309 Comments

Interesting how they claim that increasing wages to slightly more than poverty-level for workers is going to doom businesses, but huge increases in executive compensation doesn't somehow.

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Troll patrol is whamming bullshit complaints about this on Facebook. “Now burgers are going to cost $15! You get what you voted for, dummycrats!” I wonder who unleashed them all, and to whose benefit.”

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No sympathy for the whiny owners

I used to work at McD back in the 80s. We made 6 bucks an hour. Which would be like $20/hr in today’s dollars. And we had at least 2’to 3 times more people working the restaurant than they have today. We actually used to grill the burgers. Back then they advertised a hamburger sm fry and a drink for 99 cents. A Big Mac or quarter pounder combo was less than 3 dollars. The franchise owners still did very well for themselves.

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To the extent that McDonald's controls a franchisee's hours of business, price on menus and requires franchisees to buy from them, franchisee's really should be considered gig employees, meaning that McDonald's, not the franchisee, is the true employer and should be paying for unemployment insurance, health benefits and even pension costs. And of course one union to protect them all.

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What if stock market value were based on worker profit and not just direct profitability for investors. Like it would be some kind of tax mechanism or something that makes stock value also dependent on a worker earnings : product value ratio? Like, if your wages are generally untenable your profit gets the shit taxed out of it? Just a thought.

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What if the pay to the lowest position on the staff was directly tied to the amount of “compensation”, including bonuses, the people at the top of the company can take?

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I suppose Scott could just close all his restaurants and call it a day.

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It sucks that the news keeps speaking to small independent fast food vendors complaining about the hourly wage. This only pertains to national or those with a lot of locations. McD's complained when SF raised the min wage and bitched about how it was going to hurt their business. Meanwhile:

McDonald’s Corp.’s stock fell 0.7% Tuesday from recent record highs after the fast-food giant reported first-quarter results that rose above expectations, helped by higher menu prices and increased traffic.

“Amidst a challenging operating environment, customer demand for McDonald’s brand remains strong,” said McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski.

McDonald’s MCD, -0.54% said its net income increased by 63% to $1.8 billion, or $2.45 a share, from $1.1 billion, or $1.48 a share, in the year-ago period.

Adjusted earnings per share, which excluded restructuring charges, came in at $2.63, to beat the FactSet consensus of $2.33.

Revenue grew 4.1% to $5.9 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $5.59 billion.

People will pay more and even with the higher prices, McD had a net income increase by 63% to $1.8 billon.

Please tell me again how a livable wage will hurt you. I double dog dare you.

Source:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mcdonalds-stock-heads-for-3rd-straight-record-after-earnings-sales-rise-above-expectations-8c80d7ba

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In the case of almost all McDonald's franchisees, their rent gouging landlord who is killing them with never ending rent increases is.....wait......McDonald's. In almost all cases, McDonald's owns the store and leases it to the franchisee. And that clown is one hardass greedy M'fer.

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They also control the product sold. You buy from them only.

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Exactly! You do NOT want to own a Subway franchise. 95% guaranteed to lose $$ with their structure.

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When low-wage employees make more money, that money goes right back into the economy, to restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores, etc. It does NOT get hoarded into offshore accounts like the billionaires do.

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Yeah but where else can mediocre assholes with too much ego who can't get aroused without abusing someone who can't escape them find people to abuse? Not all of them are lucky enough to be able to have a half billion given to them to flush down the toilet like Donny Poor Boy.

Seriously, think about the poor, put upon mediocre assholes.

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Rant and Rave of the Day.

When I was born, we had only 10 million people in this here left coast hot bed of hippies and tree huggers. Would have had a lot less except for the Dust Bowl, Depression and WW II.

It was better here ?! Ya gotta be shitin' me. Ok.

The minimum wage was $.50 per hour. My mom plucked chickens and worked at the Greyhound Bus Station for that. My dad didn't do much better. Was sick off and on as war heros often were.

My first job was for $1.00 an hour! Oooeeee Doggies! Shittin' in Tall Cotton me! Not really.

Today we are 40 million live bodies. The Bean Counters say we have lost some population to other states. But is still takes 40 minutes to go thru the 9 miles of downtown LA. A minute per million?

Call me when it gets down to 20 minutes.

The min wage is $20.00.

So obviously we are on a race to the bottom economically with Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

But, quite strangely, we are not. I rarely watch CNBC, never watch Fox Bidness, cause they piss me off with their crying for millionaires. And billionaires.

But mainly they never mention that CA, with all our Socialism Free Gubmint Everything, are the 5 th largest economy in the world. The world. If we were a country.

IMO they want us to be like 10th place Russia I guess. I dunno.

But being 5th is ok by me. Ahead of us are the US, China, Japan and Germany.

Only one that bugs me is China.

Some say it near 1929 for China. Me I dunno.

But if we gotta fly bags of rice into Beijing someday, that would be fine with me.

Just so we give candy bars and tiny American flags to the kids.

Thankyou for reading. 😉

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𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢.

Colorado ski resorts have this problem. The people who provide the services that attract skiers can't afford to live in Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Telluride, or Vail.

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Odd how a Big Mac in Denmark costs about the same as one in the US but the workers in Denmark make more and have better benefits.

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If conservative reasoning were correct a Big Mac would cost two hundred dollars in Socialist Europe

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$90 turkeys in America lately. And you don't get free healthcare.

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In Denmark, a Big Mac is called En Stor Mac

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Europe is civilized. This country, not so much.

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Whaa, whaa, whaa.

Corporate clowns who sell garbage food are whining that they can't afford two foreign holidays this year and will need to skip the oil change on the Mercedes.

If it weren't for the fact that so many people are employed in the franchise junk food business I'd be thrilled if they all closed tomorrow. We are literally poisoning our population with processed food and the rising cost of healthcare is directly impacted by this segment of the economy's output, which yes adds to the rate of inflation.

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Don't forget that they can't afford a NEW YACHT.

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Does anybody talking to these rich assholes about their hardship ever ask them any hard questions? For instance, why do they think that McDonalds in Denmark has been paying workers $22 an hour for years, with 6 weeks of vacation, and not gone out of business? Or maybe something even more direct like; Fast food prices have gone up 60% over the last few years which is double the rate of inflation when it was at its worst, what have you been doing with that massive increase in profit?

"Findings revealed that most restaurants raised prices by 60% on average during the time period, and five — McDonald's, Popeyes, Taco Bell, Chipotle, and Jimmy John's — did so at more than double the actual inflation rate. The cost of goods has risen 31% since 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

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That's the other part of the argument against this increase that I don't get. Even when wages stay the same, the cost of whatever product is ALWAYS going up anyway. It just ends up as profit for shareholders or stock buybacks, but never providing a living wage to the actual workers.

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"We have looked at price, although I can't charge $20 for a Happy Meal."

Since your workers are probably selling 100 of these an hour, just charge 20 cents.

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Business! How even does it work?!

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