Fast Food Strike

[KingRanger]

Not all people go to college these days, especially dropout ones. Why not give them a chance and see if small companies would indeed put out of business? $15 per hour minimum wage is for the deserved and hardworking ones, not the lazy ones with poor record.

No it's not. No one that works fast food deserves or earns 15.00 an hour. There is absolutely no reason for them to make that much or even expect that much working fast food. I also have to wonder if you still live with your parents and are having things paid for by them. That you so nonchalantly say it's ok to see if small companies would be put out of business is pretty asinine and sad. No one in fast food deserves that much an hour for any reason. If they want more money they should get better jobs.

 

[big_j_ny]

Not all people go to college these days, especially dropout ones. Why not give them a chance and see if small companies would indeed put out of business? $15 per hour minimum wage is for the deserved and hardworking ones, not the lazy ones with poor record.

You have no idea how a dramatic raise in minimum wage will affect the economy.

We already got people explaining how it will affect the unemployment rate, but the worst part would be when you have to go pay $10 for one gallon of milk just for businesses to compensate paying people more.

Raising wages will not change cost of living, since living costs will rise along with it................screwing evry1 in the process

 

[Sage Shinigami]

I could care less what their situation is in this case. They are being damn stupid. Anyone working at a fast food place that wants 15 an hour is a complete moron. Anyone that wants a state minimum wage raised to 15 an hour is EITHER a moron or just really not informed. Raising a min wage that high would put small companies and mom and pop style places out of business. It would also cause big business to fire some people and make the rest still working do double the work. It happened in my home state. They raised the min wage twice, and places let their workers go. Say you worked at McD's. If you went from 7 to 15 an hour, they would fire half their staff and make the rest do double the work.

Except at some point the quality of the store will drop below a level that's acceptable to customers, so you'll have to hire people or close because people will stop coming.

If they want to make more money they should go back to college. It is pretty easy for people, even older people, to get financial aid.

People trying to "make a better situation for themselves" would either try and get a better job or go back to college. Saying you want the minimum wage raised to 15 an hour is asinine, and I have no sympathy for anyone that thinks that doing so is a good idea.

"Go back to college". Except when you get OUT of college people tell you to stop feeling entitled to a good job just because you have a degree, so you end up working some entry-level job that pays, you guessed it, the minimum wage.

At any rate, the problem here isn't minimum wage. It's the fact that cost of living has continued to rise while wages don't. It's also the fact that literally no one in this thread so far has been on the workers' side. You all instinctively take the side of the businesses...even though I bet most or none of you don't own a business. This means you're running expressly against your own interests, because you've been taught to. You don't know any better, so you'll make excuses and cite how small businesses will suffer if we do something that might somehow help the common worker. As if most people don't work for giant fucking franchises. Worst of all, you have no respect for your fellow man. That's why you have people in here calling these workers idiots or peons even though its not like: A.) we don't need these jobs done and B.) you want to do them.

Yes, an increase in minimum wage like this would NOT fix the problem. But the problem isn't going to get fixed by telling people "go to college" either, because college is expensive as ****. Coming from a college student who opted not to leave his own shitty state and went to the same college and lives with his parents to save money (while still chipping in on the rent) and is making good grades and is doing all the right things and yet there's a good chance when I get out there won't be a job for me.

 

[JFC]

EDIT: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/29/workers-nyc-strike/2597799/

Taken from the above-posted article, note the part I've bolded in red:

Workers at McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's restaurants across New York walked out Monday in a one-day strike to demand better pay and the right to unionize, calling for minimum wage to more than double from $7.25 to $15 an hour and the end to what activists called "abusive labor practices."

A "one-day strike" is not a strike, it's just a bunch of people calling in sick at the same time. In the end, all this meant was that there was extra business/customers at branches of Subway, street vendors, food trucks, and whatever other fast-food joints there were who's workers decided to get paid by actually showing up to work that day.

If any of them honestly think that there's any actual chance of their minimum wage being raised after this...then yeah, that would be pretty indicative of people who have no clue how real-life economics/labor-relations works.

 

[Shogun_Master]

Ok, I'm finally going to say something here. The fact of the matter is HOW the rich are getting so much richer. You have electric companies that charge people by the watt, there's companies such as apple that come out with a new product & charge what CLEARLY has to be 2-2.5 times what it actually costs to produce to get their money back as soon as possible. I'm pretty damn sure they lobby the government for the money for the R&D process because, technically, you can fit that through the giant loophole of economic growth. Video game companies like Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo usually charge exorbident amounts of money when they put systems out & when the cost dies down to half of what it was originally, they're still making money. And what do they do? Create a new "version" of the same thing with less features & charge just under that original cost again because it's "new."

Talking about low-level employees getting screwed, they aren't stupid. They are IN the company & know a fair bit about what's happening around them. The store I used to work for removed benefits from full time employees on purpose to inspire a massive walk-out, then went to a couple of stores a month & purged those who remained under the guise of "helping retire seasoned employees" then hired an asinine amount of part time workers who didn't know what they were doing & only allowed them an average of 16-20 hours per week. I even heard a story where, as it's customary at said store to get a yearly raise for the first five years of employment & an additional one every five years afterward, that they promoted a long standing part time employee to full time, then immediately fired them for something technical, but allowed the person to reapply at an opening part time position. And I'd like to say that this was a well known, prominent American Coorporation & it's not the only one up to no good.

What I think needs to happen is that we need to cap a "fair pricing" policy in the US where a person can only charge, say, an additional 50% production costs & boycott international trade to do the same if they want to sell in the US, stop tax cuts for the rich, apply stricter limits for what's allowed to be lobbied to the government, & apply a fair state-by-state minimum wage that is enough for a single full time employee to support themselves on. I have to admit, $15 per hour is rediculous, but people in New York, the city where you have to pay well over $1000 a month for a decent sized, well built apartment that isn't disease, bug, or mold ridden, they may very well need it.

What's worse is some arguments I got that were clearly coming from rich people by their ludicrosy. These were posted on the video where I first heard about this:
-Doing such a thing would destroy the sanctity of a college education. IE- if we raise the minimum wage that high, what's the point of having wasted time going to college to learn a skill in the first place.
-If you can't afford to live t, then move out of New York. Because, clearly, you can barely pay your rent, but you can save up money to move to a more reasonable location.

 

[Dr Kain]

If they were to raise minimum wage to $15, they need to raise teacher salaries from $36,000 a year to $72,000 a year. I did not go to school to earn degrees to get paid the same amount as some dumbass who is too lazy to do anything else.

Now I do think minimum wage needs to increase because the cost of living has doubled in the last 6 years, but $10 at the max.

 

[Shogun_Master]

And if we put a stop to unnecessary lobbying, the US would reasonably be able to afford doing that, after a short period to repair the damage that's already been done, that is.

And I agree. If I was making $9 an hour, or more, I'd be perfectly happy myself.

 

[KingRanger]

Ok, I'm finally going to say something here. The fact of the matter is HOW the rich are getting so much richer. You have electric companies that charge people by the watt, there's companies such as apple that come out with a new product & charge what CLEARLY has to be 2-2.5 times what it actually costs to produce to get their money back as soon as possible. I'm pretty damn sure they lobby the government for the money for the R&D process because, technically, you can fit that through the giant loophole of economic growth. Video game companies like Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo usually charge exorbident amounts of money when they put systems out & when the cost dies down to half of what it was originally, they're still making money. And what do they do? Create a new "version" of the same thing with less features & charge just under that original cost again because it's "new."

No offense but I stopped reading past this first paragraph because of how asinine it is. I mean you are saying that companies don't have a right to charge what they want to because you or others don't like it or can't afford it. I mean welcome to what a business is. You make a product at a lower cost, and then charge people more. I mean it's not that hard to understand.

Back on topic:

The day those people took off could have been spent working to make the money they say they don't have.

 

[Shogun_Master]

No. My point is that the reason our society is screwed is because of off those companies charging so much higher than is reasonable COMBINED with screwing over lower level workers to make more money- which is rediculous.

IE- if minimum wage is raised, yes, they would try to raise costs, but they have no right to. The fact of the matter is that this needs to be taken into effect just as much as raising minimum wage, or we'd end up getting nowhere because of unnecessary inflation- and those companies would lie out of their asses to claim it was entirely necessary to keep business afloat.

I agree, it's an asinine procedure, but it's just as asinine that it's needed in the first place.:redface2:

 

[kuroihikari]

IE- if minimum wage is raised, yes, they would try to raise costs, but they have no right to. The fact of the matter is that this needs to be taken into effect just as much as raising minimum wage, or we'd end up getting nowhere because of unnecessary inflation- and those companies would lie out of their asses to claim it was entirely necessary to keep business afloat.

Yes, they do have a right to raise costs. For whatever reason they want to. Corporations are based on capital and the more profit they make the more capital they get. If you don't want their expensive products then don't buy from them.

But then again, you also don't want those cheaper foreign-made products which is one of the reasons prices are still kept somewhat competitive. And you also want minimum wage increased, which is one of the reasons prices are high. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

In the worst case, and it's already happening, capital will flow out of your country and investors would rather invest overseas. In that case, what good is a high minimum wage when you don't have businesses to work for?