This
It always makes me scratch my head when announcements are made about raising minimum wages as all it does is either get people replaced by machines or illegals who work below the set minimum
In New York, The current minimum is $11 right now. last year it was $9. by the end of 2017 it's going up to $13. the next year 14, 2019 it will $15.
I already told people I know. bro the minimum going up. [spoiler] nigga somebody is going to get fired.. they aren't going to pay us $15 for this shit. including the fact that taxes are at an all time high and now our governor has made tuition free public colleges.. the taxes are going to be fucking insane.
FREE college? Damn, that's going to cost ya.
Taxes are going to be YUUUGE..
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Well......once that $15 a hour wage kicks in it'll be kiosks there too, just with a laser printer to put your name on the cup for that personal touch. lol
Today that might be true, but with automation comes AI and after that they can create their own advancements in automation....
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They'll make a machine, you put your drink order in and it just spits it out into your cup. Finally starbucks won't mess up my order.
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We've been on this road since we started farming several thousand years ago. We're experiencing something akin to the industrial revolution and the growing pains hurt. I feel that the education system is the biggest problem in all of this, because it sets kids up to fail as adults, it is an absolute train wreck.
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Unfortunately those employees won't soon become programmers or electronic design engineers. So the jobs are lost not displaced.
Its funny mcdonalds was running heavy PR about hiring 50000 people back in 2011. Businesses don't just hire becuz muh prezidunt said help. They're expanding, looking for cheaper produce and charge more for product. Fire full-time employees, hire two part-time, avoid tax and health. Its simple business, really pathetic business practice where morals only get in the way.
Happily reporting I have not eaten mcdonalds in over 10 years, and my body thanks me every day.
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I agree that everyone pushing for higher minimum wage should have seen this coming from miles away; however, it doesn't actually benefit as many people as it harms, because there is a 0% chance McDonald's is going to reinvest the savings into employee education. I suppose it does "pull a crutch" out from under any former employees too complacent to seek greener pastures, but realistically, it's not helping anyone but executives and shareholders. Anyone losing a job is only losing the capital they would otherwise have to make the aforementioned shift, and I think we can expect most to simply seek out a similar position elsewhere, not to mention that unemployment is only adding to that welfare problem everyone talks about...
All in all, I'm not against automating "lame jobs," but we're fooling ourselves if we think this is motivated by anything but corporate greed.
That said, creating more of those "lame jobs" only creates stagnation in an already dismal education system.
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This ^^^^^^^ Spot on.
It's funny, jobs like this were for all of my life considered "Entry Level Jobs" jobs for teens and retirees, they were never considered as careers or even much more than job experience to add to a resume, somehow they are now considered jobs that are more important than maybe mowing lawns or painting a fence, I'm not trying to trivialize these types of jobs because they do produce income that many holding the jobs do need, but you are correct the people holding these jobs will either move to other low skill jobs or just not work at all.
I can't imagine anyone working at McDonalds considering it as a career, and I also can not see McDonalds paying to retrain displaced employees, if they could there would be no humans working in McDonalds or really any fast food type of business, jobs like this are destine to evolve into automation simply because of greed and profit. There are other businesses that will loose human contact (human employees) if wages raise too high and from a business perspective it makes good sense especially if your customers don't mind the change.
I think back to when I first got my drivers license, (1972) every gas station had attendants that pumped your gas and would check your oil, tires, etc all basically on the premise of selling you something and having satisfied customers that would come back. Today we pump or own gas, we pay at the pump, and finding "free air" at any gas station is imposable because none have air compressors any-more....my point is these workers were also replaced because of automation and profit, it really hasn't changed society much except we pump our own gas.
The problem, as I see it, is that we are moving towards a technological situation where the overwhelming majority of the population will not need to work in order for society to provide basic goods, services, and perhaps even luxury items. Thus making people in general obsolete.
Just...someone needs to explain to the wealthy that "hey, no one can buy your products and you won't get anymore money, if you don't pay anyone to do work".
cue food riots, marshal law, societal decay because the ultra rich don't understand that they've made the very idea of economy obsolete
We're either going to eventually have to entirely abandon money as a concept, or, and it pains me to say this, enact a universal paycheck to all citizens. How that would work or where the money would come from, is beyond me.
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This has nothing to do with the lame, as other have put "jawbs" bullshit.
Look, I'm not a rocket scientist, that said - I don't work in what others are calling "low skilled" position. My job is not at stake at all in this conversation, period.
Where this automation shit affects me is that it is not suitable for a stable society. Please explain to me how literally making a very substantial percentage of our population unemployable a good thing.
You know what happens when people run out of money... and food... and shelter. No they don't just "die off" like some of you crass assholes say. They go to jail, join organized crime, or riot.
And this isn't just affecting what, again others assholes terms here not mine "low skilled jobs." Dude their coming after taxi drivers and truck drivers. Those are decent paying jobs.
What's going to happen when 3.5
million families lose their 75k income stream and benefits from automated trucking?
What's the answer? "Tough shit?"
For me this has absolutely nothing to do with hippy liberal bullshit. This has to do with two things: 1: the stability of society (I have a stake in that) 2: the preservation of mans natural right to sell his labor.
PS anyone who pulls "survival of the fittest" or "people who flip burgers can just die off" are complete jags.
Quick side note: the generation before me put human being on the freaking moon. Think about that as an accomplishment. AND they did it without all the sophisticated equipment we have now. And what did we do? We built freaking kiosks at McD's....
People - we are freaking PATHETIC.
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Expected.
Not to say that it makes me "happy" to see that people are going to loose their job, that sucks. And I don't think you can blame people for asking for more money either (which undoubtedly has pushed this issue forward for major corporations), I get people want to make a sustainable living. It's hard not to sympathize with those people. But as technology advances the reality of the situation is that there is a "better" way to fill the roles that those people filled in terms of cost and reliability. A machine can't be late, it can't get sick, the chance of making mistakes is less, and it costs less to work "better" in the eyes of the people running McDonalds for those reasons. Sucks, but expected.
It is hard too see how with the rise of computers that there will eventually be an uplifting of the median worker like there has been with prior revolutions in technology without something unforeseen by me or others happening. Innovations in farming pushed the excess laborers into cities where the labor could be used, but where does the labor go if there are computerized takeovers in EVERY field? Puts us as a society in a very hard place.
Not that I'm one that would argue we shouldn't advance though. We just need to problem solve as we go forward. A computer takeover is coming too every job, so it needs to be our goal as a society to figure out how to keep one another fed, housed, and happy when there is no job for one to sustain themselves from.
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Also, to get this clear - McD is still a VERY profitable company. There's be a lot said about how they're suffering profit dropping. While that's true - they are still VERY in the black.
Also I just looked at their consolidated income statement from dec 31 2102 - 2016 and here's a quick break down:
Overall profits have declined over the past four years. Selling and general administrative expenses remained steady but have actually decline. Payroll and benefits expenses declined. Lastly, overall company-operated expenses have decline.
Here's the kicker, it looks like the biggest loss in profit is a significant decrease Sales by Company-operated restaurants.
Overall this is not an operating expense problem, where all of a sudden $15 am hour employees are eating into the income statement. It's a lack of sales - consumers aren't interested in their product or another competitor is providing a better one.
This is high level management, marketing and sales problem - not a line level employee problem. I highly doubt there was a sharp drop in sales over 4 years because suddenly people stopped wanted to go to McDs because they had to talk to people and would rather interact with robots.
No, this is not an employee operational cost issue or line level worker isssue it was all administrative failing. But per SOP it's pinned on the line worker, $15 and hour labor movement.
Edit: So, anymore of the - this is the result of 15$/hour movement or they took our jawbs shit - that can stop now.
I can see an argument of a declining company caused by poor marketing and high level management trying to reposition itself as some, IMO, freaky techy fast food joint and rebrand itself due to declining sales. I can understand that. But understand I won't be going there and will be contributing to a lower number on that first line of their consolidated income statement.
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And they also think we can get a job with just a firm handshake and a smile
Don't fall for the Boomer meme
All of which results in less of them=dying off
Your looking at historical and not looking towards the future. McDonalds sees how a $15 an hour pay raise WOULD cause an operating expense problem. Most McDonald's employees are not making $15 an hour, or close to to that percentile difference wise. If the minimum wages country wide raise, that is a massive operating expense problem for McDonalds.
My heart is bleeding for them. If they want to increase sales they should improve the quality of food and lift its price a little instead of blaming the minimum wage rise.
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Mc Donalds are not going to stop clogging people arteries any time soon. My kid was a think 15 when he did a hungry jacks course and worked for them. In his spare time. It is a way for kids to see the real world. The work force.
Well was... with Mr flipply bot and Mr Kiosk we no longer need humans outside of consumers 
Not sure how good of a person the suits are; but my local McD's is complete shit.
Manager's are horrible, my gf used to work for them and they would fire people for little reason, force people to stay and work 12 hours, 'not feeling well? Oh you went to the hospital for medical condition x? Well you shift just started'.
Word has gotten around how horrible of a place it is to all the locals and we all avoid it. And one manager there does the whole charge you 35 cents for a sauce packet. Fucking hated that. Douche bag.
Watching the world burn. So glad that the 1% are lining their pockets with more money they don't need as people starve, are not clothed, have no home, etc.
****off Wall Street.