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But all they wanted was $15 per hour?
h/t @Stalingrad_Poor
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"You also cant drive an economy into the ground and expect people to work for under a living wage."
Funny; the USA became a world power long before there was such a thing as a minimum wage.
Also; the minimum wage has never been a 'living wage.' So what makes things different today?...
They must have Rehypothecated the entitlement generation, as I'm seeing multiple claims on that little 'nug.
If you raise the wage there will be less employment.
The thing is there will be less employment whether you pay the remaining employees well or poorly.
Check out old pics or video of departments stores across the decades. From people running the elevators, watching the bathrooms and availble to wait on you at a counter in each department to just one cash wrap in each department, to full service only in a few places (jewelry boat, electronics boat, etc.) to a handful of people covering the entire store. And the store is bigger.
When I was college age and working retail there was still an office with a phone operator upstairs, one employee at the fitting room, one at jewelry, one at electronics, and another 6 floor workers arranging displays and helping customers. Now the fitting room person is also the phone operator, there isn't anyone around in jewerly or electronics...you have to find someone on the floor, the customer service desk flexes to be express checkout, and/or there are only 1 or 2 cashiers and the rest is self service.
The idea that NOT rasing wages will slow this down is just silly. May as well raise the wage, churn some money, and stop subsidizing the companies in question by letting them pay wages so low even a single person with no dependents qualifies for government bennies.
To restore that world, the US needs high protective tariffs and tough immigration laws. Do that, and the higher wages and full service will follow.
Well, in 1965 a waitress made $1.25 per hour (minimum wage). Those coins were 90% silver and have a value of about $18.50
That shows you why folks are struggling so bad on $8 to $10.
"Do these fucking people not realize that the end result will be a substantial cut on head count at businesses, an extinction of full-time employment, price increases at grocery stores, no more dollar menus, the rise of Skynet as you see in the picture above, AND that you will not be able to receive all those posh government handouts because now you make "too much" money."
I take it you just moved to the US? Yeah, you'll notice we have the largest population of human cattle in the world. Just eating, screwing, and working to support their owners.
The machine and its maintenance and reprogramming among other functions will require much higher cost than the $15 per hour that workers requested.
But Corporations prefer machines to Humans.
Maybe McDonalds and other similar Corporations should make Robots that eat their shit.
Ahh, genius!
Google's AI with Honda's chassis and a permanent ibattey, but instead of a normal battery, an advanced thermoelectric generator powered by internally composting bio-mass. They would HAVE to eat to survive.
The Automat is back?
Not a new concept.
If the blacks had any sense, next time they felt like an evening riot they would make sure to burn down the local MCD's. After all, with stores like this they won't be losing their jobs, the jobs are already gone.
standard
Real cost of energy rises -> productivity of labor (EROC) implodes -> value of labor collapses.
Robots can do more with less total energy, or at least industry currently believes they can; from this premise, firing your entire labor force is essentially an imperative.
How much did a busboy or short order cook make in the 1850s, anyone? anyone? There's a reason minimum wage was not even a coherent concept until well into the industrial age.
Henry Ford paid his unskilled workers $291 (in today's money) per day in 1914. This was probably for a 10 hour day. So that would be equal to $29.10 per hour. In 1914, there were no taxes to withhold, so the worker got the entire amount. This is many years before Walter Reuther and his brother came back from the Soviet Union and got involved. $5 in 1914 was .2419 troy ounce of gold.
I wonder how many here realize this especially telling point you raise... just how relatively little the typical US citizen had to pay in taxes 100 years ago vs. today... it's mind boggling...
Almost all government spending was covered by protectionist tariffs at the turn of the twentieth century. Now it is by taxing US production.
Ford didn't raise prices out of generosity, nor did he do it so every Ford employee could afford a Ford (he could have just given every employee a car). He did it because of turnover; he had to hire 1000 people just to expand his permanent workforce by 50.
One thing my father told me growing up was don't do anything for a living that you can pay someone else to do.
My fries will still be fucking cold....
In a cashless society, the customer will have to scan his forehead and be charged against his credit points for his food. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Corporate Fascism is so 20th. Century. I have an idea, lets hang the criminal bastards for Treason and evolve into a more humanitarian 21st. Century.
And given his healthcare is provided by the same centralized electronic financial system, if he is overweight its very likely his portion size will be reduced while being charged extra. When you are being cared for by the collective, everything is the collective's business.
Fuck Mickey D and the crap they sell us for food.
What's the problem ?? Those self serves are definitely worth $15 @ hour. Give the machine benefits too.
100 man hours per store affected @ additional $5/hr = $500 per day
$7000 average daily McDonalds Revenue
Additional labor cost 7-8% of revenue
Make the $1 menu the $1.25 menu and they got it covered.
I think the machines have gotten to a point where they are slowed down. They now have 8-10 people working lunch instead of the 6 from decades ago, service is slower and I would wager that the quantity of food each store sells has decreased over the same period.
Technology truly does sucksometimes. I predict that if they take away humans or mechanize the process any further they won't need employees because they won't have any customers. Then again we are talking about humans here, so maybe most will go along with it.
The problem is Robots don't eat.
And what about manager's wages? Why should they not receive a 70% wage increase like minimum wage earners do. $15/hr would put minimum wage workers alongside most managers. Who would be silly enough to take a management position when you're paid the same as a grocery bagger?
And unemployment insurance costs for businesses will go up.
If $15/hr started tomorrow, theoretically it would seem you'd have to make a 40% worth of adjustment somewhere in your business in order to get back to the current $9/hr baseline?
The $1 to $1.25 price increaseis small nominally, until you apply it globally. Imagine having to personally pay 25% more for your fast food and groceries just because some people out there don't know how to apply themselves and pursue better interests and want to push out another puppy every other year.
Their food will still be feces.
I don't think your math is even close. No McDonalds runs with a 4 person crwe six on average minimum. No say the delta is 8 to 15 or 7 bucks. That's about 10 percent not figuring in the extra social or unemployment for the higher pay. I doubt many of these stores are operating on a 10 percent margin
To be honest, I prefer self checkout (never used self order). No snotty clerk, no old lady who wants to chat, no mega coupon person. Just pay & go. Once in a while, one does get behind the idiot for whom the self checkout is just too complicated, but most can handle it.
Add in the automated burger flipping robots, and MickeyD's will cut staff by 50%.
Do you have to ask the machine for the key to use the crapper,or is it OK to just drop your drawers and crap on the floor?
The McRoomba will scoop it up.
Just don't hover over any hamburger buns and drop a duce.
Might confuse the majority of McCrapple consumers.
Automation drives wages down.
No jobs are safe.
Lets say it starts with Mc Donalds.
You lay off workers at food vendors and replace them with robots.
That means that everyone that used to have those jobs, now has to go look for another job in a different field.
This grows the population (supply) of labor available to employers in those fields.
This drives the wages of all other fields down.
When you reach peak automation, you will also reach peak unemployement.
At that point one or more of the following happen....in any combination. . .
1) You have a Utopia
2) Everyone is unemployed and the only way to make money is through selling "vice" (drugs, alcahol, "entertainment" )
3) Population, Goes Down "somehow".
4) Somehow everyone finds a meaningful job that pays "enough" to afford all the things automation has given humanity.
5) The biggest profitiers of automation (corporations and their owners) will be so rich, they wont know what to do with the money, so they start splurging
bnuying giant houses, giant cars, giant planes, giant boats, giant luxury goods (the market for these goods is going to skyrocket) while medium wealth goods (real-estate, cars, etc) will . . . go on fire sale you will have a "everyone is buying stretch limos, wtf am I supposed to do with these Brand New Mini-Vans I cant sell???" syndrom.
Save your $
Vice is going to be legalized and taken over by big business, so that will eliminate item #2 above as a souce of income for freelancers.
Ooops.
Just posted almost the same thing.
If a city passes a $15 minimum wage law, two things will happen:
1. Lots of fast food restaurants in the city will close
2. Lots of fast food restaurants will open just outside the city limits
The poorest are getting the royal shaft & are too dumb to see it.
Skimming by the banks off their SNAP, disenfranchised by the banks. They'll be culled first.
Went into Big Lots looking for a bird bath today. Saw their flyer had what they called a double roll of TP 12 @ $4.
It was half a single roll, which equated to $1 per roll for. Twice the cost for half as much. I buy doubles @ 62c ea for 24.
I have also noticed a lot of chain stores putting a larger item with more ounces next to the smaller ones with a little sign/sticker saying cheaper. But when dividing price/ounces the smaller item is cheaper. Toothpaste/Soap/Shampoo are easy ones to look at.
The self checkout at the local supermarket is always the fastest way to get out of the store. I get the sense that EBT doesn't work there, so that may be part of the faster process. The sense is from seeing so many people lined up at the 1 cashier while there are at least 4 self checkout lanes open.
It makes me sad to think that if someone can't work at a fast food job or doing extremely pointless menial work, that they are useless as a human. There are so many oppotunities in the States that it makes my mind boggle that people will spend their time trying to get min wage increased instead of doing something more productive with their time.
Globalism = wage re-balancing
For more profits to the capital owners
At the expense of the wage earners
Capital vs. Labor
A centuries old battle continues
mcdonalds order app coming soon.
I wonderhow much McDonalds Robots eat?
Kinda like Bender.
Bender Bending Rodriguez is fueled by ethanol in any form.
The other day I stopped by a McDonalds restaurant in Laguna Hills, CA. Upon entering, I noticed the fancy colorful design inside, then a nice girl with a smile greeted me and took me to one of the touch-screen menus to walk me through the process of human-free ordering. It seemed quite easy and convinient. Then the girl told me that in no time most Mcdonalds would have one of these machines installed. I looked at her puzzled and asked, "But then in no time you won't have a job greeting people and taking their orders, it will be the fancy computer's job." She couldn't process what I was saying to her, I guess.
"Yes, I won't have a job once they install the machines." she replied with a smile. The story ends here.
dlrs - Your story started out so enticing. Like Xaveria Hollander in an old Penthouse mag. But trailed off into nothing. You could have a great career. Keep working on it.
I will have a Double By-pass with cheese and a Big Stroke, please.
The difference between these machines and ATMs is that whereas ATMs spit out paper, the McBots give you plastic. Albeit in the shape of a burger.
This is the REAL CRUX of the Matter:
WAGES.
Real Estate is a PASSIVE ASSET.
It cannot GENERATE VELOCITY.
Nor can STOCK MARKETS.
WAGES on the other Hand, are the PRIME DRIVER OF VELOCITY.
The MASSIVE INFLATION in REAL ESTATE has proven this Out 2008 2015, regardless of ECONOMIC DOCTRINE, IDEOLOGY or RHETORIC.
TOO MUCH Capital is in REAL ESTATE and other equally PASSIVE ASSETS.
It has NOT and will NOT Pass thru to WAGES.
CORPORATIONS as all Businesses are in Business for One Reason:
TO MAKE A PROFIT.
It thus only NATURAL to do whatever Serves that Purpose Best; just as The INDIVIDUAL does.
TECHNOLOGY and WAGE ARBITRAGE are Highly Deflationary.
It all comes to this:
HIGHER WAGES or LOWER PRICES.
GOLD, SILVER, and more recently OIL, and myriad Commodities have been telegraphing LOUD and CLEAR which it will be.
REAL ESTATE and the STOCK MARKET will Catch Up, as they always do:
MOVING into the DRY COMPARTMENTS will Prove to have been but a TRANSITORY RESPITE.
What Most FAIL TO UNDERSTAND about Markets, is that they Truly Do Work on their own Timetable.
They take their TIME catching up; but when they do, they do it SUDDENLY, NOT SLOWLY.
To those Who Believe and have Subscribed through Position to the Premise that The Laws of Physics do NOT Apply to Markets:
CAVEAT EMPTOR.
As I've said, TRILLIONS, NOT BILLIONS, will be PERMANENTLY LOST by Current Rentiers.
As BILLIONS becomes TRILLIONS VAPORIZED a $ 100 MILLION will Seem Cheap.
Not ARROGANT, but rather VISIONARY.
"MOVING into the DRY COMPARTMENTS will Prove to have been but a TRANSITORY RESPITE."
As George W. Bush would say...."this sucker's going down."
If you happen to get Ebola from touching that shitty screen, then they will face billion dollar setttlement. Save them moar money!
Automation collides with the goal of ever expanding growth and profits.
The several machines shown, replace several workers. They require far fewer workers to keep them running. One tech per many machines. Several workers wages are now eliminated from the economy. Several of those workers will for some time, be a drain on the economy. Even the businesses that make the machines, strive to automate more. It is obvious that workers and their salaries are eliminated all through the chain. If not, business would have no reason to automate.
But. Business wants more customers to spend more money. While eliminating their customers opportunities to make money.
This eventally fails, with bad results for all. Unless the economic goals are changed somewhat.
Less growth for the sake of just profit in money. Instead, growth of quality of life. Less time spent working. Fewer horrible jobs done by people. Stable population levels. So we end up with the actual dream we used to have. High quality of life. Challenging high skilled jobs. Highly educated population. Living a good life in a modern, efficient, world. The mindless greed drive for profits, has to give way to the long range view of what is profit. There will still be profit. Some will have more than others. But the baseline will be much higher.
We do need to have a stable population for this to happen. Which we would have, if we did not import workers and then screw them over. Instead, we need to cope with the natural population limiting effect that a decent level of affluence creates. You would have a population that was intelligent enough to begin balancing things out in better ways. Enjoying an ever increasing quality of life. Which is a real profit.
200 years ago, 95% of the American work force worked in food production and distribution. Today it's <5%, and we not only don't have 90% unemployment, but we've grown to have the highest standard of living the human race has ever seen. Think about it. Automation only decreases jobs if consumption remains stable, but that never happens. Those who profit from automation (both the producer who sees higher profit margins and the consumer who sees lower prices) have more money to spend, and that spending creates jobs. Increased efficiency ALWAYS creates increased consumption and a higher standard of living for everybody.
Consumption's job in the marketplace is to consume all income and wealth....and then some. Its quiet obvious that automation and technology does eliminate jobs. And there's not infinite demand for any commodity regardless of if it is free. In some cases demand for a product actually falls because of lower pricing. In manmade manipulated markets, demand is many times created, invented, coerced, not natural. Those who own the means of production, market to create demand and therefore price. Nothing is real in this economy. It is so false, so manipulated as to defy any logic. People are indoctrinated to consume, irrationally in many cases. We have no idea what we really want or even need having been lied to for so long. Any perceived laws of economics have been so deliberately distorted for so long that I don't think any rational prediction can be made, other than it will fail and likely be disastrous.
Still Garbage in and garbage out.
If it's anything like the WaWa sandwich kiosk, it'll be great !
How will the illiterates that eat this garbage figure out how to work the machines?
And when we reach the nth degree of automation will the machines eat anything?
What wage a person makes per hour will never be enough unless we get a handle on what things cost. Cost is the problem more than wages. Big corporations routinely raise prices 10%, 20%, and more. Everything goes up in cost, independents follow. The big corporations will put the independents out of business with this routine and thus they will own it all, raising prices higher and higher. The gigantic sucking sound of wealth transfer until the many are serfs is the goal. Population control through starvation.
Ummmm... if Company A raises its prices, it makes it easier, not more difficult, for Company B to thrive.
People don't have to work anymore. What the hell were they thinking. The oligarchs own the robots and they pay so people's tummys don't get hungry; so they don't riot; and kill banksters. Everything is fine. Today.
Stupid fucks just need to charge $65 for a hamburger and pay their help $30 an hour. Cheap fucks, every last one of them.
"ZH nurtures the lowest common denominator" - here, fixed it for ya, Tyler...
Thankfully, you are here to lead the way for us.
If no one works, no one buys. To give examples from 100 years ago to now isn't quite right because new type of businesses opened up like the stock market and various jobs that required a workforce. Farmers are still required so there is still jobs in it. Not all farming is automated either. What automation aims at is not reducing the workforce, but replacing the workforce entirely. So the only type of businesses that will still exist will be companies to maintain these machines. They may increase the number of workers required to maintain the robots, but not enough to replace all the people who will be jobless. So what may happen is that populations will start dying off, lack of jobs mean lack of people migrating. So it could actually cause a major issue to these type of companies who rely on congested regions of activity to survive. I don't see any other type of businesses really being created as we have not advanced nearly like we had from the early 1900's to the mid 1900's. On contrary to what people believe looking at these toy gadgets, we have not advanced as most of these type of goods existed for a very long time but are being refined, nothing more. And anyway, that only has created jobs in other countries, not our owns. And look at the IT industry, it really is one giant bubble waiting to burst in sillicon valley. Once that happens, then what? What jobs will be left? Even manufacturers are moving towards automation.
Only industries that will survive are service industries for the service industries, banking and what not. Outside of that, nothing. And this will create a major problem, when you have a massive population unemployed, where is the money going to come from to keep these people surviving? Once they run out of food and beer, they will start to riot and that is when change happens.
I think there should be a healthy combination of automation mixed in with still having employees. At Safeway and the like, they have at least a couple of people working to still help at the self checkouts.
"these type of companies who rely on congested regions of activity to survive"
It is called URBANISATION, AND THE REASON FOR THAT IS TO CONTROL THE MASS OF SHEEPLE, with entry and exit points where they will be milked dry.
Obama and his minions willl probably institute a $30K/year kiosk fee, transfer fee receipts to the unemployed, prior McD employees. Essentially ACA'ing McDonalds
I'll have the $40 quarter pounder with a small order of $15 fries. Wait you got it wrong. No pickles. By the way I need an application. Engineers only pay so much.
I often wish I could make my annual salary with my riding mower skilz.
I kept wondering when this would happen. I unfortunately find myself McDs about once every two years due to extreme hunger and poor planning on my part.
The last time I was there the tellers fed your money into the machine which automatically ejected the correct change because people can't count. The cups were automatically pulled and filled by a machine. The person was there only to hand you the change, put a lid on the drink, and hand you your bag of poison. No pimple faced teenagers there either. All pissed off middle aged or older workers barely capable of working a point of sale system.
Never mind the wage issue, I am wondering WTF they are using as "meat" these days. I was vegan for 17 years, and have been vegetarian for a few years now, but every once in a while I will go through the drive-through and get a Big Mac with no meat (and add a Boca Burger)(you don't need to tell me that's pathetic, I know). Here's the thing - once in a great while they will screw up and put on the meat. It happens about once a year. In years gone by, I would bite in, and the "meat" part of my brain would go off, and I'd think, "wow, yeah, that's why most people do eat that stuff."
But the last couple of times it has happened (twice in six months), that "meat" part of my brain was silent. And my dog, who is always in my car, and always hungry, has no interest in the things (she is interested in ALL other food).
What IS that stuff that they are calling "meat"????? Yuck.
I would check on how the cat population is doing near your MacDonalds. Maybe they should take on a James Bond theme and call themselves Pussy Galore.
I own bison, perhaps you would like to eat one?
I shoot them with my .303, in the head, then stick their neck with my knife,
To bleed them you know, kinda like one of them ISIS youtubes i seen on the youtube.
Anyway, I'll pick it up by the leg, with my tractor loader, and haul it to the yard and then slaughter it.
We hang it up in quarters on meat hooks and let it cure for a few weeks.
Then the local butcher butchers the carcass.
The we eat it, it is good. The liver is most excellent fresh, I don't really care for other organs.
Sometimes I'll save the hide for tanning, and the dogs gets all the bones.
I'm not nearly as efficient as a Plains Indian in using all the parts left over.
Much better to get your meat real.
Stack On
No, thanks, I hunted when I was growing up, and gutted and cleaned many a fish. So if you think that your description is somehow exciting and shocking, well it isn't, not really. I'm glad the bison you're eating were humanely raised and killed, but I'll pass. If my dog could eat meat I'd consider hunting for it for her, but she has IBD and has to have hydrolyzed food.
Are you MDB in drag?
Your dog has "IBD" because it doesn't eat meat.
It is a dog for fuck sakes, no different than a fox, coyote, wolf, dingo, jackal.
What do think they are supposed to eat?
Kohlrabi and Parsnip?
You are an omnivore, eat real meat or live sick.
Karen
Your dog is sick because it doesn't eat what it should.
Apply that logic to yourself.
My bison don't eat grain.
Just grass.
Fed by the sun.
And something terrible is coming our way.
The sea lion story portends ominous futures.
Fuck You Bernanke doesn't help.
Good to know we have canine gastroenterologists on this board, LOL.
Well, she's been to several, and her body can't handle the proteins. It's an illness; of course most dogs eat meat; if they have this particular genetic ailment then they can't.
And I hate to break this to you, but I'm totally healthy. There is more than one way to eat healthfully.
Back in the 90s we "hunted" buffalo on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. It really was inexpensive at the time and the amount of meat brought back was amazing. I'll be honest..at the time I wasn't that impressed with the meat (grass fed wasn't a much used term back then). The burger was fine, but you had to be very careful if you plan to grill the steaks or you'd have jerky. Neat animals...its sad what happened to the huge herds that once grazed the plains.
It is sad what the "white man", in his greed, did to the huge buffalo herds that once grazed the plains.
There fixed for you!
Let's hope not, because those idiots wasted nearly everything they didn't need at the moment.
Questions about your statement about:
"I'm not nearly as efficient as a Plains Indian in using all the parts left over.
"Let's hope not, because those idiots wasted nearly everything they didn't need at the moment."
You know this how? Were you there?
Commodity jobs will end up with commodity wages.
1 person shops, manned by passionate professionals will always be superior. But it is impossible to scale without degradation of quality.
McD's promises a standardized experience everywhere in the world and does well at it. It would not profit at it if enough people did not buy into what they offer.
I remember something that looked just like this 10 years ago, in a warehouse out in the subburbs where MCD was testing this concept. ... it's been 10 years now... I wonder how much longer till this actually happens.
So with the advent of Artificial Intelligence and when machines and robots completely replace human labour,skilled(Doctors,Engineers etc) and unskilled as well,then how the,by then, unemployed human population will be able to afford the cheap products and services these machines will provide? With no income even a 100$ car is 100$ too expensive. With the way our economy works on a global scale,if human labour is completely replaced it'll be the end of society,due to massive loss of jobs,unrest and ............Skynet? ;)
Answer: See World War Z. Hint we are the zombies
swiping your fiat digits for some robotic foods. Brawndo for everyone!
With our smart dumbphones we can all work as entertainers. Let me selfie you farting in my face, will be the next youtube sensation!
At least maybe the machines can get the order correct.
And when they don't, can you imagine the Catagory 5 Chimpouts?
First, the Japanese came with their cars and destroyed Detroit. I said nothing because I was not an overpayed, unionized auto worker.
Then, they started moving the factories to China, and I said nothing, because I wasn't an overpayed unionized factory worker, but a highly paid, supersmart IT worker.
Then they started importing cheap Indian programmers (whom I had to train to get my severance), and I finally started to squawk about it, but no one cared.
Then, I got a job with Home Depot for $8 an hour, lost my home, my car, and my family. When Home Depot went to automated checkout, and the manufactured housing boom crashed, I got fired again.
Tried cutting lawns and painting curb numbers, but that didn't last long courtesy of José and other illegals imported by the Republican and Democrat traitors.
So what's left? McDonalds? Not for long, I guess. Maybe the endgame is that I go ahead and die?
Big business is vying for automation and robotics in its sociopathic quest for the acquisition of wealth, and I can imagine that advancements couldn't come quicker for them.
It seems the financial elite will do whatever they possibly can to increase profits and efficiency at the expense of humankind. Humans are too much trouble when compared to an automated, and/or an AI solution. It will start with the automation of low skill manufacturing and service jobs, driverless transport etc, which we are seeing today, and eventually move on to higher, more skilled jobs. If companies like McDonald's, Apple, Nike could replace child/slave labour in third world countries to save what little cost they expend they will absolutely do so without question. You can damn well bet that they will replace anyone with technology if profits are increased.
If you think about it, robots are the ultimate slave, and will no doubt supplant large swaths of human jobs any chance there is, and this will happen more and more as technology advances forward. I find it hard to imagine a business that will stave off profiting by hiring a human versus a machine that can do the same task at a fraction of the cost.
This is all a very disturbing thought to ponder the future of humanity, as we all will eventually be competing with machines to survive and justify our very own existance. Maybe one day there will be a "rise against the machines" and we'll cycle back to how things were in the days of old. Only time will tell.
One question. When the time comes that "machines" replace most human workers, who will be purchasing all the products made by the Machines??
"It will start with..."
Full-factory automation has been around since the 80s.
Went to a little get together, Memorial Day cookout yesterday. 4 couples, and about 4-8 singles. Some dropped in, and moved on. Everyone 50 years old and up. Some mid sixties.
What a sorry ass state of affairs. ALL of these folks where hard working, successful FORMER business owner. Now resigned to struggling for punk wages to get by. People who by virtue of their hard work and sacrifice, should be enjoying life's rewards. But all of US, I'm included, fucked and trying to survive.
The only couple doing swell, he has 30 years with a big local contractor, her running a bootleg catering business for cash.
Topics: Working on the holiday, with no overtime. Truck needs a starter, but can't afford it. I'm selling product, but the owner won't pay for a good workforce, so clients getting pissed. Jobs that used to provide a living wage, corrupted by off the books Hispanic labor. Illness and maladies that go untreated for lack of insurance or time away from work.
5-8 years ago, this crowd was jet setting and having company sponsored parties as a thanks to all employees, etc.
Now, just fucked. And these are all hard working smart people, who lived straight lives and tried to do the right thing. One by one, slowly fucked by the system.
Depressing to thing this is the way we will have to navigate our "best years".
Terribly depressing. Do you think it's just your region or is it widespread?
We are in Maryland.
If you have a position that sucks .gov teet, you're in high cotton.
If you're an " undocumented ", you're special class now. You work regularly, live beyond your wildest dreams, realitive to your birthplace, and are essentially untouchable.
If you are native born, and have to produce value or a profit to maintain, look out. From the cops on feeding frenzy, while your trying to get to work or home, to every aspect of your life being taxed or fee-ed by local, state of Federal grifters looking to keep their gold plated salaries and pensions intact, you are pretty much....fucked.
The end.
Edit..not the end.
Maryland would dry up and blow away if where not for Government money. Three quarters goes to the buerocrats running the shitshow, the rest goes to the " minorities" ( it's a holiday, I'm being polite) that just can't seem to function in our society after 5 generations, but consist of a very valuable and reliable voting pool. But have managed to stake a disproportionate claim in government operations. Nice.
On my street, cul- de - sac.
A nice couple, both paid firefighters in a distant county.
A school teacher.
A ... " high level elected .gov official" ( op sec req.)
A nice retired couple. Her a school teacher, the other her, a cop.
Nice folks, but all dead in the water if .gov teet dries up.
And that is by no means a complete list.
That's the cul- de sac!
Jesus Christ....
we have 93 million not in the work force, so some of us think low cost goods and free trade and .gov taxation and regulation are just getting started, automation will just add to the not in the work force totals.
"It's a big club and You are not in it."
mcdonalds just closed a site here that had few customers, never thought i would see that happen.
imo, McDs has jumped the shark-a McKale sandwich-really? And the CEO is a Limey-what's nexton the menu, fish n chips? tea and scones?
anyway, on ZH not long ago was the photo of a machine that can make and cook about 250 custom burgers an hour.
let them eat whoppers
Make sure you kids out there get your high school degrees and go to college!
Sounds great! Is college costs for my kids covered by my McDonald's employment?
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
What's the problem?
I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Our society isn't technically on par with the advances in automation.
Have you seen an old fogie try to use the new touchscreen soda machines with like unlimited choices of flavors? They probably just mastered using the touch tone phone to refill 'scrips.
They'll still need to keep a few workers.
With all that new change. Will the food be better????