See we told you.. Mcdonalds is ordering 7K touch screen to replace cashiers

[beagle9]

And now all McDonalds needs is a machine to flip the burgers, assemble the burgers, put the fries in the basket, wrap the burgers, fill the cups, take the money and make the change, sweep the floors, empty the trash, etc.......

Then they won't need any employees with the outrageous demand that they be paid enough to live! Why should anybody expect that their job would pay them enough to afford housing food and clothes? Why how greedy of them!

Oh, you're one of those people who thinks people should be able to support a family on a minimum-wage job.

You might want to stop supporting politicians and policies that force businesses to relocate, shut down, or outsource. Then more people would be working and wouldn't have to rely on minimum wage jobs.

So...in part, it's YOUR fault.

No I think the person was thinking more along the lines of these companies should be paying from or should have a properly run pay scale system, and not that they are driven by the low wage system in which the government has to subsidize for them. When the government (IMHO) shouldn't have to be subsidizing their pay system for them in these ways at all. I mean think about it, are we being played the fools by it all ?

 

[PixieStix]

McDonald's orders 7,000 touchscreen kiosks to replace cashiers - Neowin


YOu wanna walk out on your job for more money. Guess what you now might lose your jobs all because of UNIONS who are greedy..

I wonder when people will stop being so stupid. Buying into propaganda like sheep o the slaughter

 

[alan1]

If you don't want employers to provide a basic standard of living, then the taxpayers must

So what you're saying -- and this is a question, I don't want to put words in your mouth, er, keyboard -- is that it is the responsibility of a business to pay someone whatever it takes to support their family.

Is this correct?

.

It is hard to respond in an absolute context. We have a major portion of our population that does not earn sufficient wages to support a family. The answer is not that those tens of millions of workers need to hunker down and work harder.
We are not just talking McDonalds workers who earn $7.25 an hour but single mothers struggling in a factory at $10 an hour.
If the answer was.....everyone is taking a hit in this economy. Then there is not much more we can ask a business to do
But business is making money, profits are up, Executive compensation is through the roof. Prosperity of our corporations is not trickling down to the workers at all levels
So the answer is .....Yes, we should demand that our employers pay more and the taxpayers should pay less

Becoming a single mother was their choice, not mine, not their employers.
It is not incumbent upon me or their employer to support them just because they made crappy decisions with their life.

 

[daveman]

I could be a rethug if I wanted to practice being an asshole.

You don't need any practice. You're a progressive, so you're already an asshole.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Demand that your pay doubles, you are going to lose your job instead.


Didn't think of that, now did ya?


Idiots.

Several years ago there was a Continental Tire plant here.
The company was facing competition from plants in the US that were in states where those companies got tax breaks and had non union staffs. Also of course were the foreign tire makers competing as well.
The avg Continental worker was making $27 per hour in wages not including health benefits and pensions. The company management told the union that those labor costs were no longer sustainable. The union leaders encouraged the workers to not take any deal involving wage and benefit concessions.
So instead of taking modest pay reductions and higher percentage contributions to benefits, the workers decided to strike. Continental closed the plant and 400 people were sent packing with ZERO income. Real smart, these union bosses.

 

[depotoo]

Anyone who believes that McDonalds put this into action due to the recent strikes is a moron. Or a Right-Winger.

Corporations do not move this quickly.

these union organized strikes have been going on for a couple of years now against fast food restaurants. I f you don't think companies were beating down the ocrporate doors to offer them a solution immediately, then you are wrong. What is interesting is they have waited until after the 3rd or 4th strike before doing anything. Sounds like they actually wanted to keep those cashiers, rather than put in the robotics to me. Once again unions harm working Americans that prefer choice rather than coersion from unions. .

 

[beagle9]

Market based wages are not artificially low, bub.

Well toots...

They are artificially low when the taxpayer subsidizes the wage market by providing the employees substinance.

Simple solution.
Stop providing welfare to them.
It amazes me that so many liberals think the government (tax payers like me) are expected to financially support low wage or no wage people. I didn't bring them into this world, let them earn their own keep.

Gotta have jobs for that, and a whole lots of them.. People for the most part don't want to be dependent, but I do believe that their are a minority of them that do, and for the ones that work, well they should be working in a well managed environment always. The government should never have to subsidize a well managed company, and I mean never.

 

[rightwinger]

Market based wages are not artificially low, bub.

Well toots...

They are artificially low when the taxpayer subsidizes the wage market by providing the employees substinance.

Simple solution.
Stop providing welfare to them.
It amazes me that so many liberals think the government (tax payers like me) are expected to financially support low wage or no wage people. I didn't bring them into this world, let them earn their own keep.

Now we are getting somewhere

Republican plan seems to be:

Keep wages low and allow unfettered corporate profits
Allow workers to continue working at wages they cannot support their families on
Cut the working poor off from all taxpayer assistance
Encourage slums, inadequate food, cut off educational opportunities and healthcare

Isn't that called Third world USA?

 

[Mac1958]

Becoming a single mother was their choice, not mine, not their employers.

It is not incumbent upon me or their employer to support them just because they made crappy decisions with their life.

No, I think this is exactly what they're after. Take responsibility off the shoulders of the individual and transfer it somewhere else. Reduce expectations across the board, make other people pay for a person's lack of personal responsibility.

This thread has been a real eye-opener.

.

 

[rightwinger]

Yep. The problem is the nature of the work and the value the employee brings to the employer.

There are going to be far fewer McDonald's employees supporting a family on their wages than Apple, for example. The obvious reason is skill set. I asked before, and I can never get a straight answer, how many people are really trying to support a family at McDonald's?

You folks are simply refusing to honestly address three critical questions:

Why is it the responsibility of a corporation - whose only objective is to maximize shareholder value -- to base pay on some arbitrary "living wage" that varies wildly from employee to employee?

Why do you not acknowledge and promote the fact that people are capable of improving their own lives via workplace advancement, new employment, and/or improving their own skill set to make themselves more attractive on the employment market?

Isn't it the fundamental responsibility of an able-bodied adult to make a higher income than their monthly costs so that they can avoid needing public assistance, a drain on our tax money? How could that possibly be someone else's problem?

.

Conservatives always resort to this.....offering an individual solution to a problem with a population. Yes, an individual can improve his lot in life.....a population can't. Supply and demand apply.
All societies require a certain percentage of low level labor. They cannot all be executives. The question remains....what standard of living should this part of our population have and who should pay for it?

If you don't want employers to provide a basic standard of living, then the taxpayers must

I beg to differ.
As a taxpayer it is not my responsibility to provide a standard of living to some other person. If they want the comforts of life such as housing, clothes and food, let them earn it for themselves and their family. Again, it's not my responsibility to support them, that is their own personal responsibility.

Yes

And those Americans who want a country resembling Calcutta agree with you

 

[alan1]

The reality is robotics will continue to take away more and more American jobs. But here is my issue: Why have both political parties sold us down the river with the jobs?

The American middle class was built with manufacturing jobs. Those are almost completely gone. Why is a company like Apple, for example, allowed to outsource 100% of their manufacturing jobs overseas? They should be required to have at least half of their manufacturing jobs in the U.S. or face a huge tax penalty. Why don't the politicians do this?

Name one politician that wants their children or grandchildren to have a "good manufacturing job". I challenge you to find one video of a politician stating that. Sure, they think those are great jobs for your children and grandchildren, just not theirs. But what do you think? Do you have children? Do you want your child working in a manufacturing plant running the rivet machine, or do you want your child to be the engineer or manager?
One of my kids works in banking, the other in IT, both cushy office jobs that are much better than working on an assembly line manufacturing cars or computers or furniture.

By the way, American manufacturing jobs are not (as you say) "almost completely gone", the USA is currently the second largest manufacturer of goods in the world. China holding the spot as the largest, but then China has over three times our population, so it's no surprise that they manufacture more stuff.

Does our amount of manufacture equate to a similar ratio of jobs? I don't have any idea, just wondering if using amount manufactured is a fair comparison, since it's at least possible the US uses fewer workers to manufacture a comparable amount of products.

In all likelihood, the US probably has a lower ratio of jobs in manufacturing than China. My point to WelfareQueen was that US manufacturing jobs still exist in large numbers. Also that politicians, WelfareQueen and I don't want our children in those jobs.
Here is a blog I wrote about two years ago,

Efficiency Causes Job Loss

In 1790, farmers were 90 percent of the U.S. labor force. By 1900, only about 41 percent of our labor force was employed in agriculture. By 2008, less than 3 percent of Americans were employed in agriculture.

U.S. manufacturing employment peaked at 19.5 million jobs in 1979. Since 1979, the manufacturing workforce has shrunk by 40 percent and there's every indication that manufacturing employment will continue to shrink.

I’m sure some of you are asking, “What the hell is your point, alan1? Farming and manufacturing aren’t related.”

The answer isn’t about farming or manufacturing, it’s about efficiency. The reason it only takes 3% of Americans to produce the food we eat is because of the gains in efficiency over the methods the farmers of the past used. The same is true for manufacturing. Today's manufacturing worker is so productive that the value of his average output is about $234,000. Output per worker is about three times as high as it was in 1980 and twice as high as it was in 1990. That’s efficiency in action.

I can’t find any articles about politicians of the past gnashing their teeth and bemoaning the loss of farm jobs because farms were becoming more efficient. So why is it that today’s politicians are wailing and screaming about the loss of manufacturing jobs? Do the politicians want the US worker to be less productive? Have you ever heard a politician say he wants his child to grow up and get a manufacturing job?

 

[depotoo]

College tuitions soar each year, advancing far in excess of the inflation rate. The overall inflation rate since 1986 increased 115.06%, which is why we pay more than double for everything we buy. On the other hand, during the same time, tuition increased a whopping 498.31%.

and you want to blame McD's??

 

[beagle9]

Well toots...

They are artificially low when the taxpayer subsidizes the wage market by providing the employees substinance.

Simple solution.
Stop providing welfare to them.
It amazes me that so many liberals think the government (tax payers like me) are expected to financially support low wage or no wage people. I didn't bring them into this world, let them earn their own keep.

Now we are getting somewhere

Republican plan seems to be:

Keep wages low and allow unfettered corporate profits
Allow workers to continue working at wages they cannot support their families on, while making the government pay the difference. Cut the working poor off from all taxpayer assistance (in which is crazy thinking)
Encourage slums, inadequate food, cut off educational opportunities and healthcare.

Isn't that called Third world USA?

I added two to your words up above if you don't mind, and yes that is exactly what it leads to in the end.

 

[depotoo]

Market based wages are not artificially low, bub.

Well toots...

They are artificially low when the taxpayer subsidizes the wage market by providing the employees substinance.

Simple solution.
Stop providing welfare to them.
It amazes me that so many liberals think the government (tax payers like me) are expected to financially support low wage or no wage people. I didn't bring them into this world, let them earn their own keep.

And many of us that think companies such as McD's should not be subsidizing them for their crappy decisions once made crappy decisions ourselves but learned to move past them because we realized we must become sufficient for ourselves rather than demand others to provide for us. It is called learning to be responsible for ones own life decisions.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Detroit Police officers start out at $14 per hour. McDonalds employees should make more?

From where did you get that information?
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that cities do not have to make public names of employees or their wage information. That's unprecedented in that ALL public employee wage and benefit information should be readily available to those who pay the bills.
It is OUR money. We have a right to know where it goes and who is getting it.
Government should not have the right to work in secret.

 

[rightwinger]

Well toots...

They are artificially low when the taxpayer subsidizes the wage market by providing the employees substinance.

Simple solution.
Stop providing welfare to them.
It amazes me that so many liberals think the government (tax payers like me) are expected to financially support low wage or no wage people. I didn't bring them into this world, let them earn their own keep.

And many of us that think companies such as McD's should not be subsidizing them for their crappy decisions once made crappy decisions ourselves but learned to move past them because we realized we must become sufficient for ourselves rather than demand others to provide for us. It is called learning to be responsible for ones own life decisions.

We are looking at 60 million crappy decisions to accept jobs at McDonalds, WalMart, manufacturing, menial labor, service jobs

Do you have 60 million better paying jobs that these workers can move in to?

 

[thereisnospoon]

McDonald's orders 7,000 touchscreen kiosks to replace cashiers - Neowin


YOu wanna walk out on your job for more money. Guess what you now might lose your jobs all because of UNIONS who are greedy..

And what do you suppose might be the outcome of such robotization?

Jobs will be lost.

Corporate profit will rise.

Government will increase benefits to the unemployed.

Corporate taxes must be increased to compensate.

Do you know of a likely alternative?

This 'robotizaton' would be far off in the future if union rabblerousers would go find something else to do with themselves. The unions want unrealistic wages for fast food workers. Unless one is looking toward management, that type of work is NOT a career.
It is low skill entry level type work for kids and seniors looking to make a few bucks.

 

[depotoo]

Simple solution.
Stop providing welfare to them.
It amazes me that so many liberals think the government (tax payers like me) are expected to financially support low wage or no wage people. I didn't bring them into this world, let them earn their own keep.

And many of us that think companies such as McD's should not be subsidizing them for their crappy decisions once made crappy decisions ourselves but learned to move past them because we realized we must become sufficient for ourselves rather than demand others to provide for us. It is called learning to be responsible for ones own life decisions.

We are looking at 60 million crappy decisions to accept jobs at McDonalds, WalMart, manufacturing, menial labor, service jobs

Do you have 60 million better paying jobs that these workers can move in to?

you still haven't backed that figure up. It has always been my responsibility for my lot in life - noone elses. I found my way away from the starting pay job I had when I was younger. Why can't you? Why can't they? And without a college dgree. Why can't you find your way to work harder so you are recognized and given more, better yourself, whether through self education or otherwise. Or do you not have enough self esteem to see past your own plight probably self driven? And once again you are relegating responsibility away from the worker. Why does that not surprise me?

 

[John W Slacker]

Libs think they can keep raising taxes, mandating wages, requiring federally-specified healthcare, heaping on thousands of regulations, and business won't react by laying off or just moving out. Libs never learn and know ZERO about business. All libs do is DESTROY.

Exactly!!

 

[candycorn]

FWIW--

No one forces McDonalds to offer whatever benefits they do offer or Wal Mart or Target, or Dicks or Carl's Jr. I used McDonalds corporate information since they are a publicly traded company....

Their dividend--what they pay you for owning their stock--rose from about 22 cents a quarter 10 years ago to over 80 cents a quarter today. With about a billion shares outstanding, they pay out $3B to people who have done nothing other than own their stock. In that same 10 years, those of us who consume McDonalds food would argue the food has gotten worse if anything.

I would argue that if they cut that dividend by something like 25, that would save $1B or so (one dollar less) and found a way to raise wages, they'd have a better restaurant serving better products.

But again, nobody forces them to offer what they do offer. It could be much worse.