McDonalds.....Don't Eat the Food!

[MossRoad]

Yeah. The thing that has changed now is that there are NO JOBS in inner cities for people without a good education. When I was in high school you could walk into a factory, say hello and be working the next day making double minimum wage. Not anymore. The only thing left is part-time employment for the uneducated, unskilled or unemployable. Once you have literally thousands and thousands of unemployed people in areas with no chance for employment, you are screwed as a society. Its like this in every larger city in the county now. And once you get a voting majority they'll vote into office anyone that promises them a way out, even if that means robbing the rich to pay for the poor. They don't care. They are desperate. And you get the second, third and fourth generation of unemployed and its a learned way of life at that point. Someone needs to take care of me, rather than I need to take care of me. Anyhow, this will drift into politics and that's for another forum. All politics aside, the country is in a world of hurt because of the people that live in this country. Plain and simple.

 

[dave1949]

McDonalds, like all other PART TIME JOBS is supposed to be just that... a PART TIME JOB. It's meant for high school and college students, mom's with kids in school during the day, or someone looking to supplement their income with a second job. Its not meant to be a full-time career.

Unfortunately, in many places, the only jobs are part-time minimum wage jobs. That's not the fault of the employer.
Rather than keep raising the minimum wage how about:
Stay in school.
Study hard.
Don't have babies.
Don't commit crimes, get a police record and then become unemployable.
Be an example to your children, etc....

All good advice.

I have a social quibble with "not the fault of the employer." Is there "fault?" If yes, then it is someone's responsibility. If no, then why say it, unless it is throw-away fault we are all going to live with and accept.

The cost of labor in a company operated McDonalds store is 25.3% of revenue according to this guy who says that is typical for that business type:
How bad math about Big Macs gives me indigestion

 

[MossRoad]

Ronald McDonald house serves around 12,000 families PER NIGHT at hospitals around the world. While they are not the main or only funder of this charity, it would not be possible without their assistance.

Joan Kroc Foundation.
Her will included significant bequests for a number of organizations.
$1.6 billion for the Salvation Army[7]
$225 million for National Public Radio
$50 million for the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
$50 million for the University of Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
$20 million for the San Diego Hospice & Palliative Care (doing business as "San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine")
$10 million for the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
$5 million for San Diego's KPBS public radio and television stations

Its not McDonald's fault OR responsibility to provide full-time employment or high wages to part-time fast food workers. They do provide full time employment to managers, owners, logistical workers, and are indriectly responsible for the full time employment of trucking company employees, farmers, meat packers, vegetable packers, etc... beyond the scope of most peoples' comprehension. I begrudge them nothing. I worked at a privately owned Dairy Queen franchise as a youth. I met my wife there. I knew it wasn't a career. It was gas, beer and pizza money while in school earning an education to get a better job. That's all it was and all it was ever going to be.

 

[brin]

I swapped out my morning pop-tarts for Cheerios or Oat Meal. I swapped out my 9:00am donut for a banana. I swapped out my Big Mac for the McChicken and small salad. I swapped out 5-6 pops per day for 1 pop and water the rest of the day. Guess what? In 6 months my numbers are all back "in spec" for a person my age and size. Go figure? :confused3:

:thumbsup: You da man Moss....nice going...

 

[Markcuda]

Its not McDonald's fault OR responsibility to provide full-time employment or high wages to part-time fast food workers.

I worked at a privately owned Dairy Queen franchise as a youth.I knew it wasn't a career. That's all it was and all it was ever going to be.

Sadly, people do not think this way any more.

 

[dave1949]

Ronald McDonald house serves around 12,000 families PER NIGHT at hospitals around the world. While they are not the main or only funder of this charity, it would not be possible without their assistance.

Joan Kroc Foundation.
Her will included significant bequests for a number of organizations.
$1.6 billion for the Salvation Army[7]
$225 million for National Public Radio
$50 million for the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
$50 million for the University of Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
$20 million for the San Diego Hospice & Palliative Care (doing business as "San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine")
$10 million for the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
$5 million for San Diego's KPBS public radio and television stations

Its not McDonald's fault OR responsibility to provide full-time employment or high wages to part-time fast food workers. They do provide full time employment to managers, owners, logistical workers, and are indriectly responsible for the full time employment of trucking company employees, farmers, meat packers, vegetable packers, etc... beyond the scope of most peoples' comprehension. I begrudge them nothing. I worked at a privately owned Dairy Queen franchise as a youth. I met my wife there. I knew it wasn't a career. It was gas, beer and pizza money while in school earning an education to get a better job. That's all it was and all it was ever going to be.

Your experience is your personal history. You are effectively saying everyone else has, or should have, the identical life history as you. You are but one of many millions, and your story is not everyone's story. What that DQ job was to you, and may typically have been to many, is not what the job would be to all. Nor do people today have the same employment market ahead of them that you did.

Many years ago, Sharon worked as an Occupational Work Study coordinator in the local public school. Some of the students worked part-time jobs at fast food restaurants during the school day. Part of her responsibility was to make home visits. You would not believe the horror stories she would see, and this was in Fremont, OH, a small town in an agricultural area with some small industries, not some big city housing project.

How many of those students were/are capable of repeating your life experience? But, they all grow up to become adults just like you did. No one is ever going to pay them a "high" wage. They work, but earn less than a living wage. That financial shortfall is back-filled, likely all of their lives, with charity and tax payer support such as Section 8 housing, earned income credits, and food stamps.

It may be convenient to think they should have done what you, and most of us here did, but that is a fantasy. There will always be a population segment that falls in that category. Would it not be better to pay a living wage that sets a non-welfare based example for their children? If you think they aren't going to have children because they cannot afford them, that would be another fantasy.

Personally, I would rather see those who do the work rewarded, than having the Krocs, Waltons and Gates people hold the money and later pass it out--maybe. It sounds to me like a reasonable method of encouraging and reinforcing a stronger work ethic--which you are implying is in short supply.

 

[brin]

Personally, I would rather see those who do the work rewarded, than having the Krocs, Waltons and Gates people hold the money and later pass it out--maybe. It sounds to me like a reasonable method of encouraging and reinforcing a stronger work ethic--which you are implying is in short supply.

Dave ...what incentive would entrepreneurs or investors have to take the risks to start McDonald's, Walmart, Sams Club, Microsoft etc...?

 

[Markcuda]

Dave, you sound like if you could, you would redistribute the wealth.

 

[sld]

Dave, you sound like if you could, you would redistribute the wealth.

I think that is exactly what he said.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I think we all know the downside of fast food but they do such a great job of marketing it.