Great quote from the fast food workers strike in Chicago (Time: rent, high school)

[lenniel]

This pretty much sums it up......

“If not $15, then something. I mean give us something. I work 36 hours a week and barely make enough to pay my rent, gas bill, light bill. It gets to the point where I barely have enough for lunch sometimes,” said Angel Richardson, 21, who works at McDonald’s. “I’m five months pregnant, what am I going to do in four months? I hope something changes.”

400 area retail, fast-food workers demand $15-an-hour minimum wage - Chicago Sun-Times

Umm...how about not getting pregnant when you're 21 and can't afford to have a baby? The reason you're 21 and prego is the same reason you're working at McDonald's.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by lenniel

This pretty much sums it up......

“If not $15, then something. I mean give us something. I work 36 hours a week and barely make enough to pay my rent, gas bill, light bill. It gets to the point where I barely have enough for lunch sometimes,” said Angel Richardson, 21, who works at McDonald’s. “I’m five months pregnant, what am I going to do in four months? I hope something changes.”

400 area retail, fast-food workers demand $15-an-hour minimum wage - Chicago Sun-Times

Umm...how about not getting pregnant when you're 21 and can't afford to have a baby? The reason you're 21 and prego is the same reason you're working at McDonald's.

You don't know how she became pregnant. Is it ideal in this culture to be 21 and pregnant? Perhaps not, but 21 isn't 16 and there's really no good excuse to be paying people a non-living wage.

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by emathias

You don't know how she became pregnant. Is it ideal in this culture to be 21 and pregnant? Perhaps not, but 21 isn't 16 and there's really no good excuse to be paying people a non-living wage.

I'll bet my rent that she's:
1) not married
2) possibly a high school dropout
3) this isn't her first child
4) she became pregnant with no intention of marrying the father
This is the type of cycle that leads to a minimum wage job at McDonald's.

Nothing wrong with being 21 and pregnant (if you can afford it).

So, what it a living wage? $15/hour? Why not $30/hr? Why not $100/hr? You see, it's called 'unskilled' labor for a reason.

[Prost]

How many years until robots can do this work? Half of McDonald's is automated already. I'm serious.

[rvernsey]

It won't be long. Especially ordering, it'll be a touch screen that'll show items with pictures.

These people should be protesting the federal government that takes 40%+ right off the top of executive, management and ownership and does nothing good with it, then devalues our currency faster than we can even bring a minimum wage vote to the table. At our pace of debt and inflation, even doubling minimum wage will probably bring this back to conversation in less than a few years when the price of gas, goods and services goes up by 30%.

Fix the real problems.

[flamadiddle]

Originally Posted by Prost

How many years until robots can do this work? Half of McDonald's is automated already. I'm serious.

Good point, much of the unskilled repetitive labor is being replaced by robots/automation. I'd recommend they quit complaining about their wages and start hitting the books. Maybe a career in robotics is the answer and I bet it pays much more than $15 p/h.

[Irishtom29]

Irishtom's Laws of Economics---

People value hard work until they have to pay for it.

My raise is good for the economy, your raise causes inflation.

My raise is due to merit, yours is due to greed.

You're overpaid, I'm overworked.

The other guy's job is automated or sent to China or India, my job is safe.

People banding together in corporations to further their economic interest is the free market at work. People banding together in unions to further their economic interest violates a free market.

[Irishtom29]

Hey Lenniel, many times I've seen you on here picking on the weak and those below you. Do you have the moxie to go against the powerful and those above you as well? Have you the strength to pick on the strong?

[JacksonPanther]

Post. Of. The. Week.

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Irishtom's Laws of Economics---

People value hard work until they have to pay for it.

My raise is good for the economy, your raise causes inflation.

My raise is due to merit, yours is due to greed.

You're overpaid, I'm overworked.

The other guy's job is automated or sent to China or India, my job is safe.

People banding together in corporations to further their economic interest is the free market at work. People banding together in unions to further their economic interest violates a free market.

[DeepLiquid]

Agreed. The "I've got mine so the hell with you" crowd gets on my very last nerve.