Fast-food protesters cuffed at higher-pay rallies

You underestimate the skill and artistry required to 'flip burgers'. And the 'on the job training' involved. Academia has yet to see fit to offer courses or even cursory instruction in 'burger flipping', 'bun insertion', 'shake mixing', etc. One would think that they would considering that students that graduate from their institutions of higher education with less than a stellar grade average will probably end up working for one fast food giant or another.

 

Liberal spending policies, heavy taxation, and government intrusions have all contributed to this mess.
The whiners want incentives?...hell let them start missing a meal or two. That should be incentive enough to get the moochers off the dole. ..sure would make our tax dollars go further.

 

with the rate of inflation, the only people who are going to benefit from minimum wage increase is the government. Taxes, anyone?

 

I don't get it, what do you mean? I would imagine MWers contribuiting more money to the tax funds through any means would mean I am paying less, at least as a percentage... thats a good thing. So not only is the government getting more tax revenue from workers, its also doesn't need to subsidize MW labor to the same degree. Seems like a win-win.

Oh, and increasing inflation helps those who have a lot of debt, assuming wages keep up with inflation.

 

Here you go, a sure way to increase wages. Put more people on welfare then companies will have to compete for those that have some dignity thus raising wages to attract them and improving service too.

 

I know, being around a lot of local musicians and that group I hear it all the time and have to bite my tongue. Even had one band mate bragging about his ex-wife getting $12,000 from BP for two years in that settlement. I asked why and he said she had a license to sell shrimp, she DIDN'T sell shrimp she just had a license to do so. I informed him that I own stock in BP, I am an owner, and I by gas at BP and that her getting money she didn't deserve cost ME money. Yeah if you had a real claim they owed you but people think it's OK to scam this and the government. They celebrate when they get accepted for disability even though they could work, maybe not a job they want but they COULD work.

 

They get free medical care and then they also get cash money from the government under the EITC. Minimum wage gets you out of poverty. And who is stupid enough to want to raise a family of four on minimum wage and too lazy to get themselves a better job?

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There was a Heritage study back in the 80's when this same discussion was going which showed that a family on welfare spent more money that the average family earned in the 60's. I would harbor a guess that still exist and is worse, they probably OWN more and spend LOTS more now.

 

Your assuming the number of factories remains the same, and robotics can only do so much. These are BETTER jobs which pay MORE and again factories are BEGGING for people who can service them, you can write your own ticket to a 6 figure salary, so these fast food workers we are talking about NOW have a golden opportunity out there and they aren't taking it in just this one field. AND they could get jobs as assembly workers NOW, but they don't apply or once they do they leave.

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Maximizing profits quite often means paying them more than the other guy is paying them or more because they are very valuable to you and they expect a certain standard of living. LOTS of things affect wages else why doesn't every employer just pay minimum wage to everyone?

 

ROFL I think we older generations know the value of $5 today and probably better than the younger ones.

 

Yes so am I. When I was in a union my wage was limited by the union scale and how long I had been there not merit, promotions were based on seniority not merit. It was when I was able to get OUT of the unions that my merit was able to be rewarded and I got promotions and raises based on my merit.

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They are certainly out there and offering 6 figure incomes.

 

There's an old quote that keeps running through my brain whenever I hear about the need for more money.
"......there's only so much to go around"
Imagine the economy like a pie. No matter how many slices you get out of the pie, it is still only one pie.
Pay top dollar for fast food workers?
Where's that money going to come from?
Take a lesson from Detroit........

 

Not committing crimes, not taking drugs, and keeping your legs together would be a good start.

You want a decent life, you earn it.

 

Don't major in sex based or race based "Studies".

 

Thats kind of the premise to this one story i've been noodling for awhile. In it an average citizen recieves a minimum wage for simply being +18. The "lazies" don't bother with working, and so only the most talented and driven have what it takes to actually work. This is in the future where most jobs are automated/ replaced with AI.

In reality, I would be interested to see some knowledgable speculation on eliminating welfare altogether and replacing it with a minimum income. I would suspect that some people would sit on it, others would use it to go to school and improve themselves (things like subsidized student loans and grants would need to be looked into, my feeling though is that they'd be superfluous, just rolled in) still others would try to start their own business knowing that if they fail then they have the min wage to fall back on.

Just a thought though.

 

You can't grow the pie through generating more revenue? Is it not easier to generate more revenue if the people who generally live hand-to-mouth had more in there hand to spend.

While it may be true (as in, I literally don't know) that Detroit was waylaid by leftist ideas and government, the minimum wage wasn't one of them. Previously the min wage in michigan is $7.40, a scant .15 cents above the federal line. It was recently bumped to $8.15 this september, and I feel its too early to say what the effects are.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/05/28/5-things-to-know-about-michigans-minimum-wage-raise/

In my mind it's like this- If someone making min wage gets a pay jump, for whatever reason, that person is going to spend that money. There's the car that needs to be fixed/replaced, the xyz to do, and when was the last time I took my kids to the ball park?

Putting money into the hands of the poor is most likely way to get people spending. More spending means more oppurtunities for people to make money off of that spending. To take advantage people will hire more folks and/or raise the prices. Some businesses will raise prices (mostly those that rely heavily on Minwage workers) while other businesses won't. Its estimated that if Wal-mart paid minimum of 12 dollars an hour (less then the FF workers want but more then what I would push for) it would would cost the average consumer - 12 dollars a year. Thats assuming that Wal-mart put all of that money on to you the consumer and didn't do what Wal-mart does best.
http://www.alternet.org/story/15068...lt_in_almost_no_pain_for_the_average_customer

Overall then, raising the Min wage, at least for large companies, on a national level is doable and neccesary to keep me from having to have my tax money go to welfare

 

Frequent like Fonzie and the gang hanging at Arnold's on "Happy Days"? Correct, I don't "frequent" Chick-fil-A, but then I don't "frequent" any fast-food restaurant. If hungry and on the road, I go to what is available. I don't bypass or "frequent" one for political purposes. I choose based on what I'm hungry for. YMMV

 

you missed the point. there's only so much money. There's only so much value. Printing more money reduces the value of the money already in circulation. To Offer up 10 plus an hour has to come from some place. Where's the money going to come from to pay for the whole food industry what they fell they are entitled to? I'm not going to McDonald's and pay 7-10 bucks for a two dollar sandwich and a lot of other folks wont either because they wont have the money to spend.
So, where is the money going to come from to pay this wage increase?

 

I understand that more factories will appear, what I'm saying is there will not be enough jobs even with new factories. We're talking about automating fast food, warehouses, shipping once smart cars come out. That's a ton of jobs, all unskilled labor, that would be replaced with way less jobs that require degrees. Will people go get those degrees, we can only hope. As is we can't fill our positions that require an education because people would rather study pictures than math and science. I don't know why, it's a total waste.

Anyway assuming we do fill all positions I just cannot see full employment. Hell if we can get robots past McDonalds and really far into the service industry even more people will be without jobs.

Yes that is why CEOs get what they get, but the goal is still to pay the least possible. The job market is a market, and no one on either end wants to get ripped off.

 

But when they can't turn their situation around, WE are the ones that end up paying when they resort to crime, begging, or government hand-outs.

Should a persons mistake, especially ones they make early in life, basically screw them over for life?

If that is the case, do we let them (and potentionally us) suffer for a long time because of their mistakes? Or do we take extreme measures to ensure that those that don't make mistakes can have a good life?

 

Yep! The proud men and women that serve our country in the U.S. military don't even get paid $15 an hour. Oh, you can say that they are compensated by all the other perks that go with military life, but no matter how you cut it, our armed forces servicemen and servicewomen are taking home a much smaller hourly wage than any minimum wage burger-flipper out there.

 

tax cuts for the rich just make the rich piece of pie bigger....

 

the pie doesn't get bigger. Economics 101 phaile....

 

I worked hard NOT to make those mistakes. And now, you're telling me that the degree I got because of hard work and sacrifice that a middleaged burger-flipper chose NOT to do, doesn't matter, because the poor choice making burger flipper is entitled to a liveable wage like I am....

He's entitled for the opportunity.... not for the garantee.

They can overcome mistakes with time. Continued mistakes tells me they really aren't interested in anything more than handouts

 

Fast food is cheap and easy, what do these workers expect? If you want slightly higher wages, eliminate corporate taxes so businesses can actually afford to pay their workers more. If higher wages were to be paid in this current economic mess, you can expect to see fast food prices to soar. No one would be able to afford, and competition would start to diminish.

 

this is what it boils down to..... they don't want to work a job they deem beneath them, but good jobs go first, to the most qualified. Sorry you aren't qualified to do my job.... I worked hard for my qualifications and my current pay. You didn't.... this is why I have a 3 bed/2 bath house with a pool and they don't.