Fast-food workers strike, seeking $15 wage, political muscle

[IsaacNewton]

The argument that minimum wage jobs weren't meant to support a family used to be true. The Great Recession gutted the middle class so many had to move to lower wage jobs, hence the outcry by millions for a better wage. These things are related.

I think a $15/hr minimum wage is a good idea for any business over say 15-20 employees. But it will hurt startups and those with 10 or less employees. There should be two tiers, $11/hr for under 15 employees, $15/hr for those over.

I think $15/hr across the board will actually stifle many of these people that want to start their own small business of doing so. Larger companies should stop bitching.

 

[TNHarley]

Minimum wage lowers the unskilled GDP. Nobody wants to tell people that because they all want slave labor here.
Between that and all these clowns wanting amnesty, the nonskilled don't have a fuckin chance.
Thanks Democrats and Republicans!

You're talking about immigrants? They are the problem? The only reason there has been an influx of illegal immigration is because they could get jobs here. The real problem is illegal employment, end that and you'll end illegal immigration.
Hating on immigrants is just what the economic elites want, get the masses fighting amongst themselves.
Look up, not down.

I made a thread on what I would do. I covered that area you mentioned
TNHarleys solution to the immigration problem | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

 

[Freewill]

Good on em. Hopefully they'll get it, or something close. McDonalds has made $Billions off the blood, sweat, and tears of their slave workers. So it gets no sympathy from me. It's time for McDonalds to do some good for a change.

Slaves? What you talkin' about Willis?

Oh, I see, you are making the assumption that most of these workers are black. Thus assuming they are too stupid to learn a trade and they need you to take care of them and their vote. Gottja.

 

[Freewill]

The argument that minimum wage jobs weren't meant to support a family used to be true. The Great Recession gutted the middle class so many had to move to lower wage jobs, hence the outcry by millions for a better wage. These things are related.

I think a $15/hr minimum wage is a good idea for any business over say 15-20 employees. But it will hurt startups and those with 10 or less employees. There should be two tiers, $11/hr for under 15 employees, $15/hr for those over.

I think $15/hr across the board will actually stifle many of these people that want to start their own small business of doing so. Larger companies should stop bitching.

I will agree that the result of the recession was Obama and that certainly has gutted or outright killed the middle class. Or have you once again forgotten who is president? Or did you forget who took over Congress two years before the recession?

 

[wihosa]

REAL workers do earn a living wage, entry level jobs, e.g., burger flippers, car wash attendants, etc., need only make $3.50 an hour..., if that much, low entry pay level jobs should be an incentive to improve oneself, yet the libertards want those jobs be a life time career position.

Oh yes, a society were a greater and greater number of people live in poverty, that will make America great again!

Does hating on others really feel good? Or is it really a reflection of your own self worth?

 

[wihosa]

Minimum wage lowers the unskilled GDP. Nobody wants to tell people that because they all want slave labor here.
Between that and all these clowns wanting amnesty, the nonskilled don't have a fuckin chance.
Thanks Democrats and Republicans!

You're talking about immigrants? They are the problem? The only reason there has been an influx of illegal immigration is because they could get jobs here. The real problem is illegal employment, end that and you'll end illegal immigration.
Hating on immigrants is just what the economic elites want, get the masses fighting amongst themselves.
Look up, not down.

I made a thread on what I would do. I covered that area you mentioned
TNHarleys solution to the immigration problem | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

I tend to agree with a lot of what you think but I don't want to punish people who have made a life for themselves and their families here. I live in SoCal. I have friends and neighbors who are or are related to undocumented people. These are people who came because they were welcomed by the businesses that hired them. To rip them from their homes and families is hideous. In many cases their children are citizens and most want desperately to be Americans.

It's the economic elites who through their greed have created this problem and they love that we, the masses fight amongst ourselves about it. Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy.

 

[Arizona Willie]

I have yet to have someone explain the logic of paying a fry flipper $31,000 per year.

========
Then he can afford to pay his rent / house payment and pay his bills and avoid bankruptcy and buy more stuff from other companies that puts more people to work at those factories and trucking companies that deliver the goods as well as more employment in the retail stores.

Then the taxpayers aren't supporting him with welfare which all righties hate --- unless it's CORPORATE WELFARE which righties can never see enough of.

 

[TNHarley]

Minimum wage lowers the unskilled GDP. Nobody wants to tell people that because they all want slave labor here.
Between that and all these clowns wanting amnesty, the nonskilled don't have a fuckin chance.
Thanks Democrats and Republicans!

You're talking about immigrants? They are the problem? The only reason there has been an influx of illegal immigration is because they could get jobs here. The real problem is illegal employment, end that and you'll end illegal immigration.
Hating on immigrants is just what the economic elites want, get the masses fighting amongst themselves.
Look up, not down.

I made a thread on what I would do. I covered that area you mentioned
TNHarleys solution to the immigration problem | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

I tend to agree with a lot of what you think but I don't want to punish people who have made a life for themselves and their families here. I live in SoCal. I have friends and neighbors who are or are related to undocumented people. These are people who came because they were welcomed by the businesses that hired them. To rip them from their homes and families is hideous. In many cases their children are citizens and most want desperately to be Americans.

It's the economic elites who through their greed have created this problem and they love that we, the masses fight amongst ourselves about it. Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy.

I agree. But I do NOT support amnesty in any form. It is a failure. It is time to stop failure/insanity.

 

[Brain357]

The argument that minimum wage jobs weren't meant to support a family used to be true. The Great Recession gutted the middle class so many had to move to lower wage jobs, hence the outcry by millions for a better wage. These things are related.

I think a $15/hr minimum wage is a good idea for any business over say 15-20 employees. But it will hurt startups and those with 10 or less employees. There should be two tiers, $11/hr for under 15 employees, $15/hr for those over.

I think $15/hr across the board will actually stifle many of these people that want to start their own small business of doing so. Larger companies should stop bitching.

I don't think we had 64 million low wage workers in the past so it's all many with families can find. Your idea sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Mac1958]

The argument that minimum wage jobs weren't meant to support a family used to be true. The Great Recession gutted the middle class so many had to move to lower wage jobs, hence the outcry by millions for a better wage. These things are related.

I think a $15/hr minimum wage is a good idea for any business over say 15-20 employees. But it will hurt startups and those with 10 or less employees. There should be two tiers, $11/hr for under 15 employees, $15/hr for those over.

I think $15/hr across the board will actually stifle many of these people that want to start their own small business of doing so. Larger companies should stop bitching.

I don't think we had 64 million low wage workers in the past so it's all many with families can find. Your idea sounds pretty good to me.

So a business with 15 employees has to pay $15 an hour, and a business with 14 employees can pay $11 an hour?

Do you folks see any potential problems with this?
.

 

[healthmyths]

And the clowns that want to just screw up your order while flipping burgers (and get less than 30 hours a week thanks to employers dodging the Obamacare mandates)????

Yeah....it'd be a shame if our nation granted each citizen automatic health care like so many others do. Like every other goddam thing in America the folks at the top are dreaming of a Lord/Serf society where, of course....they're the Lords.

Look closely then study about it for an hour or so then tell me which wealthy, powerful nation is missing from the list:

Well now, you have a nice list of countries you'd likely be happier in. Why don't you move to one of them?

Screw that and screw you!! When I was a young man we led the world in this sort of thing. Now the goddam corporations and upper class have everything. Don't push it.....look at history. People will revolt before they let the elitist assholes have it all.

Right now the powerful declare unnecessary wars knowing that someone who's less fortunate will end up fighting and dying in the thing. When this country invaded Iraq they proved my case. Iraq had never done anything to the United States except try to assassinate old man Bush and he was in Qatar when Saddam Hussein did it. America used to be a nation for the people...now the goddamned upper 5% have it all. The richest 85 people in the world have more money than the 3.5 billion who are in the lower 50%. That's a travesty and only a Republican will support such a ridiculous thing.

Pity you....pity party for you!
OH woe is you.
A) when you were a young man YOU never even conceived that you would be able to converse with the world from the comfort of your basement bedroom!
B) You have now what NOT the Single richest person in the world had when you were a young man... the ability to call anyone anywhere in the world from anywhere...
even your basement bedroom!
C) When you were young 1 billion people were still in poverty levels... but today as an OLD man you are the reason that over 1 billion people in the world since
Here use the internet that didn't exist when you were young and SEE how this terrible Evil Capitalistic country of the USA has helped!!1

Poverty rates started to collapse towards the end of the 20th century largely because developing-country growth accelerated, from an average annual rate of 4.3% in 1960-2000 to 6% in 2000-10. Around two-thirds of poverty reduction within a country comes from growth. Greater equality also helps, contributing the other third. A 1% increase in incomes in the most unequal countries produces a mere 0.6% reduction in poverty; in the most equal countries, it yields a 4.3% cut.

China (which has never shown any interest in MDGs) is responsible for three-quarters of the achievement. Its economy has been growing so fast that, even though inequality is rising fast, extreme poverty is disappearing. China pulled 680m people out of misery in 1981-2010, and reduced its extreme-poverty rate from 84% in 1980 to 10% now.
http://www.economist.com/news/leade...out-extreme-poverty-20-years-world-should-aim

NOW you ignorant OLD man sitting in the basement USING a device that never existed as a young man...
Check this chart out!
The number one country by 25% is the USA helping CHINA lift nearly a billion people out of poverty!

List of the largest trading partners of China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Campbell]

there has been a steady decline of the middle class which began with the decline of the labor movement. People bemoan the loss of "good manufacturing jobs " as if there is something magical about manufacturing jobs. It was unions that turned those jobs into good jobs. There were manufacturing jobs before unions but back then they were known as sweat shop jobs and people worked 10 hours a day six days a week, that was a 'standard work week'. I have an old calendar dated 1914 and it is telling that it only has 1 red day a week, that being Sunday. There was no such thing as a weekend before unions fought for the 40hr work week. Companies cried about how they couldn't afford to pay full wages for only 40 hours a week instead of the "normal" 60! They would go out of business and everyone would loose their jobs!

Well, of course that didn't happen, and the greatest middle class there has ever been was created. Now we are seeing the same thing with the push for $15 an hour. The claims that $15 an hour will ruin business are lies and anyone fooled by these claims only work to destroy what is left of the middle class. The manufacturing jobs that went overseas aren't good jobs anymore, they're sweat shop jobs again!

The point is, it doesn't matter if the job is manufacturing cars or hamburgers, it should still pay a living wage. Any business that makes profits while its workers live in poverty deserves to fail. Even if the cost of labor were to increase $6 from $9 to $15, it would not make prices skyrocket. Labor is only one component of the total cost, there is also raw materials, land and permanent assets (building and such), transportation, advertising, executive salaries, and of course profits. If the price of a burger goes from $5.00 to $5.25 no one will stop buying burgers but all those people who got a raise will become much more self sufficient. They won't need government handouts. They will have cash to spend in the economy which will then grow faster. Businesses will benefit, not be hurt.

When everyone does better, everyone does better!

Exactly....the reason the well to do bosses in this country don't want to pay good wages is that they're afraid they will ultimately lose their gravy train.

In the late 40's, early 50's a corporate executive earned 12-15 times what a plumber or electrician earned. By the 70's that multiplier had risen to 100 times as much. In 2012 the average CEO made 500 times as much as an average worker. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what happened. The hand picked boards of directors will let their CEO get away with anything he wants to.....that's why you see CEO's of failing companies leave with a "magic Umbrella" which hands them multi-millions as they exit. The big boys are responsible for the end of the middle class. They just couldn't stand to see their son stand and pick his nose while some hard working average guy became his boss.

 

[Brain357]

The argument that minimum wage jobs weren't meant to support a family used to be true. The Great Recession gutted the middle class so many had to move to lower wage jobs, hence the outcry by millions for a better wage. These things are related.

I think a $15/hr minimum wage is a good idea for any business over say 15-20 employees. But it will hurt startups and those with 10 or less employees. There should be two tiers, $11/hr for under 15 employees, $15/hr for those over.

I think $15/hr across the board will actually stifle many of these people that want to start their own small business of doing so. Larger companies should stop bitching.

I don't think we had 64 million low wage workers in the past so it's all many with families can find. Your idea sounds pretty good to me.

So a business with 15 employees has to pay $15 an hour, and a business with 14 employees can pay $11 an hour?

Do you folks see any potential problems with this?
.

Well the smaller business will probably have trouble finding people to work for 11 when jobs making more are plentiful.

 

[Mac1958]

The argument that minimum wage jobs weren't meant to support a family used to be true. The Great Recession gutted the middle class so many had to move to lower wage jobs, hence the outcry by millions for a better wage. These things are related.

I think a $15/hr minimum wage is a good idea for any business over say 15-20 employees. But it will hurt startups and those with 10 or less employees. There should be two tiers, $11/hr for under 15 employees, $15/hr for those over.

I think $15/hr across the board will actually stifle many of these people that want to start their own small business of doing so. Larger companies should stop bitching.

I don't think we had 64 million low wage workers in the past so it's all many with families can find. Your idea sounds pretty good to me.

So a business with 15 employees has to pay $15 an hour, and a business with 14 employees can pay $11 an hour?

Do you folks see any potential problems with this?
.

Well the smaller business will probably have trouble finding people to work for 11 when jobs making more are plentiful.

Yep. And on the opposite side, many businesses that can find people will avoid taking their payroll above 14.

Similar to the situation the ACA created.
.

 

[Misty]

Good on em. Hopefully they'll get it, or something close. McDonalds has made $Billions off the blood, sweat, and tears of their slave workers. So it gets no sympathy from me. It's time for McDonalds to do some good for a change.

I'd fire them all. Ungrateful shits

 

[wihosa]

Minimum wage lowers the unskilled GDP. Nobody wants to tell people that because they all want slave labor here.
Between that and all these clowns wanting amnesty, the nonskilled don't have a fuckin chance.
Thanks Democrats and Republicans!

You're talking about immigrants? They are the problem? The only reason there has been an influx of illegal immigration is because they could get jobs here. The real problem is illegal employment, end that and you'll end illegal immigration.
Hating on immigrants is just what the economic elites want, get the masses fighting amongst themselves.
Look up, not down.

I made a thread on what I would do. I covered that area you mentioned
TNHarleys solution to the immigration problem | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

I tend to agree with a lot of what you think but I don't want to punish people who have made a life for themselves and their families here. I live in SoCal. I have friends and neighbors who are or are related to undocumented people. These are people who came because they were welcomed by the businesses that hired them. To rip them from their homes and families is hideous. In many cases their children are citizens and most want desperately to be Americans.

It's the economic elites who through their greed have created this problem and they love that we, the masses fight amongst ourselves about it. Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy.

I agree. But I do NOT support amnesty in any form. It is a failure. It is time to stop failure/insanity.

Amnesty is a loaded word. No one is talking about a blanket amnesty but rather "earned citizenship". What we have now is un-American with a two class system. One for citizens and one of discrimination. People living in shadows, categorized by skin color or language.

Divide and conquer.

 

[TNHarley]

Minimum wage lowers the unskilled GDP. Nobody wants to tell people that because they all want slave labor here.
Between that and all these clowns wanting amnesty, the nonskilled don't have a fuckin chance.
Thanks Democrats and Republicans!

You're talking about immigrants? They are the problem? The only reason there has been an influx of illegal immigration is because they could get jobs here. The real problem is illegal employment, end that and you'll end illegal immigration.
Hating on immigrants is just what the economic elites want, get the masses fighting amongst themselves.
Look up, not down.

I made a thread on what I would do. I covered that area you mentioned
TNHarleys solution to the immigration problem | US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

I tend to agree with a lot of what you think but I don't want to punish people who have made a life for themselves and their families here. I live in SoCal. I have friends and neighbors who are or are related to undocumented people. These are people who came because they were welcomed by the businesses that hired them. To rip them from their homes and families is hideous. In many cases their children are citizens and most want desperately to be Americans.

It's the economic elites who through their greed have created this problem and they love that we, the masses fight amongst ourselves about it. Divide and conquer is an ancient strategy.

I agree. But I do NOT support amnesty in any form. It is a failure. It is time to stop failure/insanity.

Amnesty is a loaded word. No one is talking about a blanket amnesty but rather "earned citizenship". What we have now is un-American with a two class system. One for citizens and one of discrimination. People living in shadows, categorized by skin color or language.

Divide and conquer.

Some group did a poll and illegals overwhelmingly said they didn't want citizenship. They wanted a right to work..
Look at Reagans amnesty. Less than 30% signed up.. It is FAILURE

 

[wihosa]

And the clowns that want to just screw up your order while flipping burgers (and get less than 30 hours a week thanks to employers dodging the Obamacare mandates)????

Yeah....it'd be a shame if our nation granted each citizen automatic health care like so many others do. Like every other goddam thing in America the folks at the top are dreaming of a Lord/Serf society where, of course....they're the Lords.

Look closely then study about it for an hour or so then tell me which wealthy, powerful nation is missing from the list:

Well now, you have a nice list of countries you'd likely be happier in. Why don't you move to one of them?

Screw that and screw you!! When I was a young man we led the world in this sort of thing. Now the goddam corporations and upper class have everything. Don't push it.....look at history. People will revolt before they let the elitist assholes have it all.

Right now the powerful declare unnecessary wars knowing that someone who's less fortunate will end up fighting and dying in the thing. When this country invaded Iraq they proved my case. Iraq had never done anything to the United States except try to assassinate old man Bush and he was in Qatar when Saddam Hussein did it. America used to be a nation for the people...now the goddamned upper 5% have it all. The richest 85 people in the world have more money than the 3.5 billion who are in the lower 50%. That's a travesty and only a Republican will support such a ridiculous thing.

Pity you....pity party for you!
OH woe is you.
A) when you were a young man YOU never even conceived that you would be able to converse with the world from the comfort of your basement bedroom!
B) You have now what NOT the Single richest person in the world had when you were a young man... the ability to call anyone anywhere in the world from anywhere...
even your basement bedroom!
C) When you were young 1 billion people were still in poverty levels... but today as an OLD man you are the reason that over 1 billion people in the world since
Here use the internet that didn't exist when you were young and SEE how this terrible Evil Capitalistic country of the USA has helped!!1

Poverty rates started to collapse towards the end of the 20th century largely because developing-country growth accelerated, from an average annual rate of 4.3% in 1960-2000 to 6% in 2000-10. Around two-thirds of poverty reduction within a country comes from growth. Greater equality also helps, contributing the other third. A 1% increase in incomes in the most unequal countries produces a mere 0.6% reduction in poverty; in the most equal countries, it yields a 4.3% cut.

China (which has never shown any interest in MDGs) is responsible for three-quarters of the achievement. Its economy has been growing so fast that, even though inequality is rising fast, extreme poverty is disappearing. China pulled 680m people out of misery in 1981-2010, and reduced its extreme-poverty rate from 84% in 1980 to 10% now.
http://www.economist.com/news/leade...out-extreme-poverty-20-years-world-should-aim

NOW you ignorant OLD man sitting in the basement USING a device that never existed as a young man...
Check this chart out!
The number one country by 25% is the USA helping CHINA lift nearly a billion people out of poverty!

List of the largest trading partners of China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

View attachment 54453

The same could be said for any age, "why in the old days it took weeks or months to go to California and now one can ride in comfort on a train and arrive is just five days!"

No one is talking about ending free enterprise but capitalism must be regulated be cause unregulated capitalism ends in monopoly and enslavement.

 

[Stephanie]

lol, they can go Start a Business and come let us know if they then make a living wage. that's if they don't go bankrupted first.

see how simple that is. I wouldn't hire one them if I found out they took part in this silliness

 

[wihosa]

there has been a steady decline of the middle class which began with the decline of the labor movement. People bemoan the loss of "good manufacturing jobs " as if there is something magical about manufacturing jobs. It was unions that turned those jobs into good jobs. There were manufacturing jobs before unions but back then they were known as sweat shop jobs and people worked 10 hours a day six days a week, that was a 'standard work week'. I have an old calendar dated 1914 and it is telling that it only has 1 red day a week, that being Sunday. There was no such thing as a weekend before unions fought for the 40hr work week. Companies cried about how they couldn't afford to pay full wages for only 40 hours a week instead of the "normal" 60! They would go out of business and everyone would loose their jobs!

Well, of course that didn't happen, and the greatest middle class there has ever been was created. Now we are seeing the same thing with the push for $15 an hour. The claims that $15 an hour will ruin business are lies and anyone fooled by these claims only work to destroy what is left of the middle class. The manufacturing jobs that went overseas aren't good jobs anymore, they're sweat shop jobs again!

The point is, it doesn't matter if the job is manufacturing cars or hamburgers, it should still pay a living wage. Any business that makes profits while its workers live in poverty deserves to fail. Even if the cost of labor were to increase $6 from $9 to $15, it would not make prices skyrocket. Labor is only one component of the total cost, there is also raw materials, land and permanent assets (building and such), transportation, advertising, executive salaries, and of course profits. If the price of a burger goes from $5.00 to $5.25 no one will stop buying burgers but all those people who got a raise will become much more self sufficient. They won't need government handouts. They will have cash to spend in the economy which will then grow faster. Businesses will benefit, not be hurt.

When everyone does better, everyone does better!

Exactly....the reason the well to do bosses in this country don't want to pay good wages is that they're afraid they will ultimately lose their gravy train.

In the late 40's, early 50's a corporate executive earned 12-15 times what a plumber or electrician earned. By the 70's that multiplier had risen to 100 times as much. In 2012 the average CEO made 500 times as much as an average worker. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what happened. The hand picked boards of directors will let their CEO get away with anything he wants to.....that's why you see CEO's of failing companies leave with a "magic Umbrella" which hands them multi-millions as they exit. The big boys are responsible for the end of the middle class. They just couldn't stand to see their son stand and pick his nose while some hard working average guy became his boss.

Exactly right. Meanwhile let's pick on those at the bottom of the ladder, it's all those dirty immigrants!

Look up not down!