Go ahead youth of American, shoot yourselves in the face

I recall a few years ago, the former president of McDonalds said they couldn't raise the minimum wage because they'd have to raise their prices. He got a raise of $6million dollars.

Current president of McDonald's did an experiment. Raised wages in some of the company owned outlets without raising prices. Employees started staying on the job. First company benefit: tens of thousands of dollars saved on training new employees. Second benefit: employees actually got gokd at their jobs, increased efficiency. Third benefit: customers liked the better service and sales increased enough to offset the raises without raising the prices.

When you treat employees as a drain on your budget, they will be. If you treat them as an asset, they will become one. Without them, you'll never expand. Try running the simplest business yourself and see how well you do.

that's a multi-billion dollar franchise. small and medium businesses aren't cookie cutter.

Nope, bit they still spend a bundle on training new employees. If a business is big enough to need employees, it's big enough to pay a liveable wage. After all, who would you want to represent you in front of the public: someone that is pissed about being paid a pittance or so.eone motivated to do their best because they are treated well.

It doesn't matter what business you're in, your employees will only give you what they feel you are paying for. Minimum wage equals minimum effort.

You're looking at it from the perspective of the unskilled employee, as if a business has to earn their employment. That idea works if unskilled workers are in high demand but in short supply, and really only applies to fast food and retail industries. Sadly, we live in a global economy, where a product you buy on a store shelf or buy online probably passed through 3 different manufacturers/distributors and their currencies before you pay for it in your currency.

A minimum wage increase back 40 years ago had a chain reaction. America used to manufacturer and produce a lot more goods than it does now. When you are exporting a lot of goods, you want to keep costs down so you can be competitive on the global market. A lot of manufacturers in America hired workers that were protected by labor unions, and wages were good. unfortunately in a global market, you also have a global labor force, which means labor is never in short supply if you can move your business. Unions can protect you from getting hosed by a greeding company, but if the company were to move overseas, would you move overseas too and keep working the same job but at a 90% pay cut?

In today's America, raising minimum wage will only effect the service based industries, as the manufacturing is mostly done by robots, or done overseas for cheap labor. Even then, most of the service based industries like trades, professional services etc. pay far more than minimum wage anyway, so really the minimum wage increase would only effect the fast food and retail workers, maybe a couple other industries too that hire and train people in highschool or fresh out of highschool, but as far as causing a chain reaction with the rest of the country, not likely. The reaction will stay contained in the bubble of the fast food and retail industries, and retail will have a hard time surviving due to the sharp increase in online shopping we all do these days. But go ahead, get your 15 dollars an hour and see what happens...

Retail replaced by online shopping. For big ticket items, yes, it will take a huge chunk out of the retail market, but the need for physical shopping will still be there. Ever buy clothes or shoes online? Unless you know how to sew, you may need to find a seamstress or tailor to adjust those clothes. Sometimes, you can't wait for the package to be shipped. Retail stores have a need to fill, the immediacy of the buyer, so will combine brick and mortar like Walmart, or revert to mom and pop shops. Retail will adapt. But for those warehouse locations, expect those workers to make demands on higher wages instead of earning minimum wage.

Next time you go into a restaurant, see how many high school kids you see working. At one time, they employed mom's trying to add to the family income or high school dropouts. Around here, they're now hiring using the warm body method. They were looking for college grads 8 years ago. Had a real long talk with the marketing manager of Burger King a few years back. Not much different from this conversation. I've noticed a big difference in the local stores since then. Unless they're a target to be Romneyed (Ponderosa Steakhouses, 1986) restaurants, including chains and franchises, are in business toake money, and that requires customers. I rarely eat out as I spent enough time in food service to be a damn good cook. That's coming around. Right now, only one person in a restaurant needs a food handlers license, but that can change at any time. (Locally. Laws my vary from state to state, and e en witbin the state)

Manufacturing? First, forget about the hnions. They have no clout anymore in the manufacturing businesses. Oh, sure, Ford and GM, but look at the drop in membership from 1970 to today. No, they didn't ship everything overseas. Union busting. Or move to another state. No, unions are just a boogie man that industrialists tell their children about to scare them. Non-issue these days. If they were powerful, Hillary would be the president elect. As is, I'd wager that more than half of all Union workers, past and present, voted for Trump because of the way the Democratic Party has treated them the last 40 years. So, where are the manufacturing jobs? Look in the non Right To Work States. Sure, you've got some in RTW States, but nothing like the non RTW ones. Factories around here are clamoring for help, and most are staying here because the workers are higher skilled than, say, Kentucky or Kansas. (Cont)

(Cont'd)... Still. The $15/hr wahe will affect them because they have to make the choice of hiring direct at $15+ an hour or paying a temp service $35+ an hour. Send jobs overseas? Ask Conn Selmar why, even though they have plants in China, they chose to stay here and bust the union. Quality. They busted the Union, but couldn't ship the professional instrument division to China because they were already having problems.s with the school band instruments there. I live in the RV capital of the world. Why not move to Mexico? Some businesses just don't like making bribes. At least, not outside the US. The shipping back to the US would be a headache and the cheap labor there isn't as cheap as you may think. China? While manufacture and shipping would be less, they'd still need a reassembly plant, as the RVs would have to be knock downs, like the modular Apartments we send to Japan. We can buy tables and chairs from China, but do you realize that a sofa that costs $1200 made in the USA would end up costing at least twice that because of the "dead space" it would take up in a container. Mattresses? Odds are your mattress was made within 200 miles of your home. Shipping them is extremely expensive. Only inflatables seem to have a Chinese origin.

Several small manufacturers that tried China have already started bringing the work back. Slave wages lead to slave mentality on the workers end and pure greed on the plant managers mentality. Corners are cut at every chance, resulting in poor quality, upset customers, and costly customer service. The extra profits were quickly eaten up by correcting these, as well as biting into the normal profits.

And let's not forget Lead Paint Barbie.

But Donald Trump is going to reboke the ysade agreements or get tossed out of office, so, for the American worker, a new era will open.

Or there will be a land developer lynched on the White House lsen. Along with his cabinet.

I’m only replying to see what colour comes after purple in replying