Let's discuss "Fight for $15!"

[I'm a Puppy!]

http://ktla.com/2014/09/04/fight-for-15-fast-food-workers-to-strike-for-15hour-wage/

Fast food workers fighting for $15 an hour.
Honestly I'm all for a living wage. Hell, I think one of the biggest reasons for our woes as a country is that a livable wage is beyond many/if not most. Remember when single income families were the norm? But with this? $15 an hour? They don't understand the industry that they're in. Franchises are only a cost game. You pay to get in and then bet that you can cut costs enough to make a decent profit. The higher they pay the more they'll cut back and invest in pre-prepared food (moreso) and automated systems.

It's difficult as the cost of living in major metro areas is through the roof and people can't afford to live in the cities they work in and it's only a matter of time til automation claims at least some of those jobs. Don't really know what they're expecting. Nor do I have a solution.

[benjipwns]

Is it just me or are they doing this like every six months and it's always like 50 people tops and the one time a union hired people to do the protest because they couldn't get any actual fast food workers?

Has anyone at the lowest spot on the totem pole in the fast food industry ever made "single income family" money? And hasn't everyone who has advanced beyond the industry or entered management?

Speaking of franchising though (because like management and capital breh) I used to know it could be a real bitch, but a few years ago after this "BAR-B-CUTIE" was built around the corner for like three months and then opened and shut down within like two weeks I started reading more about franchising. That's one thing nobody will ever get me near now. Especially after I read the Bar-B-CUTIE franchising contract and about that scam Quizno's was pulling.

[benjipwns]

Might as well fight, unfortunately the race to replace them with robots aint slowing down

The fastfood employee of 2025 probably gonna look like some sort of engineer.

Oh god the robots are going to be so cheerful and ask my name aren't they? RIP FAST FOOD.

[I'm a Puppy!]

There is literally a franchise for everything. Fast Food, laundromats, gardening, pest control, consulting, furniture, pet stores, etc etc.
Some are total scams but some are pretty good if you can get enough capital to buy in. I often say buying a McDonald's is one of the soundest investments you can make. But you gotta have a a lot of capital.

[Positive Touch]

uh it's not like fast food paces are skirting by on a razor-thin margin. they could easily give $15/hr by cutting back on the biggest overhead - the giant salaries that the top people take home.

[I'm a Puppy!]

If you get just the dollar menu stuff and not drinks then yeah the margins are pretty damned thin. But it depends on the chain. Ironically Mcdonalds (one of the higher buy in franchises) would have a very difficult time if they had to do $15 an hour for all their employees.  Whereas Subway (probably the cheapest franchise) would be pretty much ok. Since many of the franchise owners just do the work themselves or within the family.

[benjipwns]

McDonald's has a huge investment in their distributors that other fast food restaurants...well...don't is the nice way of putting it.

IIRC, they and Taco Bell are two of the stingiest at awarding extra franchises in markets. Especially to new owners.

Subway being on the complete other end of the spectrum.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Well, McDonalds is a bit different as well as Taco Bell because the company makes money off the real estate more than franchise fees/food. There's a finite amount of real-estate sooo.

[benjipwns]

I think McDonald's and Taco Bell also own a higher percentage of the stores or at least the properties than most fast food places.

I've really read too much about the fast food industry. What is wrong with me.

[benjipwns]

I have no problem with raising the minimum wage to punishing heights for American workers, it's much more fun to exploit the darkies overseas anyway. Makes me feel like a Baron or something from Europe.

[Hock]

I have no idea how the specifics of this would work because I'm dumb, but generally I'm for them getting better wages. I was looking at some job boards and man they get paid like shit.

Also:

[benjipwns]

Rewording press releases, botching the basics of business while being a "business correspondent" and complaining about how your coworkers want to each lunch outside can't be done by just anyone.

[Mr. Gundam]

$15 an hour is going to be reality here in Seattle, and I'm ok with it.

People in the service industry should be able to afford to live in the city they work in .

[I'm a Puppy!]

ctrl -c/ ctrl-v

Not just anyone can do that.

[ToxicAdam]

This seems more of an urban problem than a nationwide one. The cost of living is so ridiculous in some parts of this country that 15 dollars an hour is a no-brainer. But in other rural parts of the country it would majorly upset the labor landscape and have some unforeseen repercussions in employment figures.

[I'm a Puppy!]

$15 an hour is going to be reality here in Seattle, and I'm ok with it.

People in the service industry should be able to afford to live in the city they work in .

LOL afford to live in the city you work.
I told this story before but I was talking to a CFO while we were riding in his porsche and I asked him if he lived in San Francisco and he said "Are you kidding? Who the hell do think I am? I don't have that kind of money."

It made me think.

[Mr. Gundam]

This seems more of an urban problem than a nationwide one. The cost of living is so ridiculous in some parts of this country that 15 dollars an hour is a no-brainer. But in other rural parts of the country it would majorly upset the labor landscape and have some unforeseen repercussions in employment.

I totally agree. $15 an hour in Seattle? Yes yes yes.

$15 an hour in rural Kentucky? No. Higher than what it is now, but not $15.

$15 an hour is going to be reality here in Seattle, and I'm ok with it.

People in the service industry should be able to afford to live in the city they work in .

LOL afford to live in the city you work.
I told this story before but I was talking to a CFO while we were riding in his porsche and I asked him if he lived in San Francisco and he said "Are you kidding? Who the hell do think I am? I don't have that kind of money."

It made me think.

San Francisco is a clusterfuck that frightens me because Seattle is heading that direction. Thank God I own my house.

Right now, there are parts of Seattle that are affordable. Not "cool" or desirable, but affordable.

[benjipwns]

ctrl -c/ ctrl-v

Not just anyone can do that.

smh, you have to find a way to reword the sentences used in the press release slightly and summarize the long post you're linking to, telling everyone to "read the whole thing."

Pro-tip: combine these two techniques for greater production.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit so that the taxpayers can subsidize the food industry? I see this suggestion a lot.

I'm looking for some good studies on the effect of the EITC on wage increases. My gut tells me that there must be some substitution at the margins of tax credits for wage increases that would have happened in the absence of the credit, but the effect might be negligible, plus if increasing the minimum wage does always cause job loss (still haven't made up my mind on Card/Kreuger), you end up paying for those job losses in taxpayer-funded benefits anyway. Going to look into this one.

That's an interesting thought. Making it everyone's problem and all that.

[benjipwns]

I'm not convinced that San Francisco actually has any real residents at this point, it's like somebody in SimCity zoned a whole peninsula for commercial and then everything around it was mixed zoning.

Speaking of San Francisco and food, I just found out about this story, which is amazing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajitagate

[WanderingWind]

When the conversation turns to "you don't deserve $15" then you know the guy saying it is a gigantic piece of shit. The only place that comes from is a center of pure, undiluted selfishness and "fuck you, got mine."

Talk about the cost to the business, talk about the price increase, talk about how the increase in gas is hurting everybody...there are plenty of legitimate arguments to be made, but like the Tweet above, talking about how "anybody can do it" is fucked up. Anybody can do it, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the cost of living continues to rise, while wages continue to stagnate at the bottom rung of society. You have to give people the opportunity to better their situation, and that starts with offering something that approximates a living wage.

[Eel O'Brian]

If they did that here I'd be all "Uh, fuck painting, Imma go work at Wal-Mart." Taking into account what I get paid per apartment, minus materials cost and self-employment taxes, broken down into man hours that's more than what I make. I'd much rather stock a shelf and point a redneck towards the tampons than listen to my back and joints crackle all day.

[Dennis]

$15 an hour for what, 40 hours a week, that is like $28-30,000 a year. Who can live like that?   

[bork]

$15 an hour for what, 40 hours a week, that is like $28-30,000 a year. Who can live like that?   

Dude, I get paid less than $15 an hour at my current job.  -_-  Although I do get bonuses, good medical coverage, and my transportation is paid for.  The latter definitely helps to make up for the lower wages.  Plus my wife works too, so double the income. 

[Dennis]

$15 an hour for what, 40 hours a week, that is like $28-30,000 a year. Who can live like that?   

Dude, I get paid less than $15 an hour at my current job.  -_-  Although I do get bonuses, good medical coverage, and my transportation is paid for.  The latter definitely helps to make up for the lower wages.  Plus my wife works too, so double the income.

Do you live in one of the expensive major cities or somewhere less expensive?

[bork]

Atlanta.  Costs of living are all over the place here.  It's more expensive on the north side (where I am) and less expensive on the south side, which is also more crime-ridden, dirty, etc.

[Brehvolution]

Lol, the nerve of all those kids protesting. A lot of them probably skipped school to protest. They haven't worked for 2 whole years yet. Entitlement generation.

[CatsCatsCats]

Lol this got brought up at work and the old men were all "snot nosed kids, it shouldn't be a career!" I said "Well, I'm pro-labor." And everyone got quiet.

[Kara]

Single income families being the norm tended to go hand in hand with low labor force participation by women.

[Phoenix Dark]

This seems more of an urban problem than a nationwide one. The cost of living is so ridiculous in some parts of this country that 15 dollars an hour is a no-brainer. But in other rural parts of the country it would majorly upset the labor landscape and have some unforeseen repercussions in employment figures.

This.

I'm not going to get into an argument on whether fast food worker labor "deserves" $15 as it's easily derailed. Michigan's minimum wage increased by .75 two days ago and sports radio has been full of people arguing it could hurt businesses. 75 cents. Not to mention the classic "my wife is a x and works hard but doesn't get $15/hr, so why should a burger flipper?" It's amazing how well trained the lower classes are at hating eah other.

Ultimately a lot of these jobs will be automated so I'd rather start spending money increasing access to community colleges. Winter is coming fellas, better prepare because that $15 job at Burger King won't exist in a decade.

[Steve Contra]

Coupled with the complete fuckery that goes on with scheduling software if you imagine these folks aren't getting fucked over you're dumb, uniformed, and an asshole.

[Squiddy]

Meh, as has been posted already, these guys will be out of jobs anyway once they're replaced by robots in the next 10-20 years.
Better to focus on improved social safey nets to catch these suckers when they're without jobs, but I guess that would be un-american.

[Kara]

There won't be a safety net big enough for total automation.

I hope everyone is ready for household staffs in the 100s.

[Phoenix Dark]

time to stack those IT certs brehs

[Human Snorenado]

Guess I better either learn how to code or practice my dick sucking

[Phoenix Dark]

Guess I better either learn how to code or practice my dick sucking

aren't you a member of the accounting master race? you have nothing to worry about. for now.


nicca we made it

[Eel O'Brian]

I can fish, and hunt, and i know how to keep a pretty respectable garden, and I already live without medical insurance, so I'd probably do okay until the disease gets me. City folk are straight fucked.

When the poor do finally come, they're coming for errbody, not just the corporates. 50k a year still looks pretty rich to a man pulling less than 10.

[Kara]

Once the US drops GAAP for IFRS accountants are pretty fucked too.

Well people outside tax accounting.

[Human Snorenado]

Won't the GAAP board never let that happen, since it means they'll be out of jobs basically? I thought there was just a slow push to gradually change GAAP to essentially mirror IFRS but still be GAAP.

[Kara]

It's really the SEC's call and the last time I read something from them on the matter one of their few remaining concerns was just that so much of U.S. law specifically references GAAP. AICPA is on board with changing to IFRS.

The harmonization thing is (imo) rats from a sinking ship (the rats being the FASB) plus the IASB making it harder and harder for the SEC to avoid adopting IFRS. Truthfully idk why the FASB just doesn't try and get integrated into the IASB with a prominent seat at the table, but guild industries can be... medieval, which is shocking I know.

There's also items like corporate inversion which exert more and more international pressure.

It's not happening anytime soon, obviously, but it probably will in our working lives.

[I'm a Puppy!]

When the conversation turns to "you don't deserve $15" then you know the guy saying it is a gigantic piece of shit. The only place that comes from is a center of pure, undiluted selfishness and "fuck you, got mine."

Talk about the cost to the business, talk about the price increase, talk about how the increase in gas is hurting everybody...there are plenty of legitimate arguments to be made, but like the Tweet above, talking about how "anybody can do it" is fucked up. Anybody can do it, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the cost of living continues to rise, while wages continue to stagnate at the bottom rung of society. You have to give people the opportunity to better their situation, and that starts with offering something that approximates a living wage.

While I get your point and agree that most of the issues people have with this is "I got mine!". But that being said. I've seen businesses run and some of them can't really have this. McDonalds? Ok. Subway? Sure? Mom and pop places though will have to slow expansion.  And here I think we get to the real problem. Technology and capitalism.

1) Technology was supposed to make things cheaper and it has. But staples like food and clothing? In some ways we've gotten to the point where much cheaper the business can't be maintained. So incurring addtional costs will cause people to just shut it down.
2) A large reason why there is so little give in margin is because everyone's trying to get theres. The CEO at the top isn't taking a pay cut and neither is anyone else all the way down. So the costs are largely stuck.

The problem we are seeing is more about the system than anything else. Everyone wants theirs and the system is set up to make money and so its not surprising that those with little leverage are complaining. Like I said, I don't know how this gets fixed.
Restaurants can't really raise their prices much otherwise people will say "I'm not paying $5 for a mcdonald's burger!" And they certainly aren't going to do paycuts to the leadership. There's only two places to cut costs, distributors (who in turn screw their employees) and the non-leadership employees.  As tech gets better the prices aren't going to drop but the people needed to run a restaurant will be far smaller. It's going to only get worse.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Guess I better either learn how to code or practice my dick sucking

I work with IT a lot. Hope you got strong jaws. cause IT isn't' going to pan out.

[Boogie]

I thought this thread was going to be about some new iteration of Bum Fights.     

[Steve Contra]

I still feel bad about the time I watched Bum Fights in college

[Human Snorenado]

When the conversation turns to "you don't deserve $15" then you know the guy saying it is a gigantic piece of shit. The only place that comes from is a center of pure, undiluted selfishness and "fuck you, got mine."

Talk about the cost to the business, talk about the price increase, talk about how the increase in gas is hurting everybody...there are plenty of legitimate arguments to be made, but like the Tweet above, talking about how "anybody can do it" is fucked up. Anybody can do it, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the cost of living continues to rise, while wages continue to stagnate at the bottom rung of society. You have to give people the opportunity to better their situation, and that starts with offering something that approximates a living wage.

The CEO at the top isn't taking a pay cut and neither is anyone else all the way down.

No one has phrased the question to them properly yet. Instead of whining about how it would be awesome if they weren't making salaries hundreds of times more than their average employee, I think if someone asked them how they felt about making maybe 35 times more or, I don't know, having their balls cut off, shoved into their mouth, and watching while their families are eaten they might be a bit more amenable to the notion of making less money.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

We're all fucked, bryhs.

We've given up the idea of healthy sustainable growth and are content to just riding the waves of bubble economies.  Once the Second Tech Bubble bursts in the next 3-4 years, we'll find some other dead industry to overinflate again.  Maybe we can reinflate the real estate bubble again; all those hispanics moving in and all the baby boomers retiring, you could probably make a mint off of housing in the Sun Belt again.  Maybe marijuana will be made legal nationwide and everyone can quit their jobs to work at their own growing operations.

[Dennis]

The revolution will come when shit gets so bad the hipster SWJs and the hordes of English majors can't even afford the newest Apple products.

[Rufus]

The future is now, Dennis.

[chronovore]

There won't be a safety net big enough for total automation.

I hope everyone is ready for household staffs in the 100s.

We'll return to the manor house model, and we can all argue in the kitchen!

I thought this thread was going to be about some new iteration of Bum Fights.     

Yeah, I keep thinking it's a video, or a downloadable US$15 XBLA title with a really generic name.