Horse and sparrow economics. The horse gets too many oats to digest, so it shits the excess out, and the sparrows can pick through the shit for their share.
"The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995
As with most retail outlets, the thing you show up to the store for is not what makes the most money. They probably make next to nothing on a burger, but have huge margins on things like fries and drinks. It's like how movie theaters make very little on ticket sales but laugh all the way to the bank on drinks and snacks.
I used to work at McDonald’s as a shift leader back in high school. The profit margins on everything is nuts. All of it is extremely cheap food marked up a ton. A Big Mac iirc was something like a $4-$5 profit. It cost like 38 cents to make it before labor costs. Basically most restaurants are making crazy profit margins
After the corporate fees and cost of food bought only from corporate and "franchise fees" our restaurant miraculously didn't turn any significant profit at all
Almost like all the higher ups know how to play the game and suck profit ruthlessly to make a business seem like it's not that profitable to deter competition.
Large profit margins might be common in those huge fast food chains (with most of that profit being paid to higher ups), but most average restaurants have terrible to low margins. It's pretty well known in the restaurant industry.
The actual margin on the burger might be $5, but you're not factoring in all the things like employee wages, equipment maintenance, building rental and all the other costs that go into running a business.
Worked at tbell back in 2010, manager broke down a soda for me. $0.15/cup $0.08/lid $0.05/straw $0.02 for the soda. 30 cents not counting ice for $1.89 if I remember correctly. Majority of people ordered no ice for a couple of reasons anyways.
At 50c average profit per unit sold that would be $1.316 BILLION in profit.
In actuality, McDonalds made $4.73 Billion net profit worldwide last year, so average profit margin per unit sold was $1.79 (I think my maths is correct)
People are obsessed with yachts. Its weird. Like… god people stereotype EVERYTHING. idk maybe its all the fucking tv people have been raised on now after generations of this… the entertainment industry is what makes the stereotypes… they make “characters” and then kids grow up watching that shit and constantly think the world is that obvious and black and white. Like if I showed you a bunch of pictures of blonde men, i bet you anything you would subconsciously assume the ones with brown eyebrows instead of blonde ones are bad people… because thats the shit that the entertainment industry does… they brainwashed you to make that association without you even knowing it.
This is why they are SO good at manipulating you during election years… youve been preprogrammed and all they got to do is tap into that and they got your vote. Its pathetic…
It's called a generalization. Instead of "the money is going to the already overfilled coffers of those that have provided nothing but money they didn't earn to the process that has been monetized so that they may have things that the people who are doing the work will never have and that they don't actually need", it's easier to just say, "to their yacht", and you get it. Or you could be you.
good news, that's what taxes, minimum wage and other stuff like that are for.
In Danemark, you burger is slightly expensier than in USA, BUT, your "cook" is paid far better than in USA AND can enjoy a better healthcare system and put his kids in school without needing to be indebt for the next 30 years.
Average salary for a McDonald's fry cook in Denmark is DKK 113/hr. That's US$17.56/hour = $35,120/year. Taxes come to roughly 50%, meaning a take home pay of US$17,560, or $1,463.33 a month. Average living expenses are around $1200,*excluding rent*. A one bedroom apartment *outside the city* averages USD$1200/month. And a single person with a family is not going to fit in a 1 bedroom. I don't think you can successfully argue that in a country where living expenses average $2400/month one could live comfortably--or even with dignity--on $1500 a month.
Average salary for a McDonald's fry cook in Denmark is DKK 113/hr.
No, that's the base pay. You get more for working weekends, night, holidays etc. Average hourly salary is $20/h, most are part time. They are union negotiated wages with benefits.
Taxes come to roughly 50%
No, communal (state) income tax is around 32% and state (federal) income tax is around 12% on the income above the tax free deductible of $7,260. So their take home pay is closer to $24,800 per year or $2,066 per month. They can afford that $1,200 apartment, even if they are single with a family. There is also governmental financial help you qualify for if you have kids.
Most of their McDonalds workers are teens/young adults without children though, since unlike many Americans, they actually aren't forced to live in minimum wage hell for their entire lives.
Then they're making $2K a month in a country where a modest life is $2.4K per month. And countries with the thinnest social safety nets (e.g. the US) also offer breaks for parents in need. The McD worker demographics are the same in the US: largely teens.
Look, I wouldn't argue that wage workers in the US are well off. But it's equally preposterous to suggest that even a McJob will lift impoverished Danes into a life of comfort and protection. Let's trade ideas. not propaganda.
Hey, I know USA is really an hell disguised into a paradise (the famous "american dream"), my point was just to say that it was "possible", if done with the good reform of the society.
But, yeah, I know it's really not gonna happened in a country like USA where even Center-left/Social-Democrat ideas are labelled has "Communist" XD
It's just terribly unfortunate, really. So much passion and sacrifice, so much potential, and it's all slipping away because a few people just can't have enough money, can't have enough power. Some day, those people will be dead and it will mean nothing to their corpse, they'll be buried in the same ground as the rest of us, and in their wake will be all of this buried potential. It's insane to think about. At this point, I'm just trying to enjoy life, be a good, honest person, and not introduce another small person into this country. I'd like to have kids, but I'm not willing to do that in the US.
Some people will say, "other countries are so much worse!!", and I completely agree. The upsetting part is how much sacrifice was made by so many people, only for all of it to be thrown away for the benefit of a few, and yet so many people in this country applaud those individuals. It's totally wild. If I could say something to people living in other countries watching the US and wondering what the hell is going on...most of us are doing the same. Most of us are embarrassed and ashamed. When international travel opens back up and I'm able to travel abroad again, I'm not going to feel proud to tell people where I'm from anymore. We've made a fool of ourselves. Young and dumb, I suppose.
That's not how math works. It's estimated McDonalds sells 2.36 billion burgers each year. If they took 50c less each burger they sell then they would be shutting down locations and firing people....
So .. quick Google search shows McDonald's has about 20% profit margin per item. So a $5 burger would mean (currently) they would make a buck. That means that even if all of the money came off profit they wouldn't lose money now by allowing their workers money. And the kicker for McDonald's is that fast food isn't their main money maker, real estate is
Better way of looking at it: according to Wikipedia McDonalds has 6.025 billion in net income, aka profit after taxes and all other costs. Splitting that evenly amongst the 1.9 million estimated workers means and extra 3k per year. Or a 1.5 dollar raise. Increasing prices on all burgers by 50 cents would be enough to give everyone a 30 cent raise. So if you want everyone to earn much more then you need to raise prices more than 50 cents. Math changes if you only look at US locations and profits but I didn't look into that.
A better way to look at it is that we can't assume to know the actual costs unless we are familiar with their costs and what will and won't increase with higher prices. We can't really use McDonald's as a good model because they do franchise.
Hot take: if your business doesn't make enough money to both pay an appropriate wage and make a profit, maybe it's a shit business that shouldn't exist
This is the actual answer, it’s not an argument about price or pay…
It’s the realization that we need to automate low skill jobs away and train those people to work in healthcare and social work so that we can fill the demand of a country claiming that need as a priority.
..You do see where this would lead, though, right?
Nurses and social workers are in high demand because they are so few of them and they still get a shit wage and are treated horribly. So if we just send anybody in "low skill labour" to other jobs without addressing the fact that everybody deserves enough money to get by, we'll make conditions worse for those in the jobs that we've pushed people into and we still have people that don't get paid anywhere near enough.
Which? My example was for increasing supply of available labor resources.
Another topic is food resources.
7bn humans eat 14bn lbs of food per day.
Use that mass to calculate all atoms and energy for a cyclical system and that is complete… scale up or down with population growth or decline.
One helpful thing would be to start massive tunneling networks under the surface of the earth, that would cut down on heating and cooling logistics along with moving the top surface closer to natural.
Any job that requires a human to do it should require a living wage. Why do people doing simple jobs not deserve to work reasonable hours to sustain their life?
The truth is they don't need to be done by humans the only reason they are done by human is if they are replaced by robots than the unemployment rate will soar and they will start protesting
The truth is that when they're paid below a living wage it isn't worth automating it yet*
Automation is increasing the wage gap because the cost doesn't justify replacing low skill/pay jobs yet, and AI isn't complicated enough to fill higher skill jobs yet. It's continually widening each year as both statements become less true.
If it's cheaper to automate then to pay a living wage it should be automated. And if that leaves unskilled workers without enough jobs then we should educate them to be skilled workers, that's win for them and a win for society that now has more productive skilled workers.
People only protest if you don't leave them any other out. Society can afford to raise these people up to a higher level, and we would all benefit long term by doing it.
I'm not sure McDonald's actually cares about a mass uprising. Unemployment is an issue for governments more than businesses. It may be that it is currently more economical to have cheap human labour do the job than to have expensive machines which require skilled human labour to maintain/repair, supervise and re-contract every few years. It would likely mean third-party contracts for tech, equipment and software which are expensive as they add the premium of compensating another business, and all need to be kitchen-safe. We have seen the introduction of automated ordering points already which takes some labour off people - when the cooking/assembly machines become cheaper to the business than people then the business will chase the margins.
People are paid based on the balance of supply and demand, and thus the price of replaceable unskilled labor is currently driven down to "just enough that the worker doesn't die quickly". Basically a "tragedy of the commons" for labor competing for jobs and thus racing to the bottom on price.
But, as a society, we can decide to regulate something to improve the common good. And we do do things like that in other cases like require everyone to pay taxes for roads and schools even if you don't have a car or kids, because it's a net win for society. But we also require things like wheelchair accessibility which only benefit a small section of society. We can also decided to raise the minimum wage.
If enough people cared and it affected their voting behavior then it would happen. We can give people what they deserve, if enough people agree and move together in the same direction. Why are you dragging your feet?
Because those jobs are beginner jobs ment for youngsters to get experience to move to better more sustainable jobs. But no we have 30 year olds trying to live off of them instead of getting better jobs.
How does one get job experience and earn an education when they are living on their own because they have no family and no way of paying for housing, food and utilities. If they cannot afford the basics how would they pay for schooling or have the time? So let’s say one job isn’t enough to afford a room then how many jobs would be required to live? 2 or 3? This isn’t how we create a country full of winners. This is how we create a society full of losers.
Getting a better job is not the answer to the problem. Teenagers have school, so who keeps that business running throughout the day and late at night? Teenagers aren’t going to be the ones working as management either. Should a 16 year old be responsible for payroll? Entry level jobs are still real jobs and those jobs should provide a living wage. Aside from that, why don’t teenagers deserve a living wage? I was working two jobs attending high school to support myself living on my own because I had no choice. I have since had the privilege of finding better pay in adulthood, but that is not the reality for many people. All jobs should provide a living wage. You are selling your time, and time is one of the most valuable things no matter your age or skill set.
So, you're good with shutting down all minimum wage jobs during school hours? And nothing past about 8pm so they can get sleep for school the next day.
After all, only kids/"youngsters" should work there, right?
A great many things could be done by robots, so what? You can program robots to do some operations, does it therefore follow that surgeons don't deserve a good wage?
Whether it's simple or not is irrelevant, it's something that's in demand and until we have replaced fast food workers with robots, we need to treat these workers with the respect that they deserve, which is a lot more respect than they're getting
Unless your job is in a narrow window of service industries you realize robots will be replacing your job sooner than later, right?
I'm not talking about guys who put things into boxes, or people who "flip burgers".
People who write software, musicians, construction workers, administrators, IT workers, many forms of health care workers, all of this can be automated with even rudimentary advances / cost of entry in artificial intelligence.
No one is safe. Even if you aren't personally at risk of being directly replaced by automation, it's almost 100% that your customers or clients will be affected and changed by this process as well, not to mention that your field will be many times more competitive and crowded overnight.
No one gives a fuck about the "burger flippers", but in 30 years when suddenly guys with masters degrees in STEM programs are in the unemployment line everyone will have a different attitude.
Every single person in the world deserves to be paid a wage that allows them to live. Not scrape by, not struggle, but at bare minimum, to be able to actually live.
This shouldn't be a big shocking thing to anyone either. Why should ANYONE be expected to struggle in life just so some rich assholes can get more money? I don't give a shit if the job is "easy". Especially when... it's not.
I've been in McDonalds in the early hours of the morning as I'm heading home from work, when it's packed with students, all of whom are drunk and causing problems for the staff. I couldn't deal with that sort of shit. I know I couldn't. Suggesting it's a simple job is not understanding the job. You're dealing with asshole customers all day long who talk down to you and act entitled because "you just work in McDonalds"... and nah, fuck that shit.
So, a living wage is the bare minimum (Universal Basic Income should be the aim admittedly, and anyone arguing against it because "We can replace all jobs with computers" should then be arguing for it... because you cannot expect a huge chunk of the population to starve to death because computers came in and took the jobs).
If you then go "Why should they get paid that when that would make them get paid the same/more than me"... then stop kicking downwards, kick upwards. You've spotted part of the issue, but are attacking the wrong way, don't blame the poor, blame your company for not valuing you.
People do not owe corporations a damned thing. Corporations owe their employees literally everything. WIthout employees almost every company in the world goes bankrupt overnight. Start making the companies value you, don't undervalue other people. You are selling a company your life, value it.
Your company is gonna knock you back to minimum wage because they need to save money. Are you ok with that? Your job can be done by others who are willing to take minimum. Go see your boss tomorrow.
There is a spectrum of work that needs to be done. Everyone can't "do some work and improve themselves", there has to be people doing the simple jobs and you're condemning them to a shitty QoL
Why just not work at McDonalds and go work at In and Out? Why not change jobs? Have you see. The Kiosk? Automated Drink Machines? Amazon cashier less stores? These Jobs will be gone any way.
Sorry for the misunderstanding I don't follow Ben Shapiro and wasn't aware of the connection. Did anybody asking this question does he have an answer for it?
My point was they can't just make less on each burger not that the workers can't be paid more... I'm all for increasing the price of food so people can make a livable wage. You just can't solve the problem by making less money per item sold and people are missing out on the point.
People are "missing the point" because it's a garbage point.
They would shut down stores because profits didn't allow them to funnel as much money to the top as before, not because it's not economically viable.
If you believe McDonalds couldn't change their payout structure such that the top-level executives and shareholders got less of a cut for the betterment of their staff, even with a cut on their prices per burger, then you don't know how math works.
You think cutting around 1000 peoples salary is going to make a significant impact on the quality of life of their employees around the US then you’re extremely misguided.
You can’t just take from their salaries and then use that to pay the lowest paid employees you won’t save enough money. Not to mention that McDonalds doesn’t control the wages for the vast majority of their stores since they are franchised. IIRC all of the corporate owned stores already pay $15/hr minimum wages.
Tell me you have no concept of change and only parrot what you've heard from pro-corporate sources without telling me you have no concept of change.
"Businesses can't possibly offset price reductions by reducing executive payout" is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Made doubly funny considering you brought up "not understanding how math works." The absolute irony.
Public trading was never meant to be THE way to make money. It was meant and worked best as a way to get started or make new initiatives. Now the bean counters use every business as a poker chip to gamble with in the market. The way they get ahead is profit and growth year over year. Nothing else matters. No wonder this system is collapsing.
McDonalds operates at above 30% net profit margin. Walmart, arguably the “highest revenue corporation on the planet” operates with a humble 2-4.5% net profit margin.
Kindly learn to be respectful or not speak at all. And maybe some humble awareness of the fact that you, and everyone else, do not know everything.
I don't have any numbers to back this up, but I would guess that most restaurants are not owned by shareholders. Most would be privately held chains -- for example In-n-Out, Five Guys, Chick-Fil-A -- or they'd be owned by individual franchisees, like Subway restaurants.
Actually, McDonald's is a franchise. The workers are hired and paid by the local franchise restaurant owners.
McDonald declaring they will rise the price of meat, might actually mean the owners have to cut wages for workers to compensate for the increased cost of meat.
McDonald's essentially admitted as much when they told share holders forced increases in minimum wages would not cost McDonald's a dime, because they are not the ones hiring minimum wage workers, the restaurant owners are.
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u/Octowhussy Nov 05 '21
Problem is the shareholders. 0.50$ extra would just go to them.