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    Posted by $ WilliamShipley 8 years, 11 months ago
    I've debated the minimum wage issue on numerous liberal sites. The one thing that NEVER comes into consideration is that the work that the employee does must bring in enough money to pay them.

    They focus on the profitability of the company, how much the CEO makes, how much the employee deserves, how hard it is to support a family of four on these wages.

    The bottom line is that none of these things matter. Each employee must contribute enough to the bottom line to pay their salary, their employment taxes, mandated healthcare and other expenses of employing them. If they do not, then the business is better off without them -- and will do without them.
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    • Posted by $ puzzlelady 8 years, 11 months ago
      Exactly. I have explained this to people who want to work for me: Your work has to produce enough extra income to pay for you. If I have to pay a certain minimum wage that is not connected to the value produced, then I must raise my prices to have enough resources to cover my expenses. If I raise prices, I may lose some sales and thus reduce or at least not increase my gross. It's a case of what the market will bear.

      Extrapolate to the national economy, and when minimum wage disconnects from value produced, all prices will have to go up, and the $15/hr wage will no longer be enough to keep up with rising costs of living, and the cycle repeats.

      Or maybe, just maybe, there is a big envy towards what CEOs get, and the notion arises that the CEO should get no more, or only a little more, than his lowest-paid employee, regardless of work performed or responsibility held. And if the rich won't willingly give their surplus to the workers regardless of merit, the government should step in and redistribute by force. One proposal recently floated says that having too much wealth should be declared a crime.

      Perhaps the folks on the lowest rung of skill and experience who want immediately to "live comfortably" should go out into the woods and try to make their living from scratch, keeping 100% of what they can produce, if they survive. Or maybe do a little math and feel some gratitude for what others have built as a society with productive opportunities and infrastructure that gives beginning workers the comfort of established enterprises and jobs through which they can learn marketable skills.

      And what are their ideas of "living comfortably"? Having cars and cellphones and big-screen TVs and the latest fashions? Check out some third-world countries and see how little people need for comfort. I recall, some decades ago, a conversation with a lady with a high-paying government job who thought she was poor, because she couldn't afford "everything she wanted". I pointed out that poor was when you couldn't afford anything you wanted.
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      • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
        "Extrapolate to the national economy, and when minimum wage disconnects from value produced, all prices will have to go up, and the $15/hr wage will no longer be enough to keep up with rising costs of living, and the cycle repeats. "

        Precisely. It's the snowball to ____ called inflation. Setting a minimum wage just institutionalizes inflation in the industry. What is worthy of note is that none of it would be possible without fiat currency!
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    • Posted by $ winterwind 8 years, 11 months ago
      These employees don't see the connection between their work and what the company earns [or doesn't]. They actually don't see much of anything except "ME, ME, ME". One ME is OK - after all, Objectivism. But if that's all you see, the company will not see you.
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    • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
      I agree with everything you say, but as you point out, the liberals arguments always have more to do with emotions and irrelevant observations than with a reasonable analysis. it is incredibly frustrating to deal with them, and many discussions I've had usually wind up with the liberal getting emotional in the face of fact and reasonable arguments, and they walk away.

      There is no direct, logical connection between what the CEO earns, the profit margin of the company, the dividends they pay their shareholders etc...or anything else like that.

      In offering a worker a specific wage for a specific job, there are only two considerations that are relevant as far as the trade between the employer and the worker: do you have the skills to do the job, and will you do it at the same or lower wage than some other, equally qualified worker? The wage being offered, as you point out, is only a part of the total cost of the employee to the employer, and those need to be factored in by the employer. And the offer by the employer comes down to: if you can do this particular job for this particular wage, I can make money, and your hired. All else is completely irrelevant.

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      • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago
        people need to understand that boards of directors
        are in competition between one another for CEOs
        who can manage a company, and this competition
        drives the pay level. -- j

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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 8 years, 11 months ago
    In the first place, the government imposition of a
    minimum wage was (and is) a violation of the right
    of free association of both the employer and the
    employee. Also, as the article states, such an
    increase would destroy jobs rather than making
    them more profitable for their workers. When I
    got my job at age 18 as a carhop in the curb
    service restaurant in Staunton, Va. (1970), I was
    very excited. (Minimum wage was $1.60 an
    hour; but that being a very small business, it
    didn't have to pay minimum wage; the inside
    people at the cash register and in the kitchen
    started out at $1 an hour; carhops were paid
    75 cents plus tips). I was a little disappointed
    at first that it didn't pay minimum wage, but I
    had applied at so many places without success
    that I was excited at getting it.And then, soon,
    because of the opportunities to make more
    money the more orders I took out, it didn't take
    me very long to discover that I loved it. (But then, it was supposed to be a part-time job
    while I went to business school; when the school
    took bankruptcy, I continued to work the job
    and started working more shifts; I ended up
    working that job for about a year and a half be-
    fore I left and went to the furniture factory).
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    • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago
      I love your 1st amendment connection, above. . that's
      a powerful idea -- freedom of association. . although
      it is a court-constructed result of the amendment,
      if pay for work could be tied to that, we would be rid
      of this govt force affecting pay. . I wish!!! -- j

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  • Posted by Technocracy 8 years, 11 months ago
    Since a living wage is a relative, not an absolute it is unachievable as a practical goal other than on an individual basis.

    Government interference on this only makes it worse.
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    • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
      Sorry, but with all due respect:

      There is nothing "relative" at all about a living wage. (See Adam Smith, et. al.)

      It is precisely what an individual needs to, quite literally, earn in terms of money to "live" on. To live: Man's first and highest goal.

      To exchange his wages for: Food, shelter and...well, that's about it. Sleep, and get up and "do it again"...(thank you, Mr. Browne.)

      And, especially in this particular forum, what else could possibly matter than it IS achievable: "a practical goal...on an individual basis"? There is no other reasonable standard, for that particular, well-defined, goal, than an individual.

      But I do know what you're saying: what I described was "subsistence", which thanks to Capitalism, we stopped discussing, except in abstract terms, a long, long, time ago. We are so far past that in any modern country, and in all but the most corrupt "developing" countries, that the fact the "living wage" line is blurred, to some.

      What the opponents of Capitalism are using is a "relative", moving, standard, their new definition of "poverty":

      It's now (with only slight sarc, I've seen these standards in liberal articles):

      Can I support: x number of kids, cell phones, cable TV and the TV to go with it (preferably HD), and at least one car? On what I can make flipping burgers?

      That's, grudgingly, a "living wage", to some.

      Where I absolutely agree with you is that "Government interference only makes this worse."

      Absent that, the, I guess, new standard in subsistence workers, "hamburger flippers", could probably afford, and well afford, the everyday consumer items I mentioned above.

      Seriously. In a true Capitalist economy, driven, as it always has been, on mass production, NOT luxury goods, those seeming "luxury" goods to the liberals, would be mere affordable commodities to those they look down upon as "the common man".




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      • Posted by Technocracy 8 years, 11 months ago
        A "living wage" whether you define it as subsistence living or something else represents a different amount of money based upon where you are.

        A living wage here in New England requires more money than a living wage in Louisiana.

        It is relative rather than absolute because of various factors, among them, location, family unit size, housing market, employment market, etc.

        That is just the reality of things...Adam Smith not withstanding.
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        • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
          Thank you for validating my point. Everything you list is a personal choice, and has nothing to do with a "living wage".

          I was born and grew up in Detroit, and was very happy with my wage, even though it was well above what it really took to "live". It was much more...

          I then moved to Manhattan, and wasn't happy with it until it was more than triple what I earned in the Motor City.

          Then, for family reasons, I moved back to Detroit, and got a really good job making less than half of what I made in NYC. And had a lot more "things"...

          The reality of things is that you choose to live in an area costing more than Louisiana...and, absolutely nothing to do with any kind of rational definition of a "living wage"...



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          • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago
            excuse me, but the "living wage" idea has nothing
            to do with the "minimum wage" idea. . you work for
            what you can get, and bargain for more all the time.
            when you can't live on what you get, you work more
            or differently. . or go back to school somehow.

            if you work your way up to a "living wage" which
            will support a family, you celebrate by having a
            family.

            high-rent districts prevent this from happening at
            lower wages.

            the use of government force to give people raises
            is immoral, in my view. . it is gang robbery. -- j

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      • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 11 months ago
        I beg to differ. The term gets abused a lot, but a living wage, to me, means enough money to rent a place to live, eat, have light and heat, and be able to get to work (even if it's on the bus). Everything else is a luxury, but below that standard the worker is homeless, and nobody can expect anyone to work under that condition.
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        • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago
          I knew someone, years ago, who lived on the bus.
          he was homeless, had a job, and worked his ass off
          to try to progress in life. . he was proud of his life. -- j

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  • Posted by wiggys 8 years, 11 months ago
    i was told that mcdonalds is experiencing a down turn in sales. under that condition increase the wages of the hamburger flippers. lets give everybody 15 bucks an hour even the bank presidents so we are all equal. i agree to say the least. also give the legislators 15 bucks an hour as well as the president.
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  • Posted by $ prof611 8 years, 11 months ago
    This was a truly great article. Too bad the right people will never read it - and if they did, it would just go in one ear and out the other.
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  • Posted by $ KSilver3 8 years, 11 months ago
    If we could just get directive 10-289 in place, we wouldn't have these issues anymore.
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    • Posted by $ jdg 8 years, 11 months ago
      Sure we would. Haldeman's "The Forever War" has a few chapters set on an Earth in that state of things, but I'll summarize:

      Given a law that no one can be hired or fired, then even if it were fully obeyed, the economy would gradually fall to pieces because people die or become disabled and their jobs can't be filled. (Even jobs in government.) But there's also all the new people who leave high school or college -- no jobs for them, so what do they do? If they can't get black-market jobs they'll have to steal. In the book, Earth winds up with a huge black-market in jobs, where the person officially employed in a job takes a 40% cut of its pay as "rent" and the illegal worker does the job for him.
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  • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
    I agree and disagree, given context:

    In the current regulated, slapped-down, not-even-close-to Capitalist economy, a "fast-food worker" most likely cannot earn a "living wage", whatever that means.

    But nor do they "deserve to" earn whatever this wage might be, and no, a "minimum wage" is the worst solution. Their only choice, in this context, is to view it as an entry-level job, and strive on their own initiative for something better.

    Having said that, in a proper, unregulated, free-market economy, with full implementation of an intelligent division of labor driven by capitalists who fully own and can fully manage at their will and direction the means of production, even the lowest "entry-level" level worker would always earn a living wage. And hope and strive for better in the future...or choose to live a decent life at that level.
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    • Posted by term2 8 years, 11 months ago
      I hope that the government does put in a $15 minimum wage. That will push the fast food places to install robot kiosks at the counter and get rid of the people taking the orders once and for all. They dont listen to what you want, and cant remember more than a few words at a time. They arent really worth the current minimum wage, lete alone a higher one. I should develop a really intuitive robot kiosk and try to sell them to the fast food places in advance of minimum wage increases
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      • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 11 months ago
        I wrote software to do that 20 years ago. Now the hardware is cheap enough to implement it everywhere and add voice recognition and smart voice prompting. Not sure I want to deal with a canned AI in a real restaurant (as opposed to fast food) though. Its bad enough doing so on the phone. A human touch from a single expediter would be enough to verify order, take special instructions, and stroke the customers vanity.
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        • Posted by term2 8 years, 11 months ago
          I rented a car in Phoenix at Hertz recently. They had a kiosk with a screen and it was VERY intuitive and easier to deal with than the person behind the counter. Canned AI got a bad name because it was written more FOR programmers than end users to understand. The programmers need to be mated up with customer experience people more so that the end result just feels right to the customer. NOT EASY, though.
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          • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
            And therefore not cheap. I've been in IT for two decades and getting a good UI is neither simple nor cheap. Come to think of it, most of IT is just like that. Want to know why: most users have no idea what they actually want, so you have to go through a zillion iterations of something to arrive at a workable one.
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      • Posted by $ 8 years, 11 months ago
        Working in the food service industry, I can tell you that this is already happening. Many restaurants are now moving to take orders and payments using a computer embedded in the table surface.
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        • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
          I actually read about this, several weeks ago, in an interview with a Seattle restaurant owner. "Yeah, I have to get rid of some people because I can't afford to keep them, but there are these new machines..."...

          I just thought of (well, to me) a good analogy:

          Liberals are much like the Dutch Boy and his fingers in the dike. They block up one hole (i.e. a perceived injustice), and another opens up. (The Law of Unintended Consequences).

          These machines, as "cool" as they are, should only replace a worker when it makes business/economic sense to do so.

          Whoever makes these machines are now saying: "Thank you, Seattle".
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      • Posted by $ TomB666 8 years, 11 months ago
        You remind me: We stopped at a McD's in Oklahoma. Our order totaled $6.76. I paid with a $5, $1, 5 dimes, one quarter and 1 penny. The order taker started counting the money and when he go to the dimes he pulled 2 of them towards himself and then stopped. He was stuck because there was no nickle. He pushed the coins back and started again, quarter, 2 dimes, but still no nickle. He was totally flummoxed! I stopped him and showed him to count the dimes first to get to 50 cents, then pull the quarter.

        Leaving, I just shook my head that someone was paying this kid any wage when he could not even think through such a simple situation. By the way, the cash register had pictures on it rather then numbers, so when I ordered a Big Mac, he pushed a picture of the sandwich rather then keying in the amount. I could have pushed the picture myself and, with a connection to the grill, the 'chef' could have made the sandwich without any help from this kid.

        It probably won't take much to mechanize those jobs.
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        • Posted by slfisher 8 years, 11 months ago
          Well, if it's supposed to be an entry-level job, I'm not sure what you expect. Presumably all the more-qualified workers left for better jobs getting paid more.
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          • Posted by $ TomB666 8 years, 11 months ago
            I guess you are right. Who am I to expect a kid to realize that 5 dimes = 50 cents? Shame on me.

            Actually NO! I expect every (non mentally disabled) teenager to realize that - do I really expect too much?
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        • Posted by term2 8 years, 11 months ago
          Sometime try to tell the counter person in one CONCISE sentence what you want. I thought it would be more efficient, but finally gave up on it. They dont seem to have enough KB in their memory banks to remember anything except "get me a #1". Something like "a burrito bowl with chopped lettuce for HERE, with chicken and all the veges except more lettuce" just doesnt compute for them. You have to repeat parts of it over and over...
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    • Posted by $ WilliamShipley 8 years, 11 months ago
      I'm not sure I agree. There are jobs that could be profitably done at a wage too low for someone to make a living at. But there are people who have their living assured, such as teenagers, who may just wish to make some money.

      In a completely free market we might see teens hanging around the gas station making spending money once more.
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      • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
        Actually I agree totally with your example. I was addressing what I thought was the main thrust of the article: a fast-food worker can't make enough to "make a living wage",support a family etc., while I was stating that in a free market they could.

        There would certainly be many part-time and full-time jobs available that would pay below the "fast-food" wage, but would still be attractive to people who aren't supporting a family, e.g., as you say such as teenagers living at home simply trying to make some spending money, a single poor kid just starting out who only needs to supports himself, but needs to start at the bottom to gain the experience to get a better job, etc. The sad fact is that it is just these type of people who are most hurt by the minimum wage, and they are excluded by law from taking jobs they would be more than happy with, and would suit their current situations.
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  • Posted by $ rjim 8 years, 11 months ago
    You know, I saw the increase in minimum wage first to $1.25 and so on. All it does is hurt other workers for about a year and nothing changes. Over a period of time the difference re-establish itself and everything cost more. It has never worked nor will it ever work.
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  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 8 years, 11 months ago
    The idea of being "entitled" to something simply because you are born is ludicrous. Those clamoring for an increase to the minimum age to make it "livable" are taking UNSKILLED jobs intended to be starter jobs for young people or secondary income for the retired and trying to turn them into career.

    I cannot wait until these places automate (Chili's has, Panera bread has) and these bottom feeders lose their sole source of income.

    Improve yourself. Improve your condition.

    How far this nation has fallen.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 11 months ago
    Here in Oklahoma City, the average minimum wage is over $10/hr, driven not by Federal, State, or municipal mandate, but by the demand for labor. The economy is thriving here in OK, mainly because the "okies" learned from the oil bust of the '80s. Back then, one of every eight jobs was based on the oil industry, so everything depended on the price of oil. Today, only one of every 28 jobs in the state is based on the energy industry. The economy is diverse, and the state is business-friendly. When I try pointing all this out to a liberal, and suggest they investigate to see the pattern in other healthy state economies, it's like talking to a wall.
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    • Posted by MinorLiberator 8 years, 11 months ago
      Truth. The "minimum wage" has always been, and remains, a purely political, excuse the expression, "wank-off", for, well, politicians.

      The "average wage" for literally any area, by almost any study, is always significantly above the "minimum wage". It's really not needed...except...

      To prevent young, ambitious, motivated workers from entering the labor market at all, or at best delay them. And the truth of that, although somewhat but not completely outdated, but certainly true in the past, is inferior union workers who fear competition from anyone, especially the young and motivated.

      Admittedly, that's history.

      But now it's simply become a myth, or worse "accepted", that "everyone deserves a minimum wage"...and the people who espouse that vociferously and will literally come to blows over it, if you press the point.

      Try to explain to them...wait, hold on, I actually did once:

      While working in a factory when I was just starting out, but had read Atlas, other works, especially Mises, I put a question to a particularly strident union employee, who had a thing about the price of, say, the price of milk:

      "Joe, if the price of milk went down to half, for whatever reason, and, well, so did the price of everything else you buy, like your car, house, would you accept a small cut in yours wages?"

      Joe: "[expletive deleted] Huh, no way man. I deserve exactly what I get, and more so, at least a certain increase every year. I know my rights in the union."

      Does anyone here blame me for not attempting to explain "real wages" vs. "monetary wages", to Joe?



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  • Posted by Temlakos 8 years, 11 months ago
    The head of Burger King said it best: dollar menus would disappear. All their fare would take on the expense characteristic of swanky sit-down restaurants.
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  • Posted by term2 8 years, 11 months ago
    Time for entrepreneurs to make simple robot devices to take the place of the $15.hr workers who cant pay for themselves. Jobs that arent worth $15/hr will simply disappear. Robot technology is up to speed now. It just takes someone to make them intuitive and easy to use. They would do a better job than the front counter people taking orders, and they dont get workers comp, payroll taxes, unemployment, maternity leave, etc. Time to reduce employment !!
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 11 months ago
    Easy it's an entry level job you aren't supposed to live on it. Only use it as a stepping stone to a real job. Walmart goes one step further and helps those who thought their working life was over only see their retirement fund's value destroyed. It's an entry and an exit level job and a backstop to a failed economy. You want family wage levels go to management level or some of the other skills offered.

    Second the employers don't have to offer more they have the advantage of using illegals which are used to artificially depress the wage scale for these type businesses, Be they Jack in the Crack or Tyson's. The difference is as one contributor pointed out Walmart offers the lowest possible prices, nationwide, all the time with decent products. Jack in the Crack offers E. Coli.

    They do perform a valuable public service. If you stay working for them you made your own. Cracks are for kids not couch potatoes
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  • Posted by gafisher 8 years, 11 months ago
    "Deserving" has two sides. Certainly no one "deserves" to take more than their work is worth, but on the other hand no one "deserves" to have the incentive of improving themselves removed by a wage which keeps them just comfortable enough to remain where they are. A "living wage" becomes a sort of speed bump on the road to advancement which would keep many workers from aspiring to better jobs. The inevitable accumulation of such "living wage limited" workers would push the less-qualified out of the labor force, and they simply don't deserve to be harmed in that way.
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  • Posted by SaltyDog 8 years, 11 months ago
    I read an article yesterday about 5 Wal-Mart store around the country closed for 6 months or so to upgrade their plumbing, laying off all the employees. Interestingly, these were the five stores that were stuck on Black Friday a couple of years ago. CBS News in a fit of pique has found that no plumbing permits have been pulled, the implication being that Wal-Mart is engaging in a bit of payback.
    I wonder if Head of State Obama will order the stores to re-open.
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  • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 11 months ago
    the whole "minimum wage" idea is designed to buy
    votes, imho. . using govt force to give people a raise
    whether they deserve it or not. . decidedly D thinking. -- j

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  • Posted by PeterAsher 8 years, 11 months ago
    Another thing that would happen with a raised minimum would be an increase in people wanting the job.

    That would then lead to the lesser competent people being not being hired at all.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 11 months ago
    "They are also blind who will not see."
    It is so simple a Bonomo could understand it. A business exists to make a profit. The profit appears after all expenses are paid including wages. The business exists in order for it to provide the owner a profit. For that, the owner risks money investment, and in many cases hard work. If the business fails, the owner loses his investment in money, time and energy. If raising wages wipes out profit, the owner must either close the business or raise prices. If raising prices causes the firm to become non-competitive, the sales will drop, the profit disappears and once again the business will close. So the basic question becomes: Do you want higher wages or a job?
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  • Posted by NealS 8 years, 11 months ago
    I think they should pick a liberal State or two and overnight just raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Let's see precisely what happens to McDonald's $2 hamburger (I don't know how much they are now, haven't been there in a long time). If they survive ,fine, raise the minimum wage. If the $2 hamburger becomes a $4 hamburger the people that eat there will just have to pay more or eat someplace else. I think we should start this where the State leadership thinks it's a good idea. How about New York? Do It, Try It. Show us how it works. Or maybe California might be a good place to start, since it can just be broken off and we can let it fall into the sea if it doesn't work. That might even solve more than one issue.
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    • Posted by $ WilliamShipley 8 years, 11 months ago
      I think what you will see is a boon for automation. At a $15/hour wage with additional expenses you are looking at almost $80,000 a year for two shifts.

      With that kind of budget you can spend quite a bit on automating the process with an early break-even point.
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      • Posted by NealS 8 years, 11 months ago
        Has anyone noted how bad most of our fruit seems to be anymore. I find it to be tasteless, sometimes having a grain to it similar to dirt, and none of it has any sweetness anymore. Only bananas seem to be real. Is it possible the rest has all been automated? I wonder what automated fast food will taste like? Bui then again, I rarely eat it now..
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        • Posted by JoleneMartens1982 8 years, 11 months ago
          Very true! We recently got a Sprouts in our area. What a Godsend! Rather than ccardboard everything tastes like it should. I literally get laughed at because I will stand there and smell the bell peppers much longer than I should. I never even liked them before, but now I eat them like Apple's. I have also decided to never shop at Price Chopper. Our local store provides fruits and veggies, both regular and organic that taste like pesticides. It makes me wonder how many people can still taste. I get sick from "big box store" meat and produce. I went to a doctor for the better part of a year, just to figure out it was food that was making my sick and obese. Weight has been melting away ever since.
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          • Posted by NealS 8 years, 11 months ago
            Oh, oh, oh, give me some pointers off line (or on- line if necessary), I need to lose about 20 lbs. And with my exposure to Agent Orange exercise is out of the question. Don't tell her I said so, but my wife could stand to lose at least 20 too.
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            • Posted by JoleneMartens1982 8 years, 11 months ago
              Well, I cannot eat pasta anymore. I can only eat about 2 tbsp at a time. I have replaced itwith zucchini others use spaghetti squash. I also done like most sugar. I only eat dark chocolate and only every other week or so in small doses. I have found organic fruits and veggies and as close to locally grown.as you can get taste better and are better for you. Also avoid any pre packaged meats. Look up meat glue. Luck yuck yuck! Its not digestible and I think it and all the hormones they are containing is whats making us all gain so much weight. We have started buying from the local butcher. And we grow rabbits, which taste amazing when fed properly. And you have to stay moving. I haven't sit through a whole movie in years. I have to get up and doo things at least every hour or my joints lock up. So I am really active. I also learned a little lifting weights and stretching every day goes a long way. I also walk a lot, because I mow our five acres and garden. I also walk our young malamute a lot. Its really just a whole foods diet and finding anyway to get exercise. I hate using work out equipment so i have found ways to do it on our farm. Like chopping wood, picking up sticks and walking as much as I can. I really think too much sugar and processed foods is the culprit. Also I only snack on healthy snacks through out the day instead of big meals if I know I am gonna be doing desk work. I hope this helps. Its helped me to lose 2 dress sizes and I am approaching#3.
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        • Posted by $ WilliamShipley 8 years, 11 months ago
          It's not automation, it's the fact that the strains used are developed with picking, storage and transportation as the highest priority. When you get fruit out of season it may be coming from the other side of the planet.
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          • Posted by NealS 8 years, 11 months ago
            Today it all tastes like it might be coming from another planet. Perhaps it's what those people in other lands use for fertilizer that has something to do with it. I might be kind of spoiled, when I used to live two states south of here (some 38 years ago), I had two Avocado Trees, a Grapefruit, an Orange, and a cross bred Lemon/Lime/Something that made the most fantastic juice, and a couple of Apples, all in my back yard. I used to shovel some of up and put it in the trash because I couldn't even give it all away, especially the Avocados.
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    • Posted by slfisher 8 years, 11 months ago
      Doubling the minimum wage wouldn't necessarily double the price of the hamburger. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/20...

      tl;dr The price of labor is about 1/4 the cost of a Big Mac.
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      • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 11 months ago
        This is true. Also the percentage labor cost is not fixed. If labor doubled, it might become economical to use more automation or change their menu to focus on less labor-intensive products. McDonald's already uses automation to pick a cup of the requested size and fill it with the requested type of drink. I think the automation trend will carry on making labor a smaller percentage of fast food regardless of the wage floor.
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  • Posted by jimslag 8 years, 11 months ago
    Somebody mentioned restaurants using tablets for ordering. I ran into one at a Chili's in Albuquerque. But fast food is getting into it also, I was overseas and I ran into one at a Mcdonald's that had a kiosk for ordering instead of the cashier and it took a swipe of your card and Boom, your order was paid for. I have also seen articles on burger machines that do everything. Pretty soon, it will just be the person to bring your food to the counter. The biggest take away from this is, get a degree or training in robotics or machine technology, something like electro-mechanical or electronics or a like technology.

    As for wages, I worked at McDonalds for all of 3 months, then I took my skills and moved to another, better paying job. I kept building on my skill set and getting better training to get better jobs. When I got laid off in a recession, I went in the military and got my electronics training courtesy of my dear, old Uncle Sam. I took that and worked my way to my current job. Minimum wage was a stepping stone to something better. If minimum wage is what you consider your career, you are not bettering yourself or your situation. You are not building your skill set or even trying to be a better you. Minimum wage is not meant to be more than that stepping stone to something better.
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