McDonald's Says its Wage Hikes Are Improving Service

the service is improving because increasing the wage allows all people...not just the uneducated unskilled worker to work at MacDonald's. Now those with a college degree that can't get a job in a related field can work at a fast food joint and still get by. So now educated people that have shown the capability to learn and produce quality work are now improving the service provided to the consumer.....Where does that leave the uneducated unskilled worker.....out of a job because if I was an employer id rather hire a college grad than the average low life low class pleb trying to scrape by with a fast food job. Don't be surprised if people start complaining that employers are discriminating against unskilled workers who want to not come to work on time, cant dress appropriately or speak fluently, have drug problems, attitude problems, chip on their shoulders about authority. Lets hope the MacDonald's by my house trades out the current scumbags for some people that give a sh*t about their job....maybe then I won't have to drive 10 miles out of my way to eat a meal with my kid without worrying about hair and debris in our food and overall crappy customer service. But honestly I'm against $15 minimum wage, it hurts small businesses and delegitimizes higher skilled jobs that would earn the same wage.

originally posted by: solids0be
But honestly I'm against $15 minimum wage, it hurts small businesses and delegitimizes higher skilled jobs that would earn the same wage.

lol, how "high skilled" could a job be that only pays $15 an hour?

It goes both ways... if you have no sympathy for unskilled workers, then why have sympathy for people who did go to collage and still ended up in a dead end $15 an hour industry?

a reply to: Bedlam

is burger flipping or delivering papers the same as neurosurgery?

If you were starving and you saw a neurosurgeon in a McDonalds would you be able to trade up the Surgeon instead of paying for your burger, I think not. More people need burgers than Neuro surgeons...see how that works?

A burger job has more social and ethical fabric compared to a JP Morgan job. A large part of Americas problems are an extension of the 2008 housing debacle. Just because you gotta degree doesn't mean you are honest or worthy. You are paid more because you hold the purse strings and the political class in your pocket. You also get to sponsor the laws that protect your kind.

JPMorgan Chase Inks $13B Settlement, Admits Misrepresenting MBS
www.foxbusiness.com...

en.wikipedia.org...–Steagall_Legislation

kemstone.com...

Neither do I, but I trust economists such as Paul Krugman and Robert Reich who point out that it was increased spending that brought us out of the Great Depression and tough rules on the banks such as the Glass-Steagall Act which prevented another collapse from happening up until the time it was repealed in 1999. This is just history. You don’t have to be a genius to just look at the charts and graphs and understand what they mean. And yet Obama surrounded himself right from the start with people like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, people who are nothing if not creatures of Wall Street, who believe that when all is said and done the system is fine how it is. Sure, there was a bubble and it burst, but that was just a fluke—a once-in-a-lifetime thing. The bankers have learned their lesson and they won’t let another financial collapse happen again. They were telling Obama right from the start that the most important thing was to get Wall Street back in business and the rest would follow. He’d have to pass something called “financial reform” purely for the sake of public perception, but it shouldn’t be tough enough on the banks to fundamentally change the way they operate. Everything just needed to go back to the way it was before the collapse, and the bankers would take care of the rest. It would seem that Obama bought into this bull#. In which case, he is not a sell-out but a fool. The bankers will do whatever is in their best short-term financial interest to do. They do not care about the economic repercussions of their actions.

a reply to: Bedlam

I refuse to support the lazy. As I said, if you are an adult with that job, then it's the choice you made

Then why was only Madoff made and example of and the other 1000's allowed to walk free and lazy in your "utopia" Why are you supporting their right to the largess of Helicopter Bernancke? Still beleive the fairy tale of "trickle down" economics?

a reply to: Phage

Not if what they are doing costs more than it's worth.

But you're the only country in the world where employees are supposed to rely on "tips" in the food industry to subsidize their wages to make a living wage.

a reply to: Phage

Right, it's not a fairy tale. Just give everyone what they need, no matter what it costs. "From each...to each." Sounds good, Mr. Marx.

Thats not what he originally said, his premise is that McDonalds basically didnt go broke paying a higher rate to their workers. Why play the commie card...I see why he wanted to disengage from the discussion with you. You do it time and time again in most threads you minimally participate in with one liner disparaging; never able to take a position you always come across as series of 0's and 1's.

a reply to: Bedlam

Its so 50's denigrating someone with the Marxist brush, what's even more comical is that to such an educated person like your self you fail to see its true origins

en.wikipedia.org...

The LTV seeks to explain the level of this equilibrium. This could be explained by a cost of production argument—pointing out that all costs are ultimately labor costs, but this does not account for profit, and it is vulnerable to the charge of tautology in that it explains prices by prices.[5] Marx later called this "Smith's adding up theory of value". Smith argues that labor values are the natural measure of exchange for direct producers like hunters and fishermen.[6] Marx, on the other hand, uses a measurement analogy, arguing that for commodities to be comparable they must have a common element or substance by which to measure them,[7] and that labor is a common substance of what Marx eventually calls commodity-values.[8]

Scholars have also pointed to Sir William Petty's Treatise of Taxes of 1662[14] and to John Locke's labor theory of property, set out in the Second Treatise on Government (1689), which sees labor as the ultimate source of economic value. Karl Marx himself credited Benjamin Franklin in his 1729 essay entitled "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency" as being "one of the first" to advance the theory.[15]

a reply to: Bedlam

so what do you call the bail out of the too big to fail banks of the US?

Quasi Marxism, Defacto Marxism, Ipso facto Marxism? or dare I say Moral Hazard

Mom and pop stores that put up their houses as collateral to buy a franchise don't get bailed out by the taxpayer.

a reply to: Bedlam

And it's still not worth a living wage

In public policy, a living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not necessarily the same as subsistence, which refers to a biological minimum, though the two terms are commonly confused.

So you would be happy for them to be on subsistence,

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: jacobe001

This incessant desire to control what other people make is what disgusts me about socialism.

If you want more money, earn it.

But don't try justifying theft by bleating socialist/class division idiocy.

I think you have what is going on backwards. We have had Socialism for the rich in the past 30 years.
The cries for a higher minimum wage are the consequences of policies that favor socialism for the rich.

Bank Bail Outs
Endless QE
Lax Border policies to allow an unlimited supply of Illegal Aliens for cheap labor
H1B's
China Trade
NAFTA
GATT
PharmaCare
Defense Industry Contracts
QE

and so on have heavily favored the wealthy and has been going on for the past 30 years and now when people fight back against them it is socialism?

Fine, all Bankers and Corporate Lackeys need to be tossed out of the Government and all trade pacts need to be killed, and Wall Street needs to be completely severed from DC.

No socialism for anybody then. Done and done.

What do you think that burger flipper would be making if we did not have the above policies and how much would shareholders be getting.

The burger flippers adjusted for inflation would be making a lot more and the shareholders would be making a lot less.
When you export all manufacturing jobs overseas to make bank, you get a supply of workers fighting for fewer and fewer jobs. Then toss illegals into the mix and the situation gets even worse.

originally posted by: Bedlam
a reply to: Sargeras

I was making better than $10 in the 80s.

Then again, I wasn't going for entry level jobs and had my union card.

You seem to be proving our point but still missing it entirely.

The union jobs are gone for the most part. Along with them went the good pay. Now people who have years of experience are making what you made 20 years ago as an entry level employee. 20 years ago 10 bucks was a lot more than it is today, which seriously compounds the problem.

When you can get a good paying job driving a lift out of highschool its easy to get your life on track and improve your position. When you have to work more hours and get compensated even less for it, your ability to work for the future diminishes. A full time job at 10/hr will just barely pay for tuition and books at a community college, so how then do you pay for rent, food, utilities, insurance, clothes, soap, etc?

Times have changed, and its completely pointless to base your opinion of opportunities for the working class on your experiences twenty or thirty years ago which are no longer relevant.

a reply to: onequestion

What's the old saying?

You get what you pay for!

a reply to: Phage

The people that make burgers are not producing a high value product.

So where companies like Nike outsourcing production into sweatshops in China allow them to sell their "High Value Product" in the USA for $200 fit into your Ayn Rand world? hehehe

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa


Maybe, but the reality is it's big business that maintains a stable & reliable middle class population.

Most small businesses only pay minimum wage, offer few or no benefits, cut corners and usually have low quality working conditions, as well as unstable employment.

That may or may not be so, but at least with small business, there is the human factor to take into account where the owner and employees know each other, know their families and participate with each other in activities within the community.

In these days, the Headquarters will be located in another city, another state or across the world isolated from their workforce. There is no human factor anymore and I dare say it is rather Satanic because it is more a machine than serving humanity.

Take a look at some of the billionaires on Wall Street that had their own elevators built, or restrict elevators for their own use so they do not even have to see their own workers for an example.

What we have today is a machine for a system with no soul

originally posted by: James1982

originally posted by: Bedlam
a reply to: Sargeras

I was making better than $10 in the 80s.

Then again, I wasn't going for entry level jobs and had my union card.

You seem to be proving our point but still missing it entirely.

The union jobs are gone for the most part.

Organized Labor accounts for less than 8% of the private sector.
Organized Business on the other hand 100% controls our economy and government

We would not have things like the TPP without Organized Business
They want ALL the power and none for anyone else.

In Capitalism, all parties must have negotiating power and we see what has happened
Organized Labor = Evil
Organized Business = Godly

Where was labors negotiating power in all the trade pacts like the Nafta and the TPP etc?

a reply to: Bedlam

The rancher is doing ok, or he's making mistakes.

Or its beyond his control, much like how college graduates are competing with high school kids for burger flipper jobs

Or the price he gets for his produce is determined by Comex and the Short sellers (the educated worthy class) that dictate the price for him.

Ever here about how markets are sometimes determined by a small strategic holding...

Hunt Bros
en.wikipedia.org...

I'm starting to think along with onequestion that the more "educated" some people are their hubris and lack of empathy wears thin

In the last week alone the mouthbreathers at McD's have forgotten to add either the cream or the sugar to my morning coffee on at least three occasions even though the requirements were placed on the side of the cup by their own label machine each and every time. Minimal effort should not get you a raise. Yes, we need a genuine living wage. But people also need to do their job and earn their money.

a reply to: TerryDon79

They're meant to be done by kids learning about responsibilities and work ethics.

ethics ˈnoun 1. moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

What ethics are they learning when they see McDonalds have a bigger buying advantage in procuring meat cheaper than a mom and pop store, and then rely on customer tips to subsidize wages. Also have you seen what's considered an average meal size by weight in the USA compared to Britain or Australia, the portions are at least 70-80% larger, for a comparable price. I think the over consumption and expectations and sense of entitlement of the average consumer in the States contributes to the problem. As long as they're getting "value" for money nothing else matters.
"this beef was euthanased humanely" PETA seal of approval all else is "hunky dory"

A bit like the opening shots/volleys by PC guided remote controlled missile barrage on Iraq (Iraq II).
"They are the enemy" Lets not bring up how they stopped showing stats on the body bags returning of US servicemen/women. Denial. Actions in a vacuum -

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

None of what you stated have anything to do with work ethics.

It's about actually working, diligence, turning up at the right time, responsibilities (to a degree) and so on.

a reply to: Phage

But then where will you get your McNuggets? But you're right. When a business becomes unprofitable because of the market (us) it goes away.

But why arent you so harsh on the "banking Fiat money created by pen" What market forces can compete with the cozy relationship between Banks and the Governments - will their business dry up if you all decide to not "buy their" product. So when you no longer have a mortgage if you have one -you still need a bank account for large transactions...they get a fee for a real service... Tell me how the creation of money out of thin air is still under the control of the market?

George Orwells "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.' Animal Farm

How is this allowed to exist in your Capitalistic Utopia?