CEO Crushes The Minimum Wage Lie: "It's Cheaper To Buy A Robot Than Hire At $15/Hour"

[Brain357]

It is crazy how the right celebrates low wages.

You are a moron.

I'm not celebrating low wages. Now that is stupid.

 

[WillowTree]

It is crazy how the right celebrates low wages.

You are a moron.

I'm not celebrating low wages. Now that is stupid.

No one else is either, you are a moron.

 

[Brain357]

It is crazy how the right celebrates low wages.

You are a moron.

I'm not celebrating low wages. Now that is stupid.

No one else is either, you are a moron.

The repubs are on this board daily. You must be blind.

 

[Brain357]

Ahhhh.....Fight for 15....this is working great.

Yes and low stagnant wages with lots of inequality is working great.

 

[WillowTree]

You morons should study up on the ups strike of 97. The unions struck for higher wages. It cost them millions to strike, but they won their higher wages and many people lost their jobs. Good outcome, Yes?

 

[Brain357]

You morons should study up on the ups strike of 97. The unions struck for higher wages. It cost them millions to strike, but they won their higher wages and many people lost their jobs. Good outcome, Yes?

I know you hate higher wages.

 

[WillowTree]

You morons should study up on the ups strike of 97. The unions struck for higher wages. It cost them millions to strike, but they won their higher wages and many people lost their jobs. Good outcome, Yes?

I know you hate higher wages.

You don't know your ass from a hole in the ground.

 

[FJO]

How long and how much schooling one must have to slap peanut butter and jelly on two pieces of bread?

I think you miss the point. If you are on your feet for 8 hours on a shift, making food for hundreds of people, you SHOULD get paid a decent wage.

If the wage you get for your labor is not "decent" go get another job where your perceived skills are more justly rewarded.

When I was a freshly arrived immigrant with no language skills I did not think the wages I received on my first job as a bell hop in a second rate hotel were decent, I got up and got a job in a gold mine for twice the wage the hotel paid me. Yeah, far away and underground, but it did not kill me.

When I realized that I should be able to get something more "decent" if I applied myself, I went to high school as an adult student and got my diploma which lead me to an opportunity to learn how to be a computer programmer.

I never needed a minimum wage law, and I never needed a union to speak for me to get a "decent" wage or salary.

Nor does anyone with any brains and determination or will power or faith in self or being "decent".

 

[WillowTree]

So now you gotta ask yourself why the unions want to be exempt from the $15.00 minimum wage they helped fight for.

 

[dannyboys]

Every classroom in the US from grade one to twelve ought to have a VERY large picture of a robot painted to look exactly like Ronald McDonald hung on the front classroom wall.
"This boys and girls" is the Ronald McDonald who is going to get the only job you will be qualified for if you don't get your fucking head in the game in my classroom".

 

[bullwinkle]

How long and how much schooling one must have to slap peanut butter and jelly on two pieces of bread?

I think you miss the point. If you are on your feet for 8 hours on a shift, making food for hundreds of people, you SHOULD get paid a decent wage.

If the wage you get for your labor is not "decent" go get another job where your perceived skills are more justly rewarded.

When I was a freshly arrived immigrant with no language skills I did not think the wages I received on my first job as a bell hop in a second rate hotel were decent, I got up and got a job in a gold mine for twice the wage the hotel paid me. Yeah, far away and underground, but it did not kill me.

When I realized that I should be able to get something more "decent" if I applied myself, I went to high school as an adult student and got my diploma which lead me to an opportunity to learn how to be a computer programmer.

I never needed a minimum wage law, and I never needed a union to speak for me to get a "decent" wage or salary.

Nor does anyone with any brains and determination or will power or faith in self or being "decent".

I admire your pro-active attitude, FJO. And wish there were more of it. It is a lesson I taught my kids, and they have done me proud. But it isn't always possible, especially if you have children, for a multitude of reasons. Your way is the best answer, but not always the possible answer for a multitude of people. I think what also plays a part is that, as an example, the Waltons are wealthy beyond the understanding of most blue collar folks, yet keep pay low, creating unrest. So it is with McDonald's in that the surviving Mrs Kroc isn't exactly worried about the light bill. However, I must add that I have worked with several former McDonald's employees, and back in those days at least, working at McDonalds created a high work ethic that stayed with it's former employees, to the benefit of future employers. Great training! But now, sadly, it is not a 'beginner' job, but a livlihood to many, and what you did is not always possible.

 

[Fair&Balanced]

i was at a panera bread where they had one of these Kiosks.

There was one person trying to use the Kiosk and 20 people waiting in line for a HUMAN to take their order. I actually tried to use the Kiosk because I was kind of in a hurry between meeting clients. Ten seconds of scrolling and I took my business somewhre else.

If anything, they are LESS efficient, because they can only serve one customer at a time, and that customer has to take the time to figure out what he wants (by scrolling through the option) then running his order.

Which will still have to be prepared by a human in the back.

No one believes you have a job , let alone clients.

As for automation. Who cares, what does that have to do with the fact that there will always be entry level jobs that require protection.

 

[dannyboys]

i was at a panera bread where they had one of these Kiosks.

There was one person trying to use the Kiosk and 20 people waiting in line for a HUMAN to take their order. I actually tried to use the Kiosk because I was kind of in a hurry between meeting clients. Ten seconds of scrolling and I took my business somewhre else.

If anything, they are LESS efficient, because they can only serve one customer at a time, and that customer has to take the time to figure out what he wants (by scrolling through the option) then running his order.

Which will still have to be prepared by a human in the back.

No one believes you have a job , let alone clients.

As for automation. Who cares, what does that have to do with the fact that there will always be entry level jobs that require protection.

Why should entry level jobs "require protection"?
Face it. Entry level jobs are most often low skilled. The days when 99% of McDonald's 'entry level jobs' were being applied for by high school students who ACTUALLY knew how to read and write and WASH their fucking hands! and show up ready to actually WORK and on time, are a thing of the past.
Those are the jobs the robots are replacing for all time.
We all have to understand what worked in the past ie lots of kids getting their first entry level jobs isn't ever going to work again.
Either kids get their heads in the game academically from the start or their futures visa vi EVER having a decent well paying secure job is non-existent.
Sadly the education system is controlled by unions and no matter how useless a teacher is they will never be replaced. The LIB run public education system is responsible for 'streaming' out millions of fucking illiterate LIB/Socialist brats who believe they are somehow entitled to what other people have earned and worked hard for and saved for.
And when the only job they can get is is MW they demand to be literally handed more money than they deserve so they can make believe they are magically 'equal' to someone who earns $15+ an hour.

 

[rightwinger]

I think it depends..

Is the CEO looking to hire a Lost in Space type robot or a Terminator type robot?

 

[tigerred59]

Well everyone knows that

-Geaux

------

While this should come as no surprise to any rational non-establishment-teet-suckling economist (and certainly not to our readers), former McDonalds' CEO Ed Rensi continued his crusade against the naive "solution" to poor living standards that has been peddled by a clueless administration in the form of a higher federal minimum wage, and after he patiently explained one month ago that "the $15 minimum wage demand, which translates to $30,000 a year for a full-time employee, is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of a restaurant business just do the math" Rensi found that nobody has still done the math.

Which is perhaps why the ex-CEO reappeared on Fox Business yesterday to explain to Maria Bartiromo that as fast-food workers across the country vie for $15 per hour wages, many business owners have already begun to take humans out of the picture, McDonalds most certainly included.



As Rensi admitted, "I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry - it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries - it’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across this country like you’re not going to believe."



“It’s not just going to be in the fast food business. Franchising is the best business model in the United States. It’s dependent on people that have low job skills that have to grow. Well if you can’t get people a reasonable wage, you’re going to get machines to do the work. It’s just common sense. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. And the more you push this it’s going to happen faster,” the former McDonalds Chief Executive added.

Rensi also said that we should do away with the federal minimum wage and leave it up to the states, which is quite logical. It's also why it will never happen.

"I think we ought to have a multi-faceted wage program in this country. If you’re a high school kid, you ought to have a student wage. If you’re an entry level worker you ought to have a separate wage. The states ought to manage this because they know more [about] what’s going on the ground than anybody in Washington D.C." Spot on.


Former McDonalds CEO Crushes The Minimum Wage Lie: "It's Cheaper To Buy A Robot Than Hire At $15/Hour" | Zero Hedge

If that's the way the fat cat feels, than let his fuckin robots buy his gotdamned greasy nasty burgers...end of debate.

And consumers need to protest any market in the fast food retail industry that replaces workers with this nonsense.....let em see how far profits go, when robots buy only batteries and wires...LOLOLOLO

 

[WillowTree]

Mac a dos makes the very best French fries. Not so much on the burgers. I love Five Guys burgers but they make lousy FF.

 

[rightwinger]

Mac a dos makes the very best French fries. Not so much on the burgers. I love Five Guys burgers but they make lousy FF.

Five Guys has great fries

Fresh cut from the potato and nice and greasy

 

[WillowTree]

Mac a dos makes the very best French fries. Not so much on the burgers. I love Five Guys burgers but they make lousy FF.

Five Guys has great fries

Fresh cut from the potato and nice and greasy

I hate them.

 

[tigerred59]

Ordinary people will welcome automation in food service. It's better than these miserable servers who approach every customer as their personal enemy. Customers will welcome not having to check their food to see if someone spit on their burger.

Hey you fuck head....ROBOTS CAN'T BUY FOOD, RENT APARTMENTS, PATRONIZE A RESTURANT OR BUY A FUCKIN HOUSE, YOU IDIOT. THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK NEXT TIME.

 

[WillowTree]

Ordinary people will welcome automation in food service. It's better than these miserable servers who approach every customer as their personal enemy. Customers will welcome not having to check their food to see if someone spit on their burger.

Hey you fuck head....ROBOTS CAN'T BUY FOOD, RENT APARTMENTS, PATRONIZE A RESTURANT OR BUY A FUCKIN HOUSE, YOU IDIOT. THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK NEXT TIME.

Yes, but the people who make the robots can..