OFF-TOPIC Thread

Margins on the food business runs all over the place. From 20% for McDonalds to .3% for Wendy's. Note McDonalds can keep these margins because of the vast supply network of purveyors and suppliers they have set up all over the world and their super efficient systems.

Which is why even though minimum wage in CA is currently $10 but Big Macs don't cost $10 and still McDonalds rakes in the cash. I doubt moving to $15 will make hamburgers cost $15. More, probably, but not on a one to one basis.

Also not all costs of the food business is related to labor. A lot are the supplies, the lease on the property, equipment, maintenance, etc. There is nothing that proves a $1 increase in labor equals a $1 increase if the retail cost.

I'm not saying no one will feel the heat, of course some will, but for the most part, businesses can absorb these increases...the same way they absorbed it when the min wage was $8 and then went to $10.

As for whether a min wage increase is a handout? My opinion is that when some works the way some people do...they clock in and out doing jobs you would never want to do....do double shifts, double jobs, early mornings, late at night, some with kids.....a $15 min wage is not....it's never a handout.

 

Yes but McDonald's cost for supplies etc will increase and so on and passed along to the consumer.

 

Yes.

And so?

ALL costs get passed to the consumer sooner or later.

Diablo's point about the plight of the business/franchise owner are valid too. "IF" they get it right, stay busy, don't suffer 'shrinkage', manage inventories well and have a good location, with a solid franchisor then maybe the owner will make a penny or two.. but not so much compared to thieving Ibankers and assorted brokers.

On the other hand I know a Domino's franchise owner in the Thousand Oaks area who drives a black Porsche 911... everything varies


Except the job conditions for the military... they always get shit upon. But it's what you get when you sign up. Not so many tough job requirements... except to get shot at. Some jobs have perks and bene's.. others you get shot at. IMO those where you get shot at SHOULD get paid more.

 

I'm breaking my own rules about discussing politics, but if a $5 dollar increase in the minimum wage is considered a handout, 4 industries account for around 54% of all US subsidies per year. 1) Financial Services, 2) Utilities, Gas, Electrics, 3) Telecommunications and 4) Oil and Gas. These four account for $118 M per year in subsidies. This is not money budgeted by the US to acquire goods and services, but actual subsidies given by the US to these industries.

Why do financial services and gas and oil need subsidies? These are some of the most profitable companies on earth.

Do these subsidies make it cheaper for the average consumer to buy these services or comodities? There is no proof of this. Givem the discrepency between executive pay, the common worker in these industries, and the profitability of these companies, something tells me these handouts are NOT trickling down to anyone other than the CEO's.

Now THAT is a handout.

 

one other thing about the military vs. a civilian minimum wage job
i know first hand what a boot camp is and whats required
i doubt very many people here or anywhere else in this society could make it through one
there is nothing nice and sweet or respectful of you as the employee
its do what you are told or run four hours in the rain
its physically intense and you learn your buddy is your life
they do their best to break you and todays youth needs a safe space for a word

 

I was just making a point that it's not dollar for dollar or Big Mac for Big Mac as was pointed out in the post I quoted. It goes deeper than that. It's not just the salary of the guy flipping burgers that goes up but also the guy who loads the frozen patties by the pallet into a truck etc.

Black porche 911 sounds bad ass. I'm in the market soon.

 

Hard to believe, isn't it?

 

I too usually don't like to talk politics on boards, but I have to comment on this. Those that are against the minimum wage hike in favor of these corporations that a making record profits boggle my mind. The federal minimum wage has not kept up with the productivity of the US worker

Had it kept up, it would be over 21 per hour at present.

Secondly, for those that are against the increase, how do you feel about the executive salaries at the major banks. These same CEO's that allowed people to buy houses that had no business buying houses other than based on the ponzi scheme of being able to refinance on ever increasing home values, who caused the housing bubble and recession that followed. These same CEO's that required a government bailout for their corporations to the tune of 700 billion. These same CEO's who now have an average salary of 390,000 per week. Financial inequality has to addressed or we risk going the route of a country like Brazil.

 

Load up Poland with more offensive hardware and now on a permanent basis...if you don't have the balls to launch, at least answer politically...

 

You are on point... the rich get richer.. and use politics to convince the masses it's always the other guys fault.

We Americans appear too stupid to realize that the Dem's and Rep's are the same hogs at the money trough.. same suits different aisle.

 

ah Rube if you believe those first half dozen sentences then you're deeper in the weeds than we can reach

blaming the ever shrinking middle class for your woes is just YOU blaming others for your lot
get up and change it if you're unhappy
because blaming those a half step in front of you on the declining earnings scale
gets you nothing

I have no issue with poor folk gaming the system
but they rarely do
it is the uber rich that game the systems. ALL of the systems
uber rich corporations game the 'system' and affect your wallet in ways you will never grasp
uber rich individuals do the same

Think solar power is a good thing?
Too bad. The Koch brothers chose to invest in gas and oil
so they are now paying lobbyists to pay lawmakers to ban solar installations
WTF??

because.. it 'might' impact their Q3 profits

Who gives a fuck about making our realm a better place?
not the guys making coin right now

Your In-n-Out example is accurate
They do pay more
They always have
And a double double still costs $3.45 or something close

And the world didn't stop
Just like NOTHING will happen when/if minimum wage is set at $15 per hour

Furious hand wringing and flag waving aside

 

I really don't know if what one hamburger franchise has done, without the "world not stopping", as you put it, is an accurate gauge to what the effect a drastic federal wage hike would mean overall eventually to the jobs market.
Don't think the planet will fly off it's axis or anything, I agree, but not ready to declare total and complete salvation for the "poor".
It's a little more complicated than that. Imo.
What do they say here when people are bitching, and all the FO lemmings " like it"?
Oh yeah..."small sample size"...

 

It is not just In & Out though.
In fact, it is anything but a small sample size.

US Corporate profits are skyrocketing. And they are skyrocketing off of paying the US worker far less as per unit of productivity. US productivity is up 72% since 1972, while wages have risen just 9.2%. Where did the excess profit go? Into corporate coffers or CEO"s offshore holdings. That along with massive tax breaks and loopholes that Capn mentioned. Wages adjusted for inflation have basically stagnated for the last 35 years while corporate profits have never been higher

 

OK I stand corrected stastically . I was reacting to the example of In and Out alone. It'll happen no matter what, imo, and we'll see when it does, as the profit margins are gouged, what happens.

 

Educational and insightful discussion.

Well played, Blue Brothers.

 

been screaming that for years and how anyone can look at todays situation and not see it boggles the mind
the panama papers show its worse that that
the world leaders are colluding and fleecing us
while laughing about it
while stashing the booty

 

...and buzzing our vessels in the Baltic. It still drops my jaw when I see that tape. I wonder wtf those sailors thought when they saw those fighter bombers bearing down on them like that..
I'm sure not up on shipboard computer guided weaponry, but you would think they were set to automatically launch at two threatening aircraft coming in on what looked like attack level and attitude.
Amazing.

 

watched the democratic debate and what a sham
Bernie was cut off and shut down over and over while Queen Bitch (sorry Bowie) was allowed to prattle on ad nauseam
i really like that crazy old jew
just wish he would use all the tools in his pouch to pummel her but thats not happening

 

Interesting...

So if it were down to Trump vs. Sanders

Your vote would be?