McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks - Thanks $15/hr

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

As mentioned near the top of this topic, minimum wage has little effect on the drive toward automation. Unless wages are extremely low--and I'm talking about as low dollars a day in the single digits--automation will be cheaper than human labor as soon as it becomes as functional as human labor.

Wrong. Cap Ex gets approved based on payback years, which is investment/labor $ saved
. Make the $ saved bigger, payback period declines, decision to automate happens faster. Better ROI.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

From the US Department of Education 2016 Budget Fact Sheet:
That's a pretty big chunk of money, and doesn't include any state money. How much more do we need to throw at education to get the results that you want?

We need to spend enough to educate our kids so that they can obtain employment, look at these forums there are people here who graduated 10 or 15 years ago and don't know how laws are passed in the US...is that ok with you? Will giving the schools less money make that better. Federal Education Funding: Where Does the Money Go? | Data Mine | US News Oh, and by the way 22 billion of the money Education gets goes to Pell Grants, you know those 'handouts' that allow people who have to work for a living to send their kids to college.

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

That's currentlty the situation that we are in. Who's hiding in their closet? Nobody.

You either don't want to address what I said or you didn't understand it. If we eliminate minimum wage job there will be millions of unemployed people. Those who are childless and not elderly will receive nothing in welfare benefits. Do away with expanded medicaid and they won't have medical care either. If somehow you think that tens of millions of people who can't feed or house themselves are just going to be a 'good sport' and sit on the curb until they die,you are delusional. They will protest, they will riot and if pushed far enough they will appropriate (steal) what they need to stay alive and so would you.

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

Do you believe that the causes of the French and American revolutions were the same?

Nope, but they were driven by the same thing, the public perceived the economic systems to be unfair.

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

Massive give-a-ways and the creation of the welfare state isn't the answer.

Then what is the answer? Let people die in the street who can't provide for themselves?

[TaxPhd]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

We need to spend enough to educate our kids so that they can obtain employment, look at these forums there are people here who graduated 10 or 15 years ago and don't know how laws are passed in the US...is that ok with you? Will giving the schools less money make that better. Federal Education Funding: Where Does the Money Go? | Data Mine | US News

The point is that tons of money has been spent on education, and more will be spent in the future. But that hasn't solved the problem, has it? Perhaps we need a fundamental change in education rather than continuing to spen on a program that isn't working.

Oh, and by the way 22 billion of the money Education gets goes to Pell Grants, you know those 'handouts' that allow people who have to work for a living to send their kids to college.

Pell Grants go to students, not their parents. And yes, they are handouts, no quotation marks needed.

You either don't want to address what I said or you didn't understand it. If we eliminate minimum wage job there will be millions of unemployed people. Those who are childless and not elderly will receive nothing in welfare benefits. Do away with expanded medicaid and they won't have medical care either. If somehow you think that tens of millions of people who can't feed or house themselves are just going to be a 'good sport' and sit on the curb until they die,you are delusional. They will protest, they will riot and if pushed far enough they will appropriate (steal) what they need to stay alive and so would you.

I understand exactly what you're saying. You described a situation that you claimed would leave us hiding in our closets, ostensibly terrified by rampaging poor people. I simply pointed out that the situation that you described is already happening - minus the hiding and rampaging.

Then what is the answer? Let people die in the street who can't provide for themselves?

Why not throw in an impassioned "it's for the children!!" into your appeal to emotion? It might help to make your argument a little less fallacious.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

Why not throw in an impassioned "it's for the children!!" into your appeal to emotion? It might help to make your argument a little less fallacious.

You can miss me with all of that. At least I am honest enough to admit that a good majority of welfare does not exist because it's immoral to allow people to starve or be forced to live on the street. Those programs came about because allowing tens of millions of people to wander about hungry, homeless and unemployed is dangerous. It's dangerous to the Government because a big enough revolution could f up the career plans of lots of professional politicians and it's dangerous to the well being of the most important citizens in this country, the millionaires and billionaires.

EITC, TANF, SNAP, Medicaid. those programs allow Walmart to pay sub poverty wages without having to worry about employees unionizing and going on strike.

Unemployment allows people without jobs to stay home and watch TV rather than rampaging through our cities demanding jobs.

You want to talk about hand outs, and what an atrocity the minimum wage is, but you refuse to admit that those very programs that you hate so much enable you to walk down the street without carrying a gun to protect yourself.

[TaxPhd]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

<<SNIP>>
You want to talk about hand outs, and what an atrocity the minimum wage is, but you refuse to admit that those very programs that you hate so much enable you to walk down the street without carrying a gun to protect yourself.

I always carry a gun to protect myself. Doesn't everyone?

[ackmondual]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I have yet to hear about any one standing out in front of Home Depot getting paid $20 an hour. I just don't believe it, in both Reno and the Sacramento area the going rate is about $10 an hour and can be negotiated lower. Temp agencies only pay construction helpers around $10-$12 an hour, so why would someone standing in front of Home Depot get $20?

I could believe this. When you compare the 2 situations, those Mexicans have the advantages of...
1) cutting out the middle man. Otherwise, the temp agency takes their cut, but the worker gets paid less, while the buyer pays more
2) They're getting paid in cash, so no taxes to pay
3) Better paid means they're likely to do a better job

Originally Posted by ss20ts

There's a camera over every single self checkout register. Some stores have a monitor in front of you so you can see what you're doing....they see everything.

I went for I don't know how many months before I noticed that apple fritters were not considered donuts! I shorted them 60 cents to $1.20 every now and then, but they never notified me! I did spend $50 a week back then, so I'm sure they were still coming out ahead.

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

I asked my son about that, he worked in Grocery for years. He said clerks notice people doing it because not only is the four digit code different but so is the color or shape of the sticker, but it's not enough of a price difference that anyone is going to jack you up over it. He said they will call a manager if they see someone keying in the code for 20 cent corn and putting $2 avocados in the bag.

I've heard of some places eliminating self serve kiosks. Unless one person can watch multiple registers, then you'd still need the same # of cashiers anyways.


What surprised me is some places that sell high ticket items actually do self service kiosks! You'd think when items cost $400+, that's when you'd want to involve a cashier in that case!

[Poor Chemist]

Originally Posted by MLSFan

you probably had more skill in the 1970s as well... for the effort and skill of the jobs today, the pay should be $5. The workers today don't even have basic budgeting skills or financial sense. They can't even count back correct change sometimes if the computer doesn't tell them how much the change is. It's a good thing financial transactions can be electronic now, credit cards/banking/etc, can't rely on people knowing how to subtract things from $2, $50, $100. It's like they haven't seen one before >.>

and they think they should be tipped for doing the job they were paid to do? Even Mcdonalds has tips jars now. No I don't tip 15-20%, I tip based on them going above basic service, that part is covered by their salary. They don't get more because they brought the food over, refilled the drinks.

Are you trying to say today's workers don't have enough sense to count back change or perform the basic duties of their jobs? The McDonald's starts workers off at $11 per hour at the McDonald's in my area and the service is great.

Anyone that works 40 hours a week regardless of education or skill level should make enough money to put a roof over their head and put food on the table. Stop your generalization that all fast food workers are incompetent low life bums that deserve to starve and your self righteous attitude.

[MLSFan]

The McDonald's starts workers off at $11 per hour at the McDonald's in my area and the service is great.

that's nice, it's about what chemists start out at wasn't it? $17/hr or so at the temps?

Maybe the McDonald guy could do hplc next to the fries in a decade once the kiosks are up and running

anyone who works 40 hours a week should really decide if they want to spend 40 hours a week there. if the pay isn't enough to put a roof over their head and food on the table, maybe they shouldn't stick around for 40 hours a week

[Poor Chemist]

Originally Posted by MLSFan

that's nice, it's about what chemists start out at wasn't it? $17/hr or so at the temps?

Maybe the McDonald guy could do hplc next to the fries in a decade once the kiosks are up and running

anyone who works 40 hours a week should really decide if they want to spend 40 hours a week there. if the pay isn't enough to put a roof over their head and food on the table, maybe they shouldn't stick around for 40 hours a week

Absolutely, that is why I left my old job that paid me $17 per hour and no benefits to run a HPLC and GC when another company offered me $50K with benefits to do the same job that my old abusive company had me doing.

If the McDonald's employee can find an upscale burger joint that will pay them $15 per hour to cook fries and flip burgers they would leave for the new job too.

[pappjohn]

We need to spend enough to educate our kids so that they can obtain employment, look at these forums there are people here who graduated 10 or 15 years ago and don't know how laws are passed in the US..[LEFT]

Most college graduates probably don't even know this, but taxpayers are paying alot to fund their
colleges educations, far too much. We need to cut education costs not increase them.

You don't really need a college degree to work like McDonalds.
The majority of jobs being created over the past 8 years were low-paying jobs with limited upside. Why do you think suicides, drug overdoses, violence have all skyrocketed in the past decade?


[/LEFT]