Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What's going to be funny is if minimum wage is actually raised to $15/hr, you're going to see all the people that make less than that who are not fast food workers come out the woodwork acting like they accomplished this. All these non-fast food people who've shat on these fast food people all this time will be the first ones parading around high-fiving themselves. All those call center people, all the dispatchers, firefighters, anybody else...they'll come out of hiding saying how great it is. And it's going to be hilarious.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,576 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57813
Quote:
Originally Posted by EDnurse
Time to start making your own hamburgers at home.
Who's going to patronize fast food restaurants if these people have no jobs?
People who are able to eat healthy and well don't generally eat fast food.
I just had a nice patty melt, fries and beer, my wife had a salad, coke and salmon sandwich, $50 with tip. We don't do it more than once a week or two, the rest of the time we cook at home. Look at the drive-up line, and it's people on the way home from soccer practice with the kids, or a lone parent on the way home from work. Even the high school kids don't go there any more, they go to Jimmy John's, Subway, or even the deli at the grocer. Real food is worth the money. Fast food is for people "too busy" to cook or to go to a real restaurant.
I suspect they will continue when automation reduces the staff.
The problem is not "The Minimum Wage Is Too Low", the problem is "The Rent Is Too High".
The rent is too high because there is a shortage of housing affordable to mninimum wage workers.
There is a shortage of housing affordable to minimum wage workers because incumbent homeowners have vested financial and lifestyle interests in using government to rig the housing market in favor of homeowners.
Simple as that. No minimum wage level will ever resolve the shortage of housing affordable to minimum wage workers, and therefore all minimum wage increases will be captured by landlords, and the protesters will be back for another MW increase.
I just had a nice patty melt, fries and beer, my wife had a salad, coke and salmon sandwich, $50 with tip. We don't do it more than once a week or two, the rest of the time we cook at home. Look at the drive-up line, and it's people on the way home from soccer practice with the kids, or a lone parent on the way home from work. Even the high school kids don't go there any more, they go to Jimmy John's, Subway, or even the deli at the grocer. Real food is worth the money. Fast food is for people "too busy" to cook or to go to a real restaurant.
I suspect they will continue when automation reduces the staff.
Now that we're talking about robots cooking burgers, about 4 years ago I had a friend who was a machinist and ran his own shop. Some kid came in there with some blueprints of components he needed for some type of contraption he was working on. Turns out the contraption was a hamburger cooking machine/robot.
So with this in mind, I'm sure it's not too far off. They did it in the past with bank tellers and car makers. And I remember when the ATM idea first came out. We all laughed thinking it would never work, because how could a robot keep from getting robbed. Yeah, we were too young to really "think outside the box" back then.
Substituting labor for capital only makes sense if the finances are right. They can't automate a fast food restaurant, its too simply too expensive. 20 years from now - maybe, but not now, not in 2017.
The market tells people what to do for a living. Fast food jobs pay minimum wage or $8, but the care centers are fronting the cost of CNA classes and paying $10 or $12. Instead of crying and whining about not being able to feed your babies on minimum wage, why not look at the actual job market and get a 25-50% raise by going to a career that is more valuable to the rest of us?
Here's a hint, by the way, when choosing a career: the ones that pay more are more valuable to the rest of society.
YOUR way says it is just swell if people choose to be of little value to the rest of us...and we ought to feel guilty because we refuse to treat their low-wage job as if it were some twisted form of charity. When you subsidize something, you get more of it. News flash: we do not need MORE low-skill labor.
NFL and NBA thugs are more valuable to the rest of society than, say, teachers or firefighters?
BTW, this is where I got my information about minimum wage workers. Would you please cite the source for your 25% statistic above? It reeks of having been pulled out of your arse.
That number was floating around about five years ago; probably could use some updating.
That robot sounds amazing! Modern technology is outstanding!
And I for one, welcome our new burger-flipping robot overlords...
Sure you do. Now.
But once Skynet gets a hold of them........................
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
