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So the middle class will erode if McDonalds automated their cash exchange process???
Folks... Get real.
It's not a simple thing but it is a chain reaction of the action of the burger joints. They cut jobs, aggregate demand will ultimately go down because of less players in the economy. Less players in the economy means lower sales. Lower sales means means companies do not hit expected earnings. Lower than expected earnings means companies needing to cut costs so their stock doesn't take a hit. Just look at the pseudo-diagram.
Fewer jobs period ======> Lower demand ======> Lower sales ======> Lower company earnings ======> Companies need to cut costs to keep up with the loses so their stock don't take a hit =====> Fewer jobs =====> Lower demand =====> Lower sales =====> Lower company earnings ======> Companies need to cut costs to keep up with projects so their stock don't take a hit =====> Fewer jobs and so on and so on.
Honestly, I don't see much of a future for restaurants like McDonalds. Why not just put a Mc Vendingmachine in every building and save the overhead of needing buildings and having overhead? I'm sure a machine could assemble and cook nasty ingredients, then drop it into a container without forcing the purchaser to have to travel to a physical standalone "restaurant" (term used loosely) just to get the same thing. How hard is it to grill a Big Mac, slop sauce on it, put a bun on it, put it in a box, and send it down a chute? Someone just needs to go around and restock the ingredients. I'm sure McD's could figure a way to chemically destroy its food to the point where it needs no refrigeration or deep frying.
The Federal SSI checks for elderly and disabled individual are designed to keep up with inflation with annual cola increases. They were $210/month in 1973 , today the feds pay $721/month to SSI recipients.
An increase of just 243% over the past 41 years.
The Federal minimum wage in 1973 (the year I started working) was $1.60 an hour. Today it is $7.25. That's an increase of 363% over the same time frame.
If the minimum wage was tied to the same COLA formula as SSI and SSD it would be just $5.49 an hour today
Minimum wage workers are doing better with keeping up with inflation than others, including SSI recipients as well as social security benificiaries (who receive the same percentage increase as SSI recipients), at least over the past 40 years.
Well. I dont know where you are getting your numbers. My own SSA is higher than what you state, and if I had waited until age 65 it would have 3-4 hundred higher.
I have little reason to believe any of your numbers without further evidence.
This thread has been about businesses like Walmart being low paid, as if other retail was way better paying.
Lets look at the top 20 best paying retail chains in the country. You will find that 16 of them all pay within a dollar of what the others pay. Walmart is one of the top 20 paying retail chains in the nation. Some of the most prestigious chains did not even make the list, as they pay even worse.
And the retail restaurant chains would mostly miss the top 20 cut if they were included, and that includes the high priced ones.
Some retail chains, are already using self checkout, where you check out your own purchases, bag the items, and pay using the payment machine, with cash, credit/debit cards. If the restaurants like McDonald's go to self ordering, they will go to self pay.
Fast food restaurants, work on a 30% of sales for labor, 30% for food costs, and the other 40% has to cover all the other costs such as franchise fees, rent, insurance, remodeling, new equipment, and what is finally left over goes to the store owner.
Double labor costs, and the prices have to increase by 30% to keep even. Raise the prices that much, and sales will decline and may completely eliminate any profit to the owners. The only way to combat not having to make big price increases will be to automate ordering, and food preparation to the point they can lay off most of their crew members.
Remember McDonald's and other chain restaurants are owned by individual owners that start with one restaurant, and work up to more if they can, and multiple restaurant owners, can make as much net take home profit as a young college graduate that took a degree in some fields, and many of those new graduates will make considerably more.
It's not a simple thing but it is a chain reaction of the action of the burger joints. They cut jobs, aggregate demand will ultimately go down because of less players in the economy. Less players in the economy means lower sales. Lower sales means means companies do not hit expected earnings. Lower than expected earnings means companies needing to cut costs so their stock doesn't take a hit. Just look at the pseudo-diagram.
Fewer jobs period ======> Lower demand ======> Lower sales ======> Lower company earnings ======> Companies need to cut costs to keep up with the loses so their stock don't take a hit =====> Fewer jobs =====> Lower demand =====> Lower sales =====> Lower company earnings ======> Companies need to cut costs to keep up with projects so their stock don't take a hit =====> Fewer jobs and so on and so on.
I thought that would be a pretty basic negative feedback loop for everyone to understand. I guess not.
And don't forget the additional strain these folks who lose their jobs will put on governments (and thus the fewer number of taxpaying citizens) as they'll need more assistance to help support themselves...
I've used them at Sheetz and in my opinion they are significantly superior to using a cashier in both speed and accuracy. It is definitely way better than having a cashier whose grasp of the English language is weak. From a consumer standpoint this would be an improvement. From a national employment rate standpoint - not so much.
I don't agree. I like human beings, for the most part. Our world is already automated enough as it is. Panera Bread, Jason's Deli, and Chase Bank all have those self serve kiosks. Whenever the management attempts to force me to use them, I bypass them and offer a human my order. Computers can be glitchy and annoyingly computerlike. Self checkouts are a major annoyance to me. I like to avoid automated systems whenever possible and take a chance on my fellow homo sapiens
Yea good thing those machines pay into Social security, pay income taxes, vote, and will contribute to the local economy.....NOT.....
When did people forget that an economy is a collective of individuals that buy and sell goods, not a dollar amount on a stock ticker....
A healthy economy needs workers of all skill and income levels. We're more or less moving to the rich and poor economic model.Many people who have worked low-paying service jobs are not suddenly going to become engineers and lawyers, but more like welfare recipients. One of the posters above said that everyone should be in intellectual jobs. Do you really think everyone is an intellectual or capable of being one?
A healthy economy needs workers of all skill and income levels. We're more or less moving to the rich and poor economic model.Many people who have worked low-paying service jobs are not suddenly going to become engineers and lawyers, but more like welfare recipients. One of the posters above said that everyone should be in intellectual jobs. Do you really think everyone is an intellectual or capable of being one?
Bingo, theres this perception among people that if everyone would just get free education then we would all be in this magical Star Trek universe where everybody is an engineer of some sort.
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