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“I consider it downright evil.”

It’s just greed. IMHO that’s what the slave wage pay at a fast food place is as well.
I read this thread and saw the contempt for people struggling to get by.

This is the same forum that regularly bashes welfare recipients and yet here’s a group of people working an honest job for a Corp that is worth who knows how much and it’s somehow offensive that the workers try to get more money.

I hate to say it but the attitude of some of the conservatives here toward struggling workers may be why we’re losing everywhere.

I don’t think the majority here are against any one trying to make more money as an individual. It’s the “collective” that would rather put a company out of business (Hostess) than take less and save your own job. Even McDonald’s would pay more for experienced hard working people, but our society is crippled. Too many waiting in line for even lousy paying jobs.

I make 11k a year and I live just fine. :)

They want to make more money, they need to get a different job.

I consider it (oursourcing) downright evil.

It’s just greed. It goes way beyond that, but that is part of it.

IMHO that’s what the slave wage pay at a fast food place is as well.

I know that some people look at it that way, and I can even understand why they do. At the end of the day though, there are a lot of reasons why the pay scale is what it is. It's not slave wages, nor is it the least bit unfair.

Slaves are owned. They are forced to work for free. They get room and board. They are fed. They are clothed. End of story. Referencing wages paid at McDonalds, as slave wages is so incredibly dismissive of what slavery was/is, that it's beneath you to make that reference.

1. People don't have to work at McDonalds. They choose to.
2. McDonalds is in business to make money, but in order to make money they have to fill a nitch market that only supports minimalist wages.
3. People don't live on McDonald's food. They go there once in a while as a treat. They don't have to. There are a number of issues they consider, when they decide to eat there or not.
4. McDonalds is a cheap place to go out for food. Driving up costs hurts people who don't have enough money to go to a higher class sit-down restaurant.
5. Increase the cost of a meal at a McDonalds actually hurts low income people. You'll price them out of the market base, if you aren't careful.
6. What happens if the cost of a McDonald's meal goes up from $7.50 to $15.00? Will McDonalds sell as many meals? Will it need as many employees? Will it maintain as many units?
7. Will low income people have as many choices, if fast food reaturants raise prices and or shut down?
8. Will low income people be able to eat out as often, if McDonald's increases it's prices?
9. Sure McDonald's can pay people more. There are some important reasons why they don't.
10. What makes you think McDonald's makes more money if it pays employees less money? Can't McDonald's keep it's profit margin the same, just raise prices? The answer is yes, it can. The down side is, there will be half as many customers. They will be half as many employees. There will be half as many McDonald's around. There will be half as many choices for people who frequent McDonald's.

What was that about 'slave-wages'?

I read this thread and saw the contempt for people struggling to get by.

Oh for heaven's sake... I worked at a McDonalds and a Jack-in-the-Box for several years when I was in high school. My skill set was non-existant. My work ethic was not stellar. I got paid what I was worth. It was $1.35 an hour. As a freshman in high school, I earned $0.49 cents an hour at a boarding school working in the kitchen. Big freakin deal. It was either that or raise tuition.

Do you have any idea at all where this 'labor rally' is headed, what their goals are? What do you think, they're going to increase pay a few bucks and hour and call it a day? No! They'll force fast food restaurants to pay $15 to $20 dollars an hour. They force all sorts of employee benefits. They'll force employers to hire people, employ them, and keep them on when they aren't worth crap. And then you get to retirements, employee health insurance, months off for vacation..., it never ends.

Contempt for people? I have contempt for unions. They are not there to help people. They are there to F with capitalists business establishments, bamboozle workers into signing up as union members, and using thier dues to support more Al Gores, John Kerry's, Barack Obamas, and worse.

They don't give a flying fig about the employees. Look at the employees who worked for Hostess. They're gone. The union still exists. Look at the union support for illegal immigrants rights, flying in the face of the fact that those illegal are taking jobs that used to be unionized. Why are you sympathizing with these enemies of our Republic?

This is the same forum that regularly bashes welfare recipients and yet here’s a group of people working an honest job for a Corp that is worth who knows how much and it’s somehow offensive that the workers try to get more money.

Wow, have you ever had a quadruple helping of the Leftist swill. Are you reading that, or do you know it so well by heart, you just rattle it off on your own now?

BTW: I don't think anyone here is adverse to helping someone down on their luck. We are loath to support a family for generations who members never go out and work. This nation is paying out over $1 trillion dollars a year right now for Welfare. That doesn't even count unemployment insurance and other freebies. Bashing some of that? You bet your ass!

I hate to say it but the attitude of some of the conservatives here toward struggling workers may be why we’re losing everywhere.

Well, you know, I am having to struggle against my natural Conservative instincts here, but you really are somewhat lost in space. The emphasis in our nation is on free enterprise. It's not on creating the next 'workers paradise'.

People can choose where they work. They can either take the job or not. They can come up with their own business. My hope is, that if they do, they don't have to jump through the hoops you and the 'workers paradise' ass-hat clowns will set up for them.

With all due respect, what you think you want, will actually hurt the people you profess to have sympathy for, and want to help.

You're going down the wrong road.

I hate to say it but the attitude of some of the conservatives here toward struggling workers may be why we’re losing everywhere.

Bob, have you ever signed the front of a paycheck? Ever written the checks to cover the overhead costs of running a business? Ever sat at your kitchen table with your wife on a Sunday, going over your family's business accounting, trying to figure out how keep your prices competitive, while squeezing every last penny you could into the payroll budget to keep the good and loyal employees from seeking greener pastures - all while making sure there was enough to pay all your suppliers, creditors, and your advertising bill?

Not to mention that fact that you and your wife ought to see a paycheck somewhere in that mix. Have you ever done that, Bob?

I have. More times than I can tell you.

The fact is, there is only so much pie to go around in any business. McDonalds restaurants may do lots of business, but there's only so much any one store can carve off for payroll. Just like there's only so much they can charge for a Big Mac. At the end of the day, you can only pay your employees what the market will support.

If your customers would be happy with a 100% increase in the cost of your goods and services, then you'll have no trouble doubling your employee's wages. If not, then it's not something that's within your ability to make happen.

I read this thread and saw the contempt for people struggling to get by.
This is the same forum that regularly bashes welfare recipients and yet here’s a group of people working an honest job for a Corp that is worth who knows how much and it’s somehow offensive that the workers try to get more money.

I hate to say it but the attitude of some of the conservatives here toward struggling workers may be why we’re losing everywhere.

My posts on this thread and other restaurant threads are not "anti worker," but I believe merely pro-reality.

The fast food business model formed in the 1930s-1950s from two changes in society, the increasingly mobile public, and an increasing middle class. Previous to the 1940s, restaurants were for the upper class. Workers too their lunches to the factory in buckets, and later lunch pails. The McDonald's fanchise business model brought consistency and cheap warm food to the middle class, but it does so by controlling costs.

Today we have 2.7 million workers in the fast food industry, which runs on thin margins. And now the government thinks it can do better to run the industry. It has mandated health care, it is raising taxes on small business, which is what these are, it wants to raise taxes on "millionaires" making 250k, which is what they are, it has raised regulatory requirements for signs, and now the workers are being encouraged to form unions and strike for whatever is left.

The fast food business model can't support all of those new requirements. It hires low cost employees for a reason, because it operates on a thin margin. Raise the costs, and they have to raise the prices. If they raise the prices, people will substitute, because they can do so easily. It is already cheaper to bring a lunch in a lunch pail from home, it is just a convenience to go to Taco Bell. But if Taco Bell keeps raising their prices, more and more people will decide it is not worth the convenience and will substitute. The government can force costs to rise, but it can't force customers to go there.

The only thing fast food restaurants can do to survive is to fight these added costs as best they can. They will hire only part time workers. They will automate as much as possible, and get as lean as possible. Jobs will be lost, jobs that business owners were willing to pay for before all these regulations.

What no one on the "worker" side seems to understand is that the fast food business model is not a pre ordained, must have business model. Regulations can kill the entire industry. I believe these regulations are more "anti worker" than the business owners, or any of these posts.