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Forums - General Discussion - US Fast Food Strike - i hope you guys survive it..

nuckles87 said:
spurgeonryan said:
We are not a socialist/communistic society. It would be nice for everyone to make doctor salary. But is not right.

Sorry mr. Khan. I am in your boat. Several degrees plenty of experience, crap or no jobs. But mcdonalds should not have to pay these workers extra for this.


We ARE a socialist society. We have social security, public roads and highways, a publically funded military, foodstamps and a variety of other social welfare programs that essentially subsidize the low wages of corporations like Walmart and McDonalds. We've funded a variety of public works, given government money to a variety of start ups and corporations.

No, not everyone should make a doctor's salary, but you are just intentionally trying to blow out of proportion what SHOULD be done: we need a higher minimum wage. It didn't used to be like this. We didn't used to have to work two jobs to survive. In fact in the 1960s we were heading towards a less then 40 hour work week. One of the big problems right now is that the minimum wage isn't worth what it used to be worth. It's currently at $7, but 40 years ago in today's dollars it would be well over $10. THAT is what these people should be making. That is what anyone with a job should be making.

Without a living wage, people either get subsidized by the government (socialism) or they starve and die in the street. I'm afraid to ask which one you prefer. Personally, I would prefer private companies pay their employees enough to survive, not have them rely on, as you would probably call them, "socialist government handouts" which is what is currently going on.

You have no idea what Socialism is, do you? America is the opposite of what Socialism is. Countries like Finland are far closer to Socialism, where ALL education is free even to foreigners. ALL healthcare is free. There are no insurance companies ripping you off when you get ill. There is not some much of a hierarchy there, because 97% of Finns are educated in public schools. There's no "prestigious" private schools. All taxes and fines are based off your income over there. Not only that, in actual "socialist" countries a decent amount of industries are owned by the state. Like in the UK from 1945 to 1979. Things like railway, mining, gas, electricity, telecommunications, car companies, even some media were ran by the state. This is alongside our healthcare and mail (the only things which weren't sold off under Margaret Thatcher and John Major). Around 1/4 of our economy was in the public sector before 1979. Regulations were also strong and the population was very unionised. 

Just because you have some sort of safety net in terms of benefits and foos stamps, that don't make America socialist. Most developed countries have this and they are all free market capitalist societies now. Also, if America is socialist why is inequality so high? Just comparing Compton, LA to Beverly Hills, LA just says it all. 

Anyway, the problem with the free market is they have NEVER paid their workers enough, even before the welfare state. It is just used as an excuse now to keep wages low. Fortunately, some working class people use the welfare state as an excuse not to work but it is hardly suprising when wages aren't high enough.  



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I do hope they get what they need to make a living by minimum standards. Those wages are abysmal and the gap between rich and poor is big for a reason.
Some people in this thread actually scare me.



spurgeonryan said:

why is that any of our problem?

 

they made the poor choices in life. they stand there and flip a burger patty and repeat. why do they need more than minimum wage? they did not work hard in schoolb or did drugsb or got kidsb or etc. get a second job then. you pay for your choices in life.

We all need a basic standard of living for the economy to remain successful. Also, how can you persume all McDonalds workers are under-achievers or drug takers?For a lot of people, McDonalds is their first job, it is never a long term thing (in my country, university students often work in them just for a little extra money. They go wherever is available). And, show me where these second jobs are when at least 8% of Americans can't even secure ONE job? Jobs don't appear from thin air you know. Finally, you think McDonalds can't afford to increase it's wages? That is just absurd with the profits it's making.   



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'When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called the people's stick'- Mikhail Bakunin

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the2real4mafol said:
Good on them! The common men and women deserve more. Their wages have stagnated while the 1%'s wages have massively increased. Some sort of action was long overdue, i hope they are successful. Not like these food fast companies can't sacrifice some of their profits to offer better wages for their workers.

your sheer ignorance on how an economy functions is staggering and appalling. 



They make $9 an hour? o.O When I was working at the fast food place in my town in Australia, I was 16 and earning $13.25 an hour!



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killerzX said:
the2real4mafol said:
Good on them! The common men and women deserve more. Their wages have stagnated while the 1%'s wages have massively increased. Some sort of action was long overdue, i hope they are successful. Not like these food fast companies can't sacrifice some of their profits to offer better wages for their workers.

your sheer ignorance on how an economy functions is staggering and appalling. 


Yeah!

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I speak from experience when I say it's not really practical to live off minimum wage or the wages right around it. To give you some context, if you work 40 hours a week at $9.00 and guestimating state and federal withholdings to be about 15%, your take home pay is $1225 a month, or just short of $15,000 a year.

However, that number fluctuates wildly depending on demand, and since Obamacare companies have been pushing to consider 30 hours a week full time so they don't have to pay for health benefits. Between the two, you'll be doing well to make $10,000 a year.

That worked in my case because I was living with my parents as I went to college, and I could keep about 75% of my take-home pay to cover college tuition. If I had to cover my own living expenses, though? HECK NO. Even if I had a roommate, car payments and insurance would mean I'd have nothing left for groceries.

Minimum wage jobs are not a viable living situation. They're pocket change for high school and college students.



ROFLMAO said:
They make $9 an hour? o.O When I was working at the fast food place in my town in Australia, I was 16 and earning $13.25 an hour!


You wasn't 18 years old, it's 15 dollars an hour. :)

However, Australians think differently to the Americans when it comes to work.
Generally, Americans live to work where-as Australians work to live, we get higher wages, better working conditions and more holidays to drink beer and watch footy'. :)
Not to mention Aussies generally work less overall.



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Cubedramirez said:
Mr Khan said:
Cubedramirez said:
spurgeonryan said:
15 dollars is idiotic. They place it that high so there is some wriggle room, if mcdonalds doe snot just fire them and hire someone else.

 

That's what the Golden Arches should do. Its ENTRY level work, that means ANYONE can fill it and if they took a simple class in economics they'd understand that salary and wages are paid based on the available pool of prospects.  The larger pool the less you pay, the more exclusive the pool the greater the salary/wage

Why is this so hard for people to understand?

Because some people have to make a living off of that, and dignity is more valuable than private property.

Pointless and irrelevant 
 
Increasing the cost of labor without an increase in productivity devalues the money used to purchase the labor, the effects on everyone through increase prices and reduced value of their savings.

It’s not rocket science but sadly it seems people in our country believe in fairy tale economics and false altruism rather than reason and logic.

It’s not McDonald’s responsibility to provide a living wage. It is the responsibility of the employee to take advantage of the opportunity working there provides and use that experience to move on from that restaurant. 



But productivity *has* increased. If the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity (compared to the starting minimum wage and worker productivity at the time of minimum wage's inception), it would be $16.

So actually, these strikers are being generous.



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Cubedramirez said:

Raising the wage will do nothing but have a negative rippled effect through the market, cost will go up, quality of life will require that much more capital than before and now we're at a place where a 15 dollar hour job at an entry level pushes wages up for other sectors and now the purchasing power of that 15 dollar an hour buys what 7 dollars an hour used to. It's a never ending cycle. The only way to address this is for the employee to grow out of entry level positions. That responsibility falls squarely on the employee, not the business. 

We can also debate the devaluing of the dollar which has a disproportionate impact on lower income earners. That’s the real boogie man here, not Ronald McDonald. 

I'd say devaluing the dollar hurts the middle class more. The working poor get their money and spend it, and those on public assistance see their benefits flex along the consumer price index. The wealthy, owning businesses, stocks, and other physical assets benefit from inflation. The middle class, who tend more towards bonds and savings, are the ones who get hit.



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