.


I need to visit those places, then, because at the ones I visit the skill is sorely lacking -- except for Chik-Fil-A, and there it's the other extreme, almost Stepford-ish. But I prefer the person behind the counter appearing to be genuinely happy to see me (even if it is good acting) than what I see at other franchises.

 

[Mr Nice]

Learn to become a barber. I pay my barber $13 + $2 tip and it takes 10 minutes to cut my hair. The guy always has people waiting for their turn for a hair cut.

Again, I'm not saying for people to get a bachelors degree, but something as simple as barber school will pay off than staying in fast food / retail part-time job with no future.

This is what I mean by having a skill , vocation, trade....

 

[HerrStig]

The gubbermint has been telling us what to eat for a long time now, but they keep changing the good and the bad.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: expat
Too often (around d here, anyway) an increase in minimum wage means a lay off or reduced hours for staff.

I wonder if McDonald's have considered a machine that can flip Burgers?

As an aside.
I knew a guy that started flipping burgers at McDonald's, they sent him for training at their Hamburger University. He went on to manage a branch, then moved on to a higher end restaurant, and now, in his late 30's owns 3 restaurants of his own.

It need not be a dead end job.


Wait, wait!

You mean... That he became...a...gasp...GREEDY FRANCHISE OWNER??!?!

No way.

That can't happen in a free society. Look at how we think that we need the government to help us. Can't you see the logic? We can't make it on our own, hard work doesn't pay off...don't you see that?

No way this is true..

ROFLMAO!

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
The retail and food industry is generally low paying for hourly Non management positions. At some point you have to make a career decision not to be stuck in a low paying job.

When I was 15 years old I was working in a supermarket at 6:30 AM on the weekends, I'm white and laugh at when people say 'white privileged folks' having an easy road in life. My sister worked at Burger King in high school, now is a lawyer.... She is also white and unprivileged.

I worked on a road crew picking up trash in high school and college. I didn't get into "management" until I was "invited into" the Green Machine.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser
Its obvious that none of us here have all the answers, especially me.

Im disgusted by corporate greed and the great inequality.

I do wonder, having looked over the comments, who here does not have white skin? I'd say that us that do have little idea of what its really like to be of color in the US.

The system is broken and I maintain that until we change how money works, we'll change little, if anything.
Fiat money breaks societies and its breaking this american empire, this is a society on its way down, the signs are screamingly clear.

How much do I make?...enough to live a simple life, to run a 15 yr old car. Im many things but greedy aint one.

As for McDonalds being a stepping stone to other things, for many that is the case but not all. If its a longer term job, I ask the same question, why should ANYONE that works 40+ hours still be poor?

We come here and discuss things, we clash, we disagree, but every single person on this planet deserves at least a basic standard of living and to be provided with clean water, food and shelter. It aint happening.
Fine, add a little extra to your tax return, Nothing stopping you from that, is there?

 

[4D-56]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
The retail and food industry is generally low paying for hourly Non management positions. At some point you have to make a career decision not to be stuck in a low paying job.

When I was 15 years old I was working in a supermarket at 6:30 AM on the weekends, I'm white and laugh at when people say 'white privileged folks' having an easy road in life. My sister worked at Burger King in high school, now is a lawyer.... She is also white and unprivileged.



I hear you, growing up in England, I too worked from the age of 13, maybe 14, collecting eggs in battery chicken houses, did school, technical college, an apprenticeship in toolmaking, made it up into the engineers office where I was plugged and plugged for more and more work until I couldnt take anymore. I quit 11/11/01 of all days. Now I work in a wearhouse doing mostly unskilled labor where im lucky that my boss sees my value and pays me more than he would have to if he paid someone else.

Im white and I see the fact that I am privileged here in the US compared to those that are not. Its the simple fact of racial inequality/divide, like it or not. In this country, to be male & white has you at the top of the tree. There are capital C citizens and lwr case c citizens. That rabbit hole goes much deeper but [censored] there to be read.

 

[4D-56]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser
Its obvious that none of us here have all the answers, especially me.

Im disgusted by corporate greed and the great inequality.

I do wonder, having looked over the comments, who here does not have white skin? I'd say that us that do have little idea of what its really like to be of color in the US.

The system is broken and I maintain that until we change how money works, we'll change little, if anything.
Fiat money breaks societies and its breaking this american empire, this is a society on its way down, the signs are screamingly clear.

How much do I make?...enough to live a simple life, to run a 15 yr old car. Im many things but greedy aint one.

As for McDonalds being a stepping stone to other things, for many that is the case but not all. If its a longer term job, I ask the same question, why should ANYONE that works 40+ hours still be poor?

We come here and discuss things, we clash, we disagree, but every single person on this planet deserves at least a basic standard of living and to be provided with clean water, food and shelter. It aint happening.
Fine, add a little extra to your tax return, Nothing stopping you from that, is there?


So that I can help pay a little more of the country's debt?..no thanks.

 

[tenderloin]

At least in Southern California what has happened over the past decades are many jobs including fast food that was once done by teenagers and college students are now done by mostly Hispanic adults. What was once pocket money or money towards something...a car, education expenses etc. has now become wages to live on...even raise a family on...something these jobs were never intended do. Add in the devastating effect particularly on teenage unemployment in the inner cities where many of these jobs were lost... and we have a mess. Kids without jobs, losing hope. Adults trying to survive (I am sure in some cases with government help) on jobs that were not meant to live on let alone raise a family. IMO this will just get worse as millions more come here every year looking for a better life. $15 an hour will not IMO change/fix the problem

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Trav

So now we have totally unskilled workers demanding unrealistically high wages with health care and other benefits.


They already get my money through the EITC and I get to cover unreimbursed ER visits too. I'm cool with society demanding a better floor for them. I can't fathom waking up in the morning feeling good about oneself when there are, or were, ~60 million people without health insurance. How can one be smug about that? How can you have a guy shine your shoes or (insert menial job here) and think, "Hah, this loser got C's in high school and dropped out of community college, if he gets cancer, he's GONNA DIE FROM NOT BEING TREATED because he made some bad choices in life... I am both educationally and moraly superior and have a Blue Cross card to prove it!"

And they aren't totally unskilled-- customer service is a skill, and when I do, rarely, visit a fast food franchise I see around two employees rather frantically scurrying around while various devices beep at them.
You are unaware of the many "must treat" regulations which affect hospitals.