Fast Food Strike in 50 Cities

General Discussion
161

So what? You shouldn’t be set on flipping burgers but if it’s what you have available, and a job, and you put in hard work you should get paid like a child earning pocket money?

Even if these people you’re referring to manage to climb up the food chain, and you don’t know what circumstances they have holding them back, the fact they manage a job at all due to something like crippling anxiety might be a feat in itself. Say these people do climb up the ladder, what then? You just fill all the fast food restaurants with immigrants? A new brand of slave labour?

It might be a fucking shit job, but it’s a job, it’s work, it’s a commitment to something you don’t necessarily want to be doing for the sake of making an income. You being there is earning others money. Those people getting the better end of it use every excuse in the book to brainwash others into why they can’t pay the people below them their fair share for their contribution when that’s clearly bullshit. Just look at the rest of the world.

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So much anger, so much hate, so much suffering in this thread…

163

And a lot less taxes on that larger pool of money. If collected taxes help anything is a whole 'nother thing though, how we always hear how its spent terribly and “I don’t want my tax money going to this.”

You saw a lot of this during the NBA and NFL lockouts pretty recently. Owners “deserve” to make billions a year, record profits across the board for the league, while being given free money, many times now equal to half a billion paid by taxpayers/city/state, for new stadiums instead of using their own money, but scoffed at profit sharing with other owners not in the big markets who didn’t profit as much (and nobody benefits from their profits, tickets aren’t free). Lakers made a 10 billion dollar TV deal or something crazy. Big numbers news like that quickly comes and goes without a word by anybody, but everyday was on that “Fuck those high jumping low educated bums, pay me less and I’ll play kids games for millions” like they were going to hire people who aren’t in their own top 1% of their fields, and not just scab athletes. AND1 basketballin/Euro dudes/etc. Quality of play would go down as such and not make as much money.

When its more like the athletes are the ones who are in the top 1% of skill and although there are players who sit on benches and get way more than they actually output, they’re only “rich, when the guy who signs my checks is wealthy.” Bench jobbers also have short careers.

And that commissioner took home $50 mil in his last year, and nobody pays to see him take a jump shot on the court.

164

For the record, yes I’m fucked off over what I consider an appalling abuse of the lower class.

No I have never worked in fast food.

I’m not American, I have two qualifications and I work a nice job that involves neither.

I’m not just salty over my own shitty job.

Work is work and if you want to unduly profit off people through the same system that keeps them in line, don’t be surprised when they turn to crime or go on strike because they’ve had enough of being fucked over.

165

I hate saying this, but its from the heart, its how our economy is structured. You don’t get paid a bunch to do whatever just because you are working. You get paid according to the difficulty/education/rarity of the position - plain and simple. If someone has a major issue holding them back, that’s what we have social programs for, whether those need to be reconfigured is a whole 'nother story all together, but that is their purpose.

What level of education is needed to work at McDs?
How difficult are the positions compared to other jobs?
How many fast food jobs are there?

THAT is what determines the value of a position. You don’t need a high school diploma. There are physical aspects to the work, but do you take it home? In parts of NC there are four different fast food places at one corner, you drive down less than a mile and find 4 more…and they frequently are looking for help.

Does it suck to make money that puts you at the poverty line ‘yes’ it does, but just ‘existing’ isn’t justification in our society for you/your position to make more money via the work force.

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166

I think what some people dont realize is that sometimes the “career” you want doesnt pay the bills or is over saturated with workers, or just isnt feasible as a means of sustaining yourself. So you supplement it or get into something that turns into a “job”. Also LIFE fucking happens. Does anyone truly want to flip burgers forever? Maybe you made a mistake and got a criminal background or something and you cant get hired for whatever positions are paying livable wages in your area, or for whatever excuse. The job you work should provide for some sort of minimum living standard that doesn’t rely on the government for supplement. Also, management are greedy people. They get bonuses for keeping costs down. guess what, any hourly wage worker is seen as a cost/expense instead of an asset. Im sure most companies would rather have robots who would work for next to free (including the initial cost and then upkeep) then employ people in order to give back to the economy. People dont want to help other people and relate to them. people want more money so they can distance themselves at all levels.

Example: I live in the gulf coast armpit of TX. Minimum wage is 7.25. 7.25 x 40 hours = 290.00 gross wages for one week x 52 weeks= 15,080.00 gross yearly wages before any taxes and deductions. Thats barely over the povertly line. And heres the kicker: once you take deductions into effect, if you have no dependants, you are actually closer to 13k a year.
A 35-50 year old apartment, 1 bed, 1 bath costs 450-750 a month, plus utilities, and parking. now lets talk about food, lets say you cook at home and you spend 75 a week on groceries= 3900.00 a year.

Is the picture adding up? I make double the minimum wage, single, no kids, no dependents. Guess what, still cant move out. Why, because in order to live comfortably in this area with little commute time to work, you have to average 27.50 an hour with 40 a week. Do the freaking math. Clothes, gas, food, entertaining (whatever you like to do), education costs, health expense, etc… it isnt enough.

But there arent that many good paying jobs to begin with. Why? Baby boomers arent retiring and leaving the workforce, theyre are staying. They are taking up space that newly grads should be filling in. And most cant because they have to take care of their children who moved back in for the reasons above. Its a vicious cycle. Some of you arent seeing it. All you see is “oh he flips burgers, he must not have applied himself or have any ambition”. No, maybe life fucking happened and thats all he could find. Im about done with this thread, if they get the 15 or more or less, yes it will create problems, but no one seems to care about fixing the system which is perpetuating the problem.

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Just for perspective: working in the supermarket industry isn’t the same thing as working in fast food. But, you can draw some parallels.

As I said, I make around 50k a year. I started with the company making $6.50/hr when I was 17. I got a $0.25 raise every 26 weeks. When I went full-time, they bumped me up to $10/hr (which, if it isn’t standard procedure in FF, it should be- a pay increase for going full-time). Since then, I’ve gotten that same quarter every 26 weeks. When I hit my next raise, I’m at the ceiling. So, after nearly a decade of working full-time (6 days a week for the majority of it), I still don’t make $15/hr. And I think that’s okay.

When the day comes that I get promoted, I stand to make more money. The store managers make around 100k a year and the majority of them have been with the company as long as I’ve been alive.

So, no. I don’t think people should make a minimum of $15/ hr for working in fast food. But I think they should be able to make $15 and beyond. It’s not that the bottom is too low, IMO. It’s that the top is.

168

fast food is for poor fat fucks who dont know quality food.

why the fuck do people like to eat a ff places when they can eat at home and eat MUCH better than the bs at ff. im guilty of it myself as well, but at most once every couple months. when i do eat outside, i eat at restauirants. id rather pay twice or 3 x as much but at least eat some quality food. are people this fucking lazy they would rather eat shit than eat good? try some healthy shit once in a while. ff does as much damage as doing drugs, you could be doing drugs and eating healthy while still being healthier than someone eating that ff shit. eating ff daily is worse for your body than smoking weed daily. i know people that do coke almost daily, they are still alive. burgers kill faster than coke, shits fucked up.

theres a hint of sarcasm and some exagerating.

p.s. why the fuck do people like sodas and junkfood that much? i just dont get it. people could be eating real food, but they prefer burgers and chipps and dip, wtf is wrong with dumbfucks nowadays. whats worse, they feed their kids the same way and get them introduced to the same bs. are commercials really that strong vs the us?

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Exactly, Dignity is a privilege, not a right.
God wouldn’t have created us unequally if he thought we all deserve happiness.

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and if those jobs were not there you’d be what? unemployed? that’s better than working there? Do think people land up in those jobs because they want to be there? They’re often desperate, they need money.

In every other first world country, the minimum wage is much higher than the U.S because the people making well in excess of their needs don’t pull all kind of entitlement to justify their greed.

If the job is worth hiring a person for, it’s worth paying them a decent amount for their time. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing. People work easy jobs that require fuck all qualifications all the time for good money. The employer decides what it’s worth and if their greed wont see fit to pay in accordance of the worth of the people working for them, the worth of a human being’s labour, then government should step in to ensure they’re not being exploited.

That’s what it is, it’s exploitation. They’re being abused for the sake of greed. Their time, their lives are being deemed insignificant because they’ve come to you looking to make money. That’s wrong on so many levels. It’s only a small step above the moral justifications being given to slavery of providing a better life than they had in Africa.

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Bahahhaha go to hell man, been having a rough few weeks so off my game lately >:P

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Kromo: killing them softly, since 2002.

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@Unreallystic I’m currently climbing my way out of debt after my girlfriend went unemployed for 18 months too, and I too sought means of secondary income. Fortunately I could do that; I originally had money, so had stuff to sell (toys and comics), I had an education (and a valid criminal record check, due to my own job, so could sell my own time and knowledge as a tutor. I’m not saying there aren’t ways out for some, but we’re talking about people here with nothing else to sell, and no other skills to sell, and often no time to spend doing anything other than their meager existence in “catering”.

My girlfriend dropped out of college originally, and had nothing to her name, and in order to help run a 2 person house, she was working 2 min-wage jobs back to back, and the money was *still * going down, only slower. If she hadn’t got very lucky after facebooking a total stranger and asking if they needed a part time PA, and even luckier when her employer fucked up, and needed to make her full time, the money would still be going down right now. When you’re at the bottom, you keep digging a deeper bottom, and unfortunately magical piles of money is the best way out of it, like the education that would be required for a promotion, or a new qualification, or to have things worth selling, or to prepare for anything past the next day, like you suggested. I’m sorry, but these things are all of a very conservative “let them eat cake” mentality.

A lot of these people are working round the clock, in multiple places, because they need to in order to get by. Moonlighting in my line of work is grounds for dismissal with some employers, but I still did it to pay the rent, if I had kids and stuff on top of that, I don’t know what I’d do, but simply aiming for manager or getting another degree sure as hell weren’t options.

Like frosty said, a job, no matter how “low” it is, should be live-off-able. Your own notion almost implies that there has to be shitty jobs that starve their workers, in order to encourage them to progress, or that if they don’t want to progress, they deserve to starve.

@Azure - if it interests you:

[details=Spoiler]
Sorry, this bit’s off topic, but Azure challenged me :stuck_out_tongue:

If your home has anything other than a dirt floor, you’re in the top 50%

If your home has a roof, a door, windows and more than 1 room, you are in the top 20%

If you have a refrigerator, you are in the top 5%

If you have a car, a microwave, a computer and your toilet at work has a door on it; congratulations you are in the top 1%

We can assume you’re at-least already in the top 5%, and being in the top 5 isn’t a spectator sport. You have to actively go out and do things and buy things and use things that other top 5% do, buy and use in order to be part of it. By doing, buying and using these things, you are actively adding to the problem. Just by being here, right now, on your smart-phone or computer or whatever, you’re doing it.

In addition:
In order to sustain the entire population to the standard of us in the top 10% we would require another 2 planets, the size and make-up of Earth for raw materials alone. The only solution, is that we all, collectively give up everything we have, which logistically fails, since we’ll then be powerless to distribute it all evenly to everyone else in the world. Oh and the population is exploding, long past sustainability, to the pint that soon, there will be more people alive, on earth, than have ever lived, cumulatively, ever.

The sad truth is we’re at the top, and we’re all unwilling/incapable to face the problem, or give up the things we’d have to give up (including whatever you’re using to read this forum, and the things that make this forum itself an so-on and so-forth) in order to fix the problem. It’s easy to shout about how bad it is, but the truth is, we’re the ones doing it, and we’re at fault, and it’s passed the point where it can ever be fixed. So relax and play Street Fighter, and forget about all the people dying so that you can pretend to be a quesadilla-making-mexican-wrestler for 2 hours a day, because now, and forever, there’s nothing we can do about it.

Your best best is to act locally and support and encourage the few things within your grasp; volunteer at your local fire station, donate to local organizations, take a first aid course, start a community program etc. That way, thousands of years from now, no matter how much of the rest of the world falls apart (because of people like us); when we’re the only corner of civilization left, at least we’ll have the tools to not make the same mistake twice.[/details]

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Look at the big picture if you can’t see past your own pocket.

Lower income = higher crime rate. It’s a statistic, which in turn creates a higher drain on the economy through the legal and prison system. It also generally lowers the standard of living.

When you’re living below that poverty line, it’s harder for you to make something of yourself. It’s harder to find the money needed to attend interviews, to have clothes to look presentable, it’s harder to take care of your health so you have further problems impacting your ability to work. It’s harder to get an education due to the expense.

This is all fine though, because certain people are “making jobs,” through accumulating wealth off the back of society. A society they feel nothing to give back to and in parts it’s crumbling underneath them. Extrapolate it without change, you’re looking at the film Metropolis.

How self - centered and greedy some people are just fucking blows my mind, and you’d think I’d be used to it by now.

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Here is an idea of how it is somewhere else,

The minimum wage for a casual is $20 an hour, $16 an hour if you have guaranteed hours a week with annual leave and sick days.

Here in Australia, if you’re an Australian citizen you can go to the emergency room at a hospital for free, there are no bills. Children in school have access to free dental check ups. There are bulk billed doctors clinics which do not charge you for appointments as they’re paid through tax levies.

If you’re unemployed providing you attend interviews, fill out jobseeker applications and attend career development workshops, you’re entitled to earn $250 or more a week of unemployment benefits. On top of this, parents with children under 16 have access to more income and you can claim rental assistance.

It’s possible to get an education as well because you don’t need to take out student loans, or have huge savings to attend university, it’s essentially free, you pay it back through tax when you profit from it. You need to earn your way into University however through aptitude in school, you can’t just pay for a place. We have schemes for vocational skills like trade apprenticeships, University isn’t for everybody.

On top of all that, we’ve had nothing but uninterrupted growth economically, we didn’t even slip into recession due to the global financial crisis. In part due to mineral exports but also due to incredibly low unemployment, homeless rates, crime rates and an overall high standard of living.

In saying all that, Sweden has it better than we do. This isn’t a utopia, this is the rest of the fucking world, if I went over to New Zealand or the U.K it’s pretty fucking similar there as well.

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Say the top 10% invented something or inherited it from someone who did, do they not deserve to make money off of it?

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No one care about Australia though

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I get the joke, but as I said above, it’s not just Australia. If you think it can’t change, if it think it can’t be better, look at the rest of the world and just fucking ask yourself if you’re happy with the way things are where you live. If not, advocate change.

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I need to be working right now, but I’m worn thin :arazz: so I’m posting during my working lunch break har har…

Honestly, my wife and I got into an argument because I wouldn’t let her work at McD or another min wage job. I’d rather her stay home, and improve herself while I foot the bill, than for her to essentially - what I felt was wasting her time working there - as you can attest to, min wage doesn’t amount to anything. I know this from past experience myself.

I dunno, I just don’t agree that any job should be live off-able. I understand the concept, but it’s where I draw the line between gov’t and private. You should IMO get paid based on the value of your job - period. For all purposes the Pres of the USA is underpaid like hell. If you can’t get by off that, then the gov’t that taxes us needs to step in to ensure your ability to not only survive but prosper. The system as a whole is broken and I ‘want’ it to be an idealisitc situation - I admit that…and I admit its not. But everything people want to do is simply a band-aid. Raising the pay of ‘certain’ min-wage positions is a band-aid. What would they do with the extra money? Day-care for the three kids in the example? That shit is WAY too expensive, I drop like $900 a month for my son to go to the second cheapest place in the area. Raising the income for her won’t fix that situation at ALL, the cost of daycare in general has to come down.

I don’t know why your GF dropped out, but an argument could be made that she should go back - but money would be an issue. Again, self improving yourself to escape the current situation. Increasing their income won’t change that flexibility much at all. Interest rates on loans doubled a couple months ago…let alone the actual cost of an education is ridiculous now…and its beyond ‘inflation’.

So while I may come off as deriding these people (its in part because I’m typing), but its also because I know this won’t do anything and the system needs to be changed. Even if the system won’t change, the bandaid is going to have larger reaching impact than desired. Do people think CEOs and the such are just going to lower what they take home? No, it will come right back at the consumer, and lets be honest, just like gas, just like Trayvon Martin - we’ll bitch and complain for a while, but eventually we move on and ‘accept it’. So if the current situation isn’t working, you HAVE to do something else.

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180

Too much words in this thread

Either theres alot of rich niggas in this threas or trolls

I refuse to believe its the former when yall cry about 15 dollar DLC and never wanna Money match for more than 5 bucks