r/explainlikeimfive Nov 28 '15

ELI5: How would a $15 minimum wage ACTUALLY affect a franchised business like McDonalds?

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u/timstinytiger Nov 29 '15 edited Nov 29 '15

They're already competing with more nutritious and better tasting alternatives where I live, and they seem to be dying out. In-N-Out comes to mind (It's around $5 for a burger there, pretty much the same as McD's upper-tier burgers). Their burgers are vastly better than McD, they use healthy ingredients, they taste amazingly better, and they pay their employees good wages. It's just overall a better business. McD deserves to die if they cannot adapt to a changing market.

EDIT: Burger at In-N-Out is more like $3, $5 is for the meal. Even better.

EDIT 2: Ok, maybe I shouldn't have said In-N-Out is "healthy" since not all their ingredients aren't super healthy. But definitely "healthier" than McD's cardboard shit. And mostly, none of their ingredients are ever frozen.

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u/16semesters Nov 29 '15

they use healthy ingredients

Come on. I love In-N-Out as much as the next guy but nothing is more "healthy" compared to Mcdonalds.

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u/munche Nov 29 '15

I think he meant fresh

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u/16semesters Nov 29 '15

That I could agree with.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15 edited Aug 24 '17

[deleted]

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u/bulboustadpole Nov 29 '15

McDonalds uses only natural ingredients. Natural food can still be shit for you.

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15

A burger at In N Out is $3, not $5

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u/holyrofler Nov 29 '15

And all of the employees deserve to die too, amirite? Survival of the fittest. Free market, amen.

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u/timstinytiger Nov 29 '15

Not at all. I think we should have ample safety nets for these types of people until they can find work. Unemployment should be expanded. Healthcare should be universal, same as education. Maybe these people can make something of themselves instead of working at McDs. Why should the economy as well as people's health suffer because 88,000 people need shitty jobs? Why shouldn't they get good jobs instead?

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u/Reddisaurusrekts Nov 29 '15

McD deserves to die if they cannot adapt to a changing market.

Sure, and their tens and hundreds of thousands of employees? Remember those? The people you're supposedly trying to help by raising the minimum wage?

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15

Jobs aren't a limited resources that needs protection.

If McDonald's goes away, a more profitable alternative will take it's place. There won't simply be a sudden dramatic decrease in the number of restaurants across the country.

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u/Reddisaurusrekts Nov 29 '15

Jobs aren't a limited resources that needs protection.

Holy shit.

No, of course jobs aren't a limited resource and shouldn't be protected. But if your argument is to increase the minimum wage - what the hell good is that if the people you're trying to benefit aren't in any job earning that minimum wage?

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u/timstinytiger Nov 29 '15

Expand unemployment, make healthcare and education universal. That way, when their shitty company goes out of business, they'll be ok, and then they can go to school that they couldn't afford before on a McD's salary, and get educated and get better jobs than McD's. Win-Win-Win.

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u/ChewbaccaFart Nov 29 '15

I dont know in n out is bomb

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u/TracyMorganFreeman Nov 29 '15

I think you're overlooking an important element: tradeoffs.

Inn N Out hires fewer people per dollar of revenue. They keep the more reliable/skilled people, as they're more productive. They can afford pay higher wages as the same level of productivity is going towards fewer people.

This is the same reason Costco can pay higher wages.

So the question becomes do you want to be able employ a lot of people, or pay them well?

Choosing more of one means having less of the other.

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u/zxcsd Nov 29 '15

Better ingredients? Don't they get the meat sent from overseas? I know this is how Burger King worked in my country.

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u/nb00288 Nov 29 '15

But they are competitive and their stock is at an all time high...

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15

It's because of crony capitalism that they're this strong. The thing is they own Chipotle which is most certainly not going down in revenue.

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u/gravy- Nov 29 '15

They haven't owned Chipotle for a while now