CEO Crushes The Minimum Wage Lie: "It's Cheaper To Buy A Robot Than Hire At $15/Hour"

[alang1216]

If a parent wants to leave the money he earned and paid taxes on to his kids then that's fine with me

We disagree. Let that parent spend their money while they live but don't create a class of nobles that inherit their wealth, let them earn it like everyone else. Society as a whole would be better off.

 

[candycorn]

It shows how dishonest the tie to $15 an hour is. Fox Conn employees have lost their job too and they were obstinate enough to demand $2.50 an hour according to one source.

Employers are going to go with the cheaper alternative whether they make $15 an hour or $0.15 an hour.

Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots' - BBC News

Not sure anyone can blame them with a straight face.

 

[JoeB131]

The median pay of an airline pilot is 98K a year

If a pilot has to sell his blood then it's his own fault

And I never said low skill laborers were lazy just that stuffing fires in a bag is not a skill that's worth very much so it's up to them to acquire the skills that will pay them more.

In all honesty if you're still bagging burgers after 20 years in the work force then that's all you ever want to do

I bet if you passed a law saying that a CEO could only be paid 10X what his lowest paid worker makes, you'd be amazed how quickly they'd appreciate the people doing the grunt work

 

[FJO]

I worked at Arbys and Brown's chicken as a kid, who are you kidding Joe it is easy. Now try to load top to bottom shipping containers full of cigarettes Destined for Japan @ $10 bucks an hour
..it is a bitch.

(One of my in between jobs 8 years ago , quit after 3 weeks)

I agree... a lot of physical labor jobs don't pay well, and we think it's okay to underpay these people because they "didn't go to college".

That's something that is kind of fucked up in our thinking.

I did not go to college, yet I spent most of the last years of my career doing a job usually done by college graduates.

I went from the factory floor to the office and along the way I taught myself computer programming in the now mostly extinct computer language of COBOL.

I was routinely asked to proof read reports by college graduates in spite of the fact that English is not my native tongue.

I earned my company's World Wide Spirit Award which is given to the employee who best embodies high quality job performance and outstanding community service.

All thru those years I NEVER envied a college graduate colleague of mine. Envy is for socialists and non-productive losers. Envy is the driving force behind Bernie Sanders and JoeB131.

 

[Katzndogz]

Americans aborted several generations then think that they can fix it by importing foreigners.

Just think how many were destroyed by birth control

You yearn for the days of women having 6-12 kids don't you?

I yearn for the day when Americans are not murdering off the future generations. The future of a country cannot be outsourced and expect the same country to survive.

Women used to have 6-12 children. Now they have 2-3

Were those children murdered

Yes. But that isn't the issue here. We have a low birthrate and are told we must import foreigners to make up for the fact that America no longer has children. Not having children isn't the result of some occurrence like widespread infertility or a disease resulting in sterilization. It's because we are deliberately killing off the next generation.

You can rationalize this out by saying that abortion is a matter of rights. It doesn't matter. The result is population shrinkage that is being made up by immigrants who may not have an interest in Americans.

You are missing out on family planning

Whyshould families have six kids just to please you?

To please me. Heavens no. But if you kill your children don't wonder why we must be up to our armpits in people who won't even extend themselves enough to learn the language.

There is some poetic justice in an elderly woman that aborted all her children now clutching a Phillips Lifeline pendant.

 

[Skull Pilot]

If a parent wants to leave the money he earned and paid taxes on to his kids then that's fine with me

We disagree. Let that parent spend their money while they live but don't create a class of nobles that inherit their wealth, let them earn it like everyone else. Society as a whole would be better off.

In your opinion not mine.

In fact any family working together today can create generational wealth if they want to

 

[Skull Pilot]

The median pay of an airline pilot is 98K a year

If a pilot has to sell his blood then it's his own fault

And I never said low skill laborers were lazy just that stuffing fires in a bag is not a skill that's worth very much so it's up to them to acquire the skills that will pay them more.

In all honesty if you're still bagging burgers after 20 years in the work force then that's all you ever want to do

I bet if you passed a law saying that a CEO could only be paid 10X what his lowest paid worker makes, you'd be amazed how quickly they'd appreciate the people doing the grunt work

I bet if jealousy was money you'd be the richest guy on the planet

 

[alang1216]

In your opinion not mine.

In fact any family working together today can create generational wealth if they want to

People can do a lot of things that, while good for them, are bad for everyone else. Generational wealth is the enemy of equal opportunity.

 

[Skull Pilot]

In your opinion not mine.

In fact any family working together today can create generational wealth if they want to

People can do a lot of things that, while good for them, are bad for everyone else. Generational wealth is the enemy of equal opportunity.

No it's not

If your kids all become wealthy they won't have to work and therefore will allow people who need jobs to have less competition for those jobs. IOW more not less opportunity

Using subjective terms like "good" and "bad" is the most ambiguous of relativism. It's good if I accumulate as much wealth as possible so my family will be secure for generations to come. It's bad if you don't do the same thing

 

[initforme]

A good thing would be to see McDonalds just struggle. But it will never happen. Americans agent bright snuff to ignore that artificial crap. But one can hope.

 

[Blackrook]

JoeB131 wants to pass a law saying the CEO of McDonald's can't make more than $85 per hour, which is ten times minimum wage of McDonald's workers. His opinion on this subject is obviously tainted by the destructive politics of class envy. Also, he wants the government to be powerful enough to force American corporations to follow arbitrary and capricious rules that help no one but do massive damage to the free enterprise system. In other words, JoeB131 is a Stalinist.

 

[alang1216]

If your kids all become wealthy they won't have to work and therefore will allow people who need jobs to have less competition for those jobs. IOW more not less opportunity

I don't think reality backs up your theory. Trump built his empire on a small, $1,000,000 loan from his father. Would he be a billionaire if not for his father? Who knows but will he give his kids a $10,000,000 loan to get them started? Don't know. I do know they don't have to work if he supported them but they do indeed work and are likely very well paid. Jobs that others never had a shot at.

To be great this country needs to be a meritocracy.

 

[Political Junky]

Well everyone knows that

-Geaux

------

While this should come as no surprise to any rational non-establishment-teet-suckling economist (and certainly not to our readers), former McDonalds' CEO Ed Rensi continued his crusade against the naive "solution" to poor living standards that has been peddled by a clueless administration in the form of a higher federal minimum wage, and after he patiently explained one month ago that "the $15 minimum wage demand, which translates to $30,000 a year for a full-time employee, is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of a restaurant business just do the math" Rensi found that nobody has still done the math.

Which is perhaps why the ex-CEO reappeared on Fox Business yesterday to explain to Maria Bartiromo that as fast-food workers across the country vie for $15 per hour wages, many business owners have already begun to take humans out of the picture, McDonalds most certainly included.



As Rensi admitted, "I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry - it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries - it’s nonsense and it’s very destructive and it’s inflationary and it’s going to cause a job loss across this country like you’re not going to believe."



“It’s not just going to be in the fast food business. Franchising is the best business model in the United States. It’s dependent on people that have low job skills that have to grow. Well if you can’t get people a reasonable wage, you’re going to get machines to do the work. It’s just common sense. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. And the more you push this it’s going to happen faster,” the former McDonalds Chief Executive added.

Rensi also said that we should do away with the federal minimum wage and leave it up to the states, which is quite logical. It's also why it will never happen.

"I think we ought to have a multi-faceted wage program in this country. If you’re a high school kid, you ought to have a student wage. If you’re an entry level worker you ought to have a separate wage. The states ought to manage this because they know more [about] what’s going on the ground than anybody in Washington D.C." Spot on.


Former McDonalds CEO Crushes The Minimum Wage Lie: "It's Cheaper To Buy A Robot Than Hire At $15/Hour" | Zero Hedge

Guess some of those objecting to $15. never made that much themselves.

 

[Blackrook]

The intervention of government to create price or wage ceilings and floors is always a bad idea. Unfortunately, we never appear to learn that it's a bad idea no matter how many bad things happen because of it.

Roman era wage ceilings led directly to middle ages serfdom, that's one example. People weren't being paid enough, so they had to pass laws forcing people to keep working in their designated career.

Rent control in New York leads to chronic apartment shortages, but apparently, renters are happy with it because it lets them rip off their landlord living cheap at an apartment worth much more if there was a free market.

 

[initforme]

The key is not to work for someone else. Considering the vast majority of employers don't like even their best employees and look at them with utter disdain which is undeniable, a worker is best off starting their own business and hopefully not hiring others.

 

[Skull Pilot]

If your kids all become wealthy they won't have to work and therefore will allow people who need jobs to have less competition for those jobs. IOW more not less opportunity

I don't think reality backs up your theory. Trump built his empire on a small, $1,000,000 loan from his father. Would he be a billionaire if not for his father? Who knows but will he give his kids a $10,000,000 loan to get them started? Don't know. I do know they don't have to work if he supported them but they do indeed work and are likely very well paid. Jobs that others never had a shot at.

To be great this country needs to be a meritocracy.

So what if parents help their kids out?

Do you know how many parents pay for their kids' college?

How many parents help their kids buy their first house?

The fact is none of that stops you or anyone else from succeeding and making money. If you want to be rich you can be but most people don't, or rather won't do what it takes to achieve that.

If you simply saved $50 a week from the time you were 16 until you retired in a balanced portfolio you'd have over 1.5 million.

If you want to force people to do anything don't force them to spend all their money force them to save it

 

[JimBowie1958]

Guess some of those objecting to $15. never made that much themselves.

I guess you are being sarcastic, but there is a lot of Truth to that.

Most of the people I hear objecting to a $15/hr minimum wage were making much less at minimum wage when they took the entry level low skilled jobs to make it through college or some low time in their life. They cant imagine that anyone deserves that level of pay at an entry level job.

But minimum wage has not kept up to inflation and taxes and the 1970 minimum wage would be worth $20/hr today if it had.

We need two scales; a minimum wage for temporary part time work and another for full time work for which a person hopes to support his family, and the government should not expect you to take the former type of jobs for welfare purposes if they are not under livable wages.

Charts like this one are complete horse shit as they only take into account CPI and not the real cost of inflation and the rising costs of a minimal way of life today.

For example, it is not enough to function as an employee today without a cell phone, personal computer, automobile (as public transportation has nose dived since 1950), etc. The minimal needs to live in todays world are much higher in cost than in 1970.

 

[rightwinger]

Guess some of those objecting to $15. never made that much themselves.

I guess you are being sarcastic, but there is a lot of Truth to that.

Most of the people I hear objecting to a $15/hr minimum wage were making much less at minimum wage when they took the entry level low skilled jobs to make it through college or some low time in their life. They cant imagine that anyone deserves that level of pay at an entry level job.

But minimum wage has not kept up to inflation and taxes and the 1970 minimum wage would be worth $20/hr today if it had.

We need two scales; a minimum wage for temporary part time work and another for full time work for which a person hopes to support his family, and the government should not expect you to take the former type of jobs for welfare purposes if they are not under livable wages.

Charts like this one are complete horse shit as they only take into account CPI and not the real cost of inflation and the rising costs of a minimal way of life today.

For example, it is not enough to function as an employee today without a cell phone, personal computer, automobile (as public transportation has nose dived since 1950), etc. The minimal needs to live in todays world are much higher in cost than in 1970.

Some continually remind us that minimum wage is a starter wage

In the mid 70s I was making $2.00 an hour minimum wage. Just working summers, I could pay a full years college tuition

Try doing that on $7.25 today

 

[Skull Pilot]

Guess some of those objecting to $15. never made that much themselves.

I guess you are being sarcastic, but there is a lot of Truth to that.

Most of the people I hear objecting to a $15/hr minimum wage were making much less at minimum wage when they took the entry level low skilled jobs to make it through college or some low time in their life. They cant imagine that anyone deserves that level of pay at an entry level job.

But minimum wage has not kept up to inflation and taxes and the 1970 minimum wage would be worth $20/hr today if it had.

We need two scales; a minimum wage for temporary part time work and another for full time work for which a person hopes to support his family, and the government should not expect you to take the former type of jobs for welfare purposes if they are not under livable wages.

Charts like this one are complete horse shit as they only take into account CPI and not the real cost of inflation and the rising costs of a minimal way of life today.

For example, it is not enough to function as an employee today without a cell phone, personal computer, automobile (as public transportation has nose dived since 1950), etc. The minimal needs to live in todays world are much higher in cost than in 1970.

Some continually remind us that minimum wage is a starter wage

In the mid 70s I was making $2.00 an hour minimum wage. Just working summers, I could pay a full years college tuition

Try doing that on $7.25 today

When was MW ever tied to the college tuition rate?

 

[Oldstyle]

How long and how much schooling one must have to slap peanut butter and jelly on two pieces of bread?

I think you miss the point. If you are on your feet for 8 hours on a shift, making food for hundreds of people, you SHOULD get paid a decent wage.

No you SHOULD get the skills to get a better job that pays more money! This concept that entry level...low skill jobs...should be "worth" an inflated rate simply because a union wants to become more powerful is absurd. You're squeezing the people who need entry level jobs the most...the young...right out of the job market.