Thursday, August 29, 2013

Fast Food Workers Strike Today?

Will fast food workers today demonstrate their ignorance of how supply and demand determines wages?

A nationwide fast food workers strike is scheduled for today.

According to AP, organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's to pay workers higher wages.

Higher wages simply result in fewer employed. That's just basic deductive reasoning. The higher the minimum government mandated wage, the fewer that forms will be able to higher. As the old saying goes, if you could simply cause firms to pay higher wages, why not increase the minimum wage to $100 an hour, or better yet, corporate lawyer levels of $700 per hour?


11 comments:

  1. Not Today! I forgot my lunch at home today.

    This reminds me when people were boycotting Walmart or complaining about it because Walmart hurts local business by practicing business. My response to those people I'm not rich enough to complain or boycott Walmart.

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  2. No wait! I haven't had my eggs yet.

    I would have starved long ago if it hadn't been for these good people. God bless them all...

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  3. Whew! I just got my Sausage and Egg McMuffin under the wire! And a tall, Arabica bean coffee. When you apply the I, Pencil example to a cup of McDonald's coffee, I am more amazed by the free market or by the semi-free market or by the hardly-free market. For $2, I get a large hot coffee, a plastic stirrer, cream, sugar, all the napkins I could ever want, a cardboard tray, a smile, and a "Have a good day" (perhaps the kind, most energetic greeting I could get of any day) all for under $2. How does McDonald's do it? (I swear I do not have shares in McDonald's. I swear.)

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  4. I think it is wonderful that these workers are seeking pay raises. Just wanted to give some perspective though: I am a social worker at UHS (big company making profit, mind you) and they pay us 15.75 an hour. I have, and other workers, have 10, 20 and 30 year experience/makes no difference. And we have masters degrees. People would say: look for another job (not that easy in this economy. Either way, 15 an hour is despicable.

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    Replies
    1. So what if you have master's degrees? In what? Social work? Then you don't deserve more than $15 per hour, loser.

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  5. UPDATE: Detroit McDonald's shuts down not by bad government policy but by the people's own ignorance of economics, and I would say selfishness.

    http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/08/29/local-mcdonalds-forced-to-close-amid-protest-over-higher-wages/

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  6. I am surprised at the ignorance here. Just as McDonald's has the right to pay whatever wage they decide, so the workers have the right to strike or walk if they don't like the wages. I support this strike. It is voluntary. Furthermore, the workers have a right to unionize. There is nothing wrong with unions per se. Unions are only a problem when they get special privileges from the government.

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    Replies
    1. But unionism is all about getting special previleges, there is very little point to one other than being effectively a workplace social club.

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    2. 5 day work week
      Mandatory vacation time

      just two of the legislated results of union action. Claims of a "workplace social club", methinks not.

      "Special privileges" is a term better used to describe corporate access to legislators.

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  7. They certainly do. They also have the right to immediately be replaced by new workers - freedom is wonderful!

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  8. Minimum wage laws are counterproductive. That's why we should end occupational licensing. Occupational licensing laws are minimum wage laws for doctors and lawyers. Our strict enforcement of occupational licensing laws has got us to the place where we are 51st in the world in doctors per person, and pay twice as much for terrible service.

    What's good for the burger flippers is good for licensed occupations and good for the rest of us too.

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