McDonald’s Will Replace Jobs with Kiosks: Ex-CEO Says $15 Wage “Will Trigger Massive Layoffs”

by | Apr 28, 2016 | Emergency Preparedness, Headline News | 129 comments

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    The future of fast food service will involve much less human interaction.

    Instead, humans will line up like rats to pellet dispenser, and computer screens will take orders, as the classic menial, entry-level job will gradually disappear along with many other jobs in the workforce.

    Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi, who headed the company during the 90s, blasted the push for a $15 minimum wage, which he argued, food companies won’t pay – they just won’t pay it.

    And jobs will suffer because of it.

    The company will admitted choose to cut jobs altogether, and phase in automated kiosks, rather than pay more in minimum wage. (Perhaps that was their plan all along, and the $15/hour minimum wage controversy is the perfect excuse to put it into action.)

    via the Daily Mail:

    A Former McDonald’s CEO has predicted that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour will cost people entry-level jobs.

    In a column he wrote for Forbes, Ed Rensi says… “it will mean wiping out thousands of entry-level opportunities for people without many other options.’

    […]

    Labor organizers have been demanding an increase in wages… Rather than raise prices, McDonalds is more likely to replace people with self-service computer kiosks so they do not have to pay the high wage. […] Over a million American youths may otherwise be out of a job.

    […]

    ‘You’ll see their legacy every time you visit the Golden Arches, where “would you like fries with that” is a button on a computer screen rather than a phrase spoken by an employee in their first job,’ he wrote. 

    Admittedly, McDonald’s has already cut thousands of jobs in Europe, where it put in more than 7,000 kiosks to take orders rather than pay wages.

    And you can bet that there is much more of that sort of thing coming.

    From the company perspective, it is obviously a matter of the bottom line. For society, it is an unfortunate perfect storm as automation alone is poised to destroy millions and millions of jobs.

    The future just doesn’t need many burger-flippers and order takers – the computers do it much more efficiently and accurately, after all.

    Could they cut money elsewhere – like from the salaries and bonuses of overpaid CEOs? Of course.

    But that’s not the point, and it won’t make the difference. These companies simply don’t care… and the economics are against anyone caring ever again.

    It is harsh, but true. Please brace yourself as best as you can for this looming change in our society.

    As Zero Hedge reported, McDonald’s has already been rolling out test kiosks in Chicago, and as the above article noted, in Europe as well:

    According to Brand Eating, fast food king McDonald’s has been spotted testing a self-serve McCafe coffee station/kiosk out in downtown Chicago. The station is located in the restaurant but apart from the counter and looks to be a theoretically more convenient way for those who just want a cup of coffee to skip the regular line (while also freeing employees from having to make each drink in the back)

    In essence, this is the company’s latest venture to make employees responsible for one less task as corporate HQ slowly but surely responds to minimum wage hikes sweeping all states, and in the process, outsource its minimum wage workers to simple machines which will never unionize or have any demands aside from being cleaned occasionally.

    That site, of the self-serving kiosk, is already familiar at many grocery stores and Wal-Marts, and will become a mainstay of the shopping experience in all sectors, along with driver-less cars, and somewhere, unrecognized by the media, an endless line of former middle class and working people desperate on food stamps and benefits.

    It is all happening so fast… before we know it, it will have happened.

    Where will everyone go? What will they do?

    Read More:

    In the Robotic Near-Future, Most “Will Live Off Government-Provided Income”

    The Age of Machines and Unemployment: “Robots Could Steal 80 Million US Jobs”

    This is a Tipping Point: Robots “Cheaper Than Any Human Worker” Means the End of Jobs

    Hey Boss, The Robots Are Coming For Your Job Too: “Easier to Automate First”

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      129 Comments

      1. That isn’t how it is supposed to work, The owner is supposed to dip into his own pocket and fund the difference himself.
        Socialist governments are great at spending other peoples money.

        • What are all those college grads gonna do now that McDonald’s isn’t hiring any new talent? Seriously though, this is pure insanity. I never wanted to accept the fact that people are actually dumb enough to fall for this shit. I don’t know why, but sometimes I actually feel embarrassed when I hear people talking about this shit like it really works. I don’t like giving it too much thought because it’s a waste of my time. I just keep doing what I do cause I know what’s coming.
          Stay quiet Be smart

          • ever since they changed our country from a manufacturing country to a consumer country we have been doomed, and until that changes and some other stuff ( change out politicians )we won’t recuperate! we will will continue down a death spiral. I hate to be so negative but you have to call em as you see em!!

          • well maybe all those kids will be part of the coming civil unrest? they won’t have anything else to do, except use drugs from Mexico cartels and wait for govie assistance!
            until this country becomes a manufacturing country and NOT a consumer country we don’t stand a chance to recover.

            • That entirely depends on their major. All the Liberal Arts grads will be the ones out on the streets protesting. All others will find jobs and will be busy working to pay taxes to make up for the pathetic POS liberals.

          • These McDonalds kids should be able to find a at least a $300k/yr job. They keep telling me they know evrything so I guess they’ll all be lawyers and doctors….

        • Paul Craig Roberts is a fucking white-hating cuckservative.

          How dare Washington do this and that to third world countries.

          As the third world people walk all over America.

          What the fuck would the world look like without American hegemony?

          Fucking cuckservatives must go.

          • Acid Etch –

            What did Paul Craig Roberts say or do, for you to refer to him as a “white-hating” conservative?

            I have not come across anything from PCR that comes off as being negative. To the contrary, to this day. He continues to be against the System that he once served.

            • FTW, BRAVO! I enjoy PCR’s articles myself. Acid’s been on the crackpipe again.

          • Well, of course you would say that, Acid face (alias Einsen crap!)… yu are the most disgusting ignorant poster on here!!! You have no clue about anything– of course you couldn’t appreciate an intelligent writer like him— you’re too lowly evolved!

          • I had a horrible experience recently…

            I made the horrible mistake of asking this guy a question and when he turned around and opened his mouth to speak he had the most (unspeakiable!!!) disgusting sh— in his mouth!!! I literally almost vomited!! I kept almost upchucking and people were looking at me but I couldn’t help it!!! If you had seen his mouth, you would have understood!! I realized later that he was gay… so you can imagine the (shit!!) in his mouth!!

            That happened days ago, and still when I think about it, I almost throw up–literally!! Actually, this morning I did throw up thinking about it!! 🙁 anyhow, NOW I understand why people can’t stand faggots… before I just sort of ignored them– now I definitely will keep my distance!! Also, I can understand a person’s rights to not have to hire them or associate with them… really horrible experience! I feel sorry for them, in a way– most can’t help their feelings– but I really cannot stand them anymore… (vomit!!) 🙁

            • Wow, sounds like your closet may be a little crowded…….

          • Well, Acid (alias Eisen)… I would MUCH rather hang around a black, brown or Chinese person than to have to hang around a faggot. At least I don’t vomit while talking to people of a different color!!

            Awhile back you said…”oh, please don’t talk about sexual preference…lets not go there!” YOu didn’t want to talk about it because you’re a faggot.

            You seem to think its ok to bad mouth old people, females and black people… but you get really upset when people start talking about gays…

            • At least Acid has it right about white people being targeted by all sides!!

          • Hey Acid: got your undies on backwards again I see.

        • No surprise here. I managed a McCop Co. McD (company owned) for 8 years. You simply had to “make labor” in order to make a profit.

          If I had to pay the crew $15, I would be running the store all by myself. As a salaried manager, that is exactly what had to happen on slow evenings, especially Sundays.

          $15 will get the worker less hours. They may even be required to buy their own uniforms. They will be paying full price for an employee meal.

          I know many think McD takes advantage of the teenager. Not so says the grandee. It is one of the best ways to learn a work ethic, team work, and the value of the $s they earn.

          The average kid today thinks they deserve the $15 an hour and I betcha they will not be very good employees.

          And, by the way. McD and other fast foods were never meant to provide a wage for the primary bread winner in the fam. Unless you want to step up to the stress and responsibility of the Swing Manager, Assist Manager or the Store Manager.

          • Grandee, good points. Today’s kids are a lost cause. They don’t understand the concept of working for a living like you and I do. You try to explain to them about the same things you just mentioned and they just give you a crazy look.

            • Today’s kids are a ‘lost cause’ because they were raised by the Boomer generation parents who spoiled and pampered them and gave them everything they demanded and never forced the greedy little bastards to work for what they got.

              That’s why the concept of ‘working for a living’ and becoming ‘self-sufficient’ and not sponging off of their parents or the government is such a foreign concept to these millennials. I saw a poll today that said that a near majority of young Americans now no longer believe in Capitalism – and this ugly fact is backed up by the large crowds of mostly White millennials who are showing up at Crazy Commie Bernie “Mr. Free Shit” Sanders rallies. These are millennial moochers who have parasitically feasted off of their parents and now that their parents are either drained dry or dead, they now want to put a Communist Marxist socialist into the White House so he can give them more free stuff that somebody else has to pay for.

              I put the blame for these worthless, good for nothing millennials smack dab on the shoulders of their Boomer parents who over indulged their little bloodsucking leeches.

              • Ticker: Totally on the Money my man.

              • my 11th grader grandson and i had a conversation on the socialist /capitalist thing. It took me awhile to get him past his public school’s education that socialism was the better of the two.

                i sent him back to school with orders to educate his fellow classmates!

                get out of public schools!

          • The reason why they want a living wage of $15 an hour is because Obama never had a job recovery and most jobs are where experienced workers who got laid off from his failed policies get work. (Low paying part-time jobs)

            We are headed towards a recession again with only .5% (one half of 1 percent) growth going down hill from the last few quarters. These $15 hr workers will be replaced with automated push buttons when it hits. And there’s the rest of the story.

          • grandee, does a McD’s manager even make $15/hr when you count up the number of hours they work? After high school, I didn’t even consider working in a greasy spoon as a job option. Even managers in these places struggle to make ends meet.For the chump who complained he had worked at Mcd’s for 21 years and still made minimum wage, how big of a board do you have to be hit with before it gets your attention?

        • PEOPLE SHOULD REBEL!!

          Years ago, when people found out that bubble bee tuna company was scooping up large baskets full of dolphin, whatever in order to get tuna and then just leaving the dolphin to rot… people got mad!!! No one would purchase their products anymore! Everyone switched to a different brand.. to this day, I wont buy that brand!!

          We should stick by our fellow poor citizens and STOP going to McDonalds if this occurs… eat at taco bell— I LOVE THEIR FOOD AND MUCH BETTER FOR YOU!!

          • Please stay anonymous you idiot. Like the other fast food chains won’t follow suit. In case you missed it…you’re an idiot!

            • Anon, ALL fast food sucks as far as I’m concerned. I’ll take anything in my preps over any fast food.

            • UGONOW, do like your moniker says and go now!

            • i have a better idea buy organic beans in a bag they are cheap and really good for you. fast food is for lazy fat people that dont care about anything but fillin thier fat over weight bellies peace out.

      2. More of the same shit, and it’s still the same day.

        GMAFB

      3. In a growing economy, the unemployment caused by an increase in the minimum wage was commonly short-term. We are not in a growing economy; quite the contrary.

        The longer term of unemployment in this economy, plus automation, will be another repetition of the governmental “compassionate stupidity” and will create even more unemployment.

        • Porter Stansberry: An update on ‘The End of America’

          “Since 2009, total global debt has increased by $57 trillion, according to consulting firm McKinsey. That’s about the same amount of debt as America owed, in total, back in 2009.

          Said another way, in a little more than six years, the world has added a new pile of debt as big as the one that blew up the American economy.

          Meanwhile, total debt (public and private) in the U.S. has increased, too. We’re up to $65 trillion, from around $55 trillion in 2009. Our total debt is up 150% since 2000.”
          http://thecrux.com/porter-stansberry-an-update-on-the-end-of-america/

        • The “trickle up” of this is that jobs that were previously %15/hr because they were harder to do, now can’t find workers. Why work so hard for $15/hr when you can do an easier job for that money? That employer will have to pay more for that job and their product. That means the customer pays more.

      4. Duh!!! Will somebody please teach Americans about basic economics. For those of you that want to learn some important basic principles, please listen to Dave Ramsay on the radio. Why not make the minimum wage $100.00 an hour? Those of us with a fundamental understanding of economics know that outrageous wages lead to many other UNINTENDED consequences. Jobs will be lost due to the $15.00 an hour minimum wage because products will no longer yield a profit at current prices. Higher prices will yield a greatly reduced market share.

        • Will somebody please teach Americans about basic economics.

          Oh hell no! That would make more people realize what’s going on and it would stop.

          Nope. Can’t have any of that.

        • SOMEBODY PLEASE TEACH CUCKSERVATIVES ABOUT RACE AND IQ.

          SLAVERY SUPRESSES THE NEED FOR INNOVATION AND COMPETITION

          THE ROMAN REPUBLIC BUILT AND INVENTED SO MANY WONDERFUL THINGS. THE ROMAN EMPIRE RELIED ON SLAVE LABOR AND DIDNT INVENT MUCH OF ANYTHING.

          THE SOUTH RELIED ON SLAVE LABOR AND HAD A MUCH LOWER STANDARD OF LIVING THAN THE NORTH BECAUSE THERE WAS NO NEED TO INNOVATE

          ALL THE IMMIGRANTS WILLING TO DO HIGH IQ JOBS AT SHIT WAGES WILL RESULT IN A LOWERED STANDARD OF LIVING FOR AMERICA.

          STOP IMMIGRATION NOW YOU FUCKING CUCKSERVATIVES

          “WORKING TOGETHER” MEANS LESS WHITE PEOPLE

          • PLEASE SOMEBODY TEACH ACID ABOUT THE EVILS OF HOMOSEXUALITY!! (IT MAKES US VOMIT!!!)

            • PLEASE SOMEBODY TEACH ACID ETCH (ALIAS EISENCRAP)ABUOT THE EVILS OF HOMOSEXUALITY!! IT MAKES THE REST OF US VOMIT!!!!!!

              • anon, I’ll buy that one.

        • Sarcasm on:

          Oh you capitalists are always whining about how you can’t do something. I can’t I can’t I can’t.

          Wahh.

          Idiots, throw all debtors and political dissidents in prison as slave laborers, labor cost = $0.

          Then force people to buy your product. Market share = infinite.

          As always, Comrade… we’re here to support you (until we decide you’re also political dissidents because you don’t do what we say the second we say it. The correct response is “how high”, Comrade, just so you know.)

      5. In my mind, that is just one more of many reasons not to subject my body to what they call food.. haven’t eaten in McD’s for at least a decade.. and I only did then because I forgot how horrible they were.

      6. Good, now the employees who are let go will not be accessories to murder and crimes against humanity for poisoning our citizens and children with toxic fake food garbage.

        • nope, they will be showing up at your door for that directly
          having no jobs and the mind set that we all owe them something, and now have all the free time in the world to take it from you while yer out bustin yer ass working

          • Yes, showing up at your door for their post birth abortion lol.

      7. Where will everyone go? What will they do?

        Good question.

        We live in a rural area. Our local Walmart has “let go” full time employees and replaced them with part time employees. Part time employees do NOT get benefits.

        A cashier at the local store told me Walmart recently cut employees work hours. She said she couldn’t survive if it wasn’t for food stamps and state paid health care.

        According to the “official” employment statistics “a job is a job”. We know that there is a world of difference between a full time job with benefits and a part time job at a grocery store.

        The “official” employment figures are based on a HOUSEHOLD SURVEY.

        The term “LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION” includes people who are UNEMPLOYED, but are ACTIVELY SEEKING A JOB.

        From the BLS news release – employment February 2016
        Household Survey Data, Page 2
        “The employment-population ratio edged up to 59.8 percent over the month, and the labor force participation rate edged up to 62.9 percent.”

        Also…
        “In February, 1.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force … These individuals were NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.”
        ht tp://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

          • KY Mom,

            I truly enjoy reading your posts.

            You are a good person

            Thanks.

        • A temp being sent out for one day is now considered a job created. One temp service office fills hundreds of jobs every day.

      8. $15 an hour fast food employee = a $25 dollar Happy Meal.

        End result = Business FAIL!

        Passing the Buck onto the Consumer in this fashion = No Returning Customers.

        What is it … that these people do not understand?
        I understand, that many may be lacking education – but … this is just plain common sense that these people do not have.

        • FTW, I believe they will just be replaced by robots. After all most McD’s customers are like robots themselves. I think it wouldn’t be that hard to do, punch your order on the keypad, swipe your card, and a carousel brings your order around.

          • If you must go to college maybe consider being a robotic technician, I bet it will be the job of the future.

          • Genius, your scenario sounds very plausible. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. It takes one robot to know another. [SARCASM]

        • FTW
          You hit the nail right on the head. Super good commit.
          100% in agreement with you!!!!
          Sgt.

      9. Why do CEO’s get paid big bucks ?

        Because the fast food chains are all owned by six world-wide conglomerates (controlled by Wall Street) that agree to pay high salaries. They have eliminated competition. If there was real competition, the high salaries would be the first cost to be cut.

      10. Even here in eastern Kentucky RENT is high, especially compared to MOST jobs that are available.

        This Is Where America’s Runaway Inflation Is Hiding

        “Deflation, deflation everywhere… except for those 43 million Americans who are being slammed with rent inflation soaring at just over 8% every year, the highest on record.”

        ht tp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-28/where-americas-runaway-inflation-hiding

      11. Same thing that’s been going on for the last 40 years, just a different industry. And it’s all our faults. There are no young ones left that want any responsibility or want to work. Just a bunch of whiners that want to protest and cry about not getting something for nothing.

        If you want to make decent money, the jobs are out there. Someone still has to build the buildings, supply all the product, program and install the equipment.

        Everyone here thinks it’s bad now. I don’t like being pessimistic. But we are on a steady decline. When the shtf, look out, 70% of the population is on at least one prescription drug.
        molon labe

      12. $15.00 per hour burger flippers.

        Hahahahahahahahaha!

        Would you like fries with that?

        • Wouldn’t that be a bitch to have to get a fast food meal financed?

          • People are doing just that every time they use their credit cards to buy food.

            I used to be told that it was a sign that you’re going to go bankrupt if you started using a credit card at the grocery store.

      13. if your bill at the window is %3.04 DONT give the casher four pennies, for sure they must call a stupidvisor to help Fugure out your tab

        • the machine does it for them.

          but you are right-they can’t do the math.

          my grandma taught me to count change back the old fashioned way when i worked at her restaurant at the age of 12yr.

          ya know, i miss her and those days. 🙂

      14. As wages rise so will prices for necessities. Then shortages occur, mysteriously of course. This plan is rapidly unfolding.

      15. I knew this would happen, I even mentioned it to many

        look at Amazon, aint any people in that place picking yer shit off the shelf ..its robots

        look at the Ford plants.. where they found people as a problem..replaced em with robots

        why not eh.. we have humans acting like robots in society ,and especially in government

        • Can we replace the government with robots?

          Tell me it would be any worse…

      16. I am telling the future straight now.

        Blame govt, greedy CEOs; liberals or whoever you want; but this trend will continue and speed up and it was going to happen eventually. Maybe the usa sped it up by the things i mentioned, but you are just crying over spilt milk now.

        The future is that $10 an hour is going to be a good wage in the usa unless you’re something like an engineer or surgeon. after the system resets when the debt defaults come, there’s no way that 50k is the average anymore; no reason too; too many people will take anything then.

        I expect the future to be slave labor conditions in the usa, corruption at all levels and supervisors to use employees as drug runners, maids, to fulfill their sexual desires and anything else they can think of in exchange for keeping them employed.

        • I sadly agree. Like I said, be a robot tech it will probably be one of the better jobs.

          • you are spot on.

            i told my sister and her husband to get their kids into robots now. sales, designing, repairing; are going to be the best jobs in the future.

            they brushed it off, they are going to be sorry.

        • Lena, Will the future be figured in dollars? Be nice if everyone wouldn’t care so much about money, but without it there’s no competition. And that’s what drives and improves an economy. If people wouldn’t worry about what others have and just be happy surviving, is life perfect? Maybe for some, not most.

          There always has to be the leaders and the workers. Not everyone is equal. Too bad now though, we have so many leeches. You are right, change is coming.

          • thats the question. if the dollar holds, it’ll be better for americans. if worldwide currency takes over, its going to be bad and if a foreign currency takes over; it’ll be real bad.

            gold and silver are short term things. eventually, the dust will settle and some currency will be the medium.

            • B I N G O

              probably digital

        • Agree: worked and lived in a country that had a reset. Anyone who wasn’t genius level or doing something that required a lot of education and skill (surgeon etc.) had to hustle their booty to work and eat. And that meant sex was a big issue. If you wanted a job, then you better put sex in the CV otherwise you do not get the job. Secretaries just knew it was part of the job. Anyone who was fat, ugly, lazy, never got a job. The plus side, anyone who worked in a office was model-beautiful. It made doing business a buzz!

          • F Thoughts – you really are a dirty old pervert aren’t you? First you fantasize about being fondled by hijab wearing border guards now you fantasize about a make believe country where gorgeous women bend to your depraved desires.

            So tell me, where was this perverts paradise in the fiction above? If you can prove it existed (outside of your fevered imagination) I’ll up the stakes. How about $2,000 to your favorite charity?

        • Bosses/supers treat their employees like that will be a lot of dead supers.Robots already made to repair others,lost cause job.The fun part is robots don’t buy goods made by robots,these robots will be used by the chosen survivors to handle all labor tasks.

      17. Invest in robotics companies, this will inspire a boom in them.

        • and marijuana stocks and drug rehab company stocks.

          i sort of have an issue profitting on marijuana companies knowing that the users making that company profitable are harming themselves; but it’s not my fault that they choose to get high knowing that its possible they are harming themselves. this isnt 1950, anyone over 5 knows cigarettes and drugs are bad for you.

          • ow lena
            U R harshing my buzz

          • Lena.

            Drugs (as you call them), cigarettes, and alcohol are responsible for over 400K deaths…every year.

            Cannabis (marijuana, as you call it) is non toxic. There has never been a death from cannabis use in recorded history.

            I suggest you crack open a Physician’s Desk Reference and check your meds. Your doctor will have one behind her desk, never opened, in a bookcase.

            • Ben Raines – I suggest that you use any search engine to find “cannabis related deaths” before making such a patently nonsensical claim!

              Sheesh…seems like the old weed has finally turned what little brain you started off with to mush.

              • How many slow deaths does leaded water, legal drugs and GMO food cause? More than weed ever could.

              • Per your suggestion, I did just that. But instead of merely glancing at the information, I delved further and understand how hospital records and reporting agencies have distorted facts into fitting their agenda, financed by competing industries such as alcohol, and pharmaceutical companies.

                I probably have forgotten more than you will ever know, and get more done in one day than you do in a week.

                Mush? Perhaps. But while following your advice, I learned that your endocannabinoid receptors are starving, and that can lead to ignorance and corruption.

                Any 5 year old can figure that out.

      18. The question nobody is asking is what do we do with all the un-employable people that our technology has produced?
        I’m retired but I rode the high tech wave for 30+ years and could see where it was going. Specialization increased, fewer employees are needed to do double the work. These employees have to be smarter and better trained. So we end up with a quickly growing segment of the population that is a ball and chain on an increasingly smaller workforce.
        A very large social problem, that will pull everyone down, if we don’t make some changes. Maybe FEMA camps will be the answer. Make them like a Disney world, and just throw food and drugs at it, but don’t let anyone out. “You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave” Hotel California.

        • relik, that’s what war is for. The culling will happen and it won’t be pretty. Lot’s of useless cannon fodder to be disposed of.

          • Genius, a virus is much more efficient at culling the herd.

        • For some reason that Disney World FEMA camp thing just popped up an image in my mind… a big fiberglass statue of Honey Boo Boo with her head spinning around 360 degrees, slowly spitting Xanax out of a tube in her mouth into a a little steel feeding trough…

          With It’s a Small World playing in the background sans lyrics.

          HAH love that, they have to do that one.

      19. Under communism / socialism is a concept called the labor surplus or industrial army — people, who the state keeps in perpetual under-employment, as a source of menial labor and synthetic protest.

        A too-big-to-fail, McSatan’s business model is to launder subsidies.

        This is the company of silly putty, yoga mat, and World Star Hip Hop infamy.

        And, they’re getting morally offended, with people too stupid to identify a quota case. It’s easy.

        People, who look and act normal, could be subsidized at whichever living standard. There are countries which subsidize cultural venues and reproductive marriage, also, ones, which make food match the label, if we are to condone statism.

        Labor and capital can be a reciprocal arrangement, but that seems repulsive to people on either side, who wish to use govt as a blunt instrument, to gainsay their fellow man.

      20. “$15.00 and hour will cause job losses”?

        Two words. WELL DUH!!!!

        Stupid Zombie/Leach. Profits are for the owns. Not the workers. Buy your own business and you make the profit. If you are not happy with the money you make, its time to go on your own.

      21. Here is what’s needed: Lower the price of everything across the board by at least half and freeze it there, I mean everything! Big problem mostly solved and logically at that. The costs rapid spiral upwards is unsustainable by any standard of sanity. Eat the rich greedy criminal bastards who are a scourge on humanity.

        • Your socialism is showing!!!

          Every economy that tried price fixing only accelerated their collapse because it will cause all inventory to dry up almost overnight as no-one will produce more goods if they don’t get paid enough to cover their costs.

          We are in a death spiral because almost everyone thinks that they are worth more that what they currently earn… The simplest way to fix it is to find a way not to need money by producing what you need.

      22. My personal view on these trends is this (and based on many decades of research):

        1) All minimum wage and low-wage service sector jobs will go to robots for the simple reason it is easier to offer a consistent, high-quality product without the risk of some moron sticking his mouth on the milkshake maker or sticking his dick in the ice cream bucket etc.

        2) The business model for fast food and food retail in general will be thus: majority robots and automation with the exception of the following: there will be top level management and creative who will come up with the vision (“Hey, it’s Kazakh pilaf night!”; and there will be what I call ‘Hot Honnies’: beautiful women who will be the greeters at the establishment, whose job will be to flirt and guide the customer into the place and they will be paid a lot.

        3) Fast food and services in general will be very customized and you will use your phone/computer etc. to communicate what you want and it will arrive where and when you want it. As an example, think of Jane, a tight-bottomed media professional on $100,000/year. Jane is big on exercise because she is expected to always look hot. Time is tight. Jane is hungry and horny. For lunch, Jane likes the freshest sushi and a specific bento box menu. She confirms her lunch need at 9:30 am on her phone. A robot chef prepares it and the bento box is picked up by a delivery robot who then takes it to a ‘Fresh Box’: a refrigerated depot where the office workers go to to pick up their lunch and take it to the park, desk etc. Jane is also horny and wants some relief after work. She also selects a muscle-bound, ripped guy for a liaison at 5:30 on her phone. This will be where the work is for real humans. Guys will have to be model-fit to get work.

        All these trends will be driven by the fact robots and automation will reduce risk and will guarantee consistency, hygiene and quality. No smart business will pass on it. As for young humans, they will need to get ripped or genius-level smart if they want to find the remaining work available.

        • “will have to be model-fit to get work.”

          i’ve been eating almost all salads this year to prepare !
          -wink

          (and i also save over 50% of my paycheck which i’m putting into hard assets.)

          • You sound awesome! Keeping fit also makes for good health, which will pay off in the end. I also just get hard assets and save.

            Stay solvent, healthy and keep your stuff together and you will always have work.

      23. A woman owns 23 McDonald’s in Orlando Florida and is systematically overhauling one at a time and installing kiosks. She told me that when they install the kiosks, they also have to conform to other McDonald’s rules as well. One of those is getting rid of all tables and chairs. The only seating that will be available in the new stores will be the bar tables with high chairs. That will rule out a lot of the elderly patrons. A manager told me she had all ready seen a loss of several elderly clubs that used to frequent her updated store.

      24. lena… More reefer madness BS. The majority of Americans favor cannabis legalization. Why? Because they are smart enough to realize that what they have been brainwashed into believing is pure hogwash. Thousands of years of beneficial uses of cannabis by humans prove this plants true value. I won’t touch on those positives now because of the length required. Who is behind prohibition, that’s easy and obvious, big pharma whose chemical concoctions kill millions, big oil and chemical poison who are destroying the natural earth, the police state who fill the prisons with non violent cannabis users with no victims to be had, and many others who depend on prohibition to keep their profits high. Also Cannnabis use makes people peaceful, not good for the warmongerers. Cannabis never hurt anyone, but has helped many. In fact legalize all drugs, treat those using hard drugs humanely, not prison. No victim no crime. Portugal made all drugs legal, usage fell. Other nations have done the same. It’s hard fighting big money opposed to cannabis being legal, they’re all liars.

        • I’m one of those that can’t smoke it. If I liked the high I would live on a marijuana cloud. And I wouldn’t care if anybody liked it or not. If this herb helps those in pain I am all for it. Have to wonder how many scores of people have been arrested and fined for small amounts of weed.

        • unless this is satire, you’re brilliant.

          you need to read up on what marijuana does over time to a person with any amount of long term use. the usa is about to turn its 20 somethings more of a burden than baby boomers are.

      25. Well interesting , I wonder when the computers do all the work whom will be earning a wage to go into McDonalds for example to buy a burger?
        Hmmm. Food for thought.

        • There are going to be low skill jobs, plumbers, appliance repair, welders, construction available. Robots just are going to be able to do them because you have to be able to fit into spots, bend all over the place and react to the situation; but there’s going to be a whole lot of poeple for those jobs as all the people robots take their jobs, need a new job.

      26. All I can say is watch “soylent green” if you haven’t already seen it.

      27. so if McDonald’s goes out of business

        where am I gonna buy my fatty,salt laden,antibiotic soaked,chemical preservatives filled “food” ???

        fast “food” is one of the worst things ever to happen to this country

        • fast “food” is one of the worst things ever to happen to this country

          Agreed!!!

          Would put a smile on my face to see these places shut down and close shop for good.

          I’m tired of seeing Fat … Unhealthy American Slobs roaming around on motorized Scooters with their life-support Oxygen Tanks right behind them.

          There’s a quicker way to commit suicide … why take this insane, long, dreaded way out of this world?
          Just Fk’n die already … wtf are you waiting for Slobs … an All-U-CAN-EAT-BUFFET for $3.99?

          • FTW you do know what Buffet stands for don’t you? Big Ugly Fat Fuckers Eating Together.

      28. the fast food industry is already automating
        they will just use this as an excuse to step it up

        another area where a LOT of jobs are going to disappear
        is truck/taxi drivers

        in Europe they just successfully conducted a test of driver less trucks

        it’s coming folks
        matter of fact it’s been here for awhile
        the great grind downward as I refer to it

        back to a feudal type of society
        the have’s and the have nots,with a VERY small “middle/technical class” to keep it all running

      29. We will be standing in lines to use the kiosks. I’ll be stuck behind the person that acts like it’s thier first time using one, or they can’t find the menu language change touchy-spot-place, as other kiosk lines move forward around me. Finally I “touch in” my order, and the screen says my account does not compute.
        Denied crappy food to eat by a damned machine.

      30. Living in California, especially Southern California has many beautiful people. A few hot days and shorts and mini-skirts leave little to the imagination. What however struck me a few days ago was not how many beauties I saw, but how many emaciated skin and bone skeletons are walking around. Has the high cost of food led to an increasingly underweight population? More people are on drugs which cause weight loss. But these don’t look like druggies. I think many people are moving away from burgers and eating salad. The high cost of food is resulting in their eating healthier just not enough of that healthier food. Also, the trend is away from bread. Certainly, modern wheat is so changed from its origins that many get intestinal problems and must avoid it. But, ancient grains are digestible by almost everyone. Bread has sustained man for centuries. I bought some flours and protein and hemp protein was one. I won’t starve. And I have so many types of beans, I’ll happily fart for years. Ate mung beans with lamb shanks and spices today. They cook quickly (25 minutes). But I put them in the slow cooker for two hours last night. Added half a cup of various spices at the last five minutes, then let cool. Ate last night and today. Put a drizzle of honey. I like them slightly sweet. The lamb shanks (grass-fed) under $3.00 and surprisingly meaty. Beats McD’s and costs less while actually being healthy.

      31. What surprises me most is that it took this long to use robotics in fast food restaurants. We had coffee/hot cocoa/tea dispensers 40 years ago that gave options such as cream and sugar, cream no sugar, etc.. How much of a leap to have a machine hold the pickle or lettuce? It’s crap food anyway. I’ve never had the urge to send my compliments to whomever nuked the burger, have you? As far as it being a great introduction to the workforce, it’s far from it. When the buzzer sounds, take the fries out of the oil. No thinking required. No real skills are learned. Unless they move into management, their work skills are rarely transferable to anything but another fast food business. Frankly, any skills they might learn should have been taught to them by their parents long before entering the workforce.

        • Greetings to you all. In answer to the burning question of WHAT will ALL these people do…??? Ha, that’s easy, AGENDA 2030…They will just follow their plan. It’s ALL there, right under our noses. And for those of you who bash God and demean people who speak of him, I ask you this…ARE you communists??? Isn’t that one of the tenants of the American-Communist party??? Shove the homosexual agenda in our faces, pornographic images and materials??? Grab control over the education system??? Some of you bluster and rant about how it insults your intelligence… That God can’t be proved to exist, I say, prove He doesn’t. The First Amendment guarantees THE right TO religion, NOT FROM religion. It also means that you HAVE the right to NOT practice ANYreligion.

      32. I love those automated checkouts at Walmart & the grocery stores! I get a LOT of free stuff because of those things!!!

      33. Australia was populated by convicts. Often men who had hunted game on the kings land or taken a loaf of bread. After the men were sent away their wive became prostitutes to feed the family. After arrest they went to Australia and were given to a man to be wife. Children were taken and put in ausralian work houses (orphanages).

        No one steels from the king!

        Americans are all being made serfs of the state, this is all part of Obama’s fundamental change in America.

        A large rise in the min wage is always inflationary. Obama wants the crash to hit the next president, a rise in inflation forces the FED to raise rates that will plung the economy into depression. Timing is everything.

      34. Suppose you are a single,40-hr per week employee paid every 2 weeks. Not including state tax and other payroll deductions, your pay stub would look something like this.

        $8 per hour $15 per hour
        Gross $640.00 Gross $1200.00
        FIT 43.00 FIT 127.00
        Soc Sec 39.68 Soc Sec 74.40
        Medicare 9.28 Medicare 17.40

        Plus, employers have to match deductions for medicare and social security. Does anyone honestly believe that the government really only cares about your standard of living?

      35. If you don’t want minimum wage, don’t have minimum skills. Simple as that.

        • My thoughts exactly. In a capitalist society what drives us to do better is a better lifestyle which is only paid for with cash. It seems these people don’t want to get better they just want the cash… My cash your cash anybody and everybody’s cash. They demand it. They believe it is their right. For what little time remains it is still my right to disagree with them. TANSTAAFL.

      36. I don’t eat mc d’s it’s like eating out of a dumpster. It’s shit the quality is only good to give pigs. Look mc d’s is a business they will evolve with the times. If they are forced to pay $15 hr they will automate their operation. They use fillers in their toxic food to save $. In the past 2 years I’ve probably eaten it 5 times and I regretted it. It made me feel like garbage after. Adults that think it should pay more than 8 or 9 hr have failed in life. They should’ve moved on to a higher paying career. This is a job for teens to learn how to work and understand the value of a dollar through work. a job is temporary a career is long term. Know the difference. I don’t care if they close I’m gonna still be here. that goes for all corporations.

      37. Interesting how NO ONE mentioned the $$BILLIONS$$ made by McDonalds over DECADES and NOW they are bitching about “profit sharing” (i.e., a decent $15./hr. minimum wage)?

        Really?

        They were going to replace workers with robots anyway so who are THEY fooling?

        Ray Kroc must be turning over in his grave.

        Robots replacing humans– be it at fast ARTERY-blocking places (food?) places or with the so-called driverless car movement– is part of the overall effort to replace HUMAN decision-making or our FREE will with CONTROL– all so that the ELITE can FURTHER own the means of production and besides controllign to ENSLAVE us all, KILL us!

        They have begun that with the politically-delivered Common Core curriculum which DESTROYS students’ attitudes towards learning while FRUSTRATING teachers who are FORCED to teach LIES (yes, lies such as 2 + 2 = 5.)

        Just read the Georgia (so called “Guide”) Stones– dumb them down and kill them off with chem trails, toxic vaccines, cancer-causing GMO food, and more.

        And they do this HERE while using the old “divide and conquer” trick MOST of you fall for! This reduces the ultimate LIBERTY issue (remember Liberty?) into a “debate” over “minimum” wage, knowing all the while people would work for a DOLLAR an hour just to have enough to buy a loaf of bread to keep from starving at the end of the day.

        Don’t you see a PATTERN here, people?

        Wake UP, people, and recognize the truth of Dr. King’s words, “Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to justice EVERYWHERE.”

        ALL human beings matter, ALL lives matter, ALL are God’s precious Children but when ONE group of “kids” decides the “other” kids are useless eaters (said Kissinger) and are NOT worth living (says Bill Gates’ sterilizing vaccines), please please PLEASE do not fall for this divide and conquer BULLcrap that gives them perverse joy when you debate amongst yourselves.

        Instead, wake up and smell the formaldehyde and body bag plastic.

        With Planet X approaching, a Tsunami-causing Meteorite approaching that will hit just outside Puerto Rico, with the world economy collapsing, and with the North Korean dictator’s EMP-emitting satellites orbiting over us presently (any of which could cancel our presidential election) SOMETHING wicked this way comes FASTER!

        – the LONE Ranger

        “The devil’s greatest accomplishment was convincing people he doesn’t exist.” – unknown

        “It is no secret that evil is live spelled backward.” – Dr. Peck

        “As long as you do it to the least of your brothers and sisters, you do it to Me.” – Christ

        • maybe planet x is real maybe not? however equality isn’t true. All folks are not equal. Some are just smarter & better equipped to deal with the conditions they find themselves facing. a example Is seen of TV this guy with swim fins and a snorkel gets in the water with a alligator. and with a rope on a pole catches the beast and drags him to shore. Me & you would be that gators next meal. The guy is smart and has Know How. And that is the thing many are too stupid & lazy to learn Know How. Those type folks should have perished and their poor DNA not have been in the gene pool any longer. But the social engineering allowed them to breed and flourish. now that their numbers have increased the burden is too large for society to handle. That allowed the dregs & culls to have many children and the quality folks to have very few. So the things on the guidestones are in fact a true assessment. not a pleasant thing to think about. however its just the way things are.

      38. It is happening everywhere now. Most grocery stores have self check out. People that were afraid to use it before becoming more accustomed to and used to it. They’re breaking them in now in many restaurants. Red Robin already uses them. People just don’t get it. They love their robots. They don’t really want to work. They all want free money. And they are all too stupid to understand that it won’t work. But that doesn’t stop them from wanting it, demanding it, getting it.

      39. Time for Directive 10-289

      40. Woman with child has Masters Degree makes six figure salary pays handsomely for high quality pre-school. Gets tired of paying so much for kids preschool. Quits working. Takes in five pre-school kids. Charges an arm and a leg and winds up doubling salary and gets to be with her own child all day. True story.

      41. The problem is that people will go to these places. I do not. I use the real people line and real people restaurants. I don’t do the auto pay at the table. If someone wants a paying job they can go find one. I have told my children (and done it myself) to go with steel toes a lunch, gloves and a hard hat to the temp agency, you WILL get work, and a check that very afternoon. Day labor will never go away. Mcdonalds has been going gangsta’ anyway. They are losing business to the likes of Subway, In and OUT, Five-guys and others who can specialize in a type and make it better for same price or lower. Boom boom shicka shick a yeah bruh I’m lovin’ whacka wacka good bye…it.

      42. “The future just doesn’t need many burger-flippers and order takers – the computers do it much more efficiently and accurately, after all.”—–and the computer won’t give you “attitude” either 🙂

      43. Now where are kids with degrees going to work the sewers

      44. The fact is that the $15 an hour wage will not even feed a person these days at current prices, and if this wage law is enacted, it will only make things even more expensive than they already are. Low wage jobs such as burger flipping are not designed for providing a living wage, and thus they do not provide such. They are entry level jobs. The fact is the managers of the restaurants make a living wage, and in many cases shift leaders and such do as well. That is the key, you start low, improve your skills, and make more. If you do not, then you never get a higher wage.

      45. Keep in mind 60 years ago when I was growing up, there were no fast food restaurants. Yes,there were chains like Frisch’s here in Southern Ohio but that is something mutually different. So in essence, these were only long term temporary jobs, much like when the service station mechanic eventually replaced the blacksmith or when the robot replaced the guy who screwed the bolt in the auto assembly factory. By the way, service stations are a thing of the past, too!

      46. This has already started in Ontario, Canada. We have several McD’s with Kiosk set up to order at. Very few using it and I refuse to use it. I’ve seen some who are excited about it. It is way slower to get served and is a terrible set up. People are NOT happy about it.

      47. A contrarian’s POV is, look for the end-run around nanny-state meddling. The need for jobs will lead to wide spread free agency, rather than employee status. Thus, you write your own contract. I haven’t stopped at a McDonalds in years, but as I recall, they aren’t doing anything in there that warrants 15 bucks an hour. This can be the break a free-agent needs.

      48. McPuke/BK will become vending machines. Learn PLCs and Ladder Logic for a good career in implementing automation.

      49. This is not a problem. People simply need to stop going to McDonalds, if they are unwilling to hire real live people to work. Who needs them? There are plenty of other sources of food, and pretty much all better sources. To be honest, people should have already shunned McDonalds by now. They have put so many mom and pop burger shops out of business over the last 5 decades thanks to the participation of the American consumer.

      50. It started when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. and Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper. Those saved labor. and when money can be saved why Not? The thing is the only folks who do things to create jobs for the sake of job creation is the government. The government employ,s folks who are simply parasites. The goverment can do so because it is spending someone elses money. In the real producing work place a employee has to produce much more profit than the wages they receiveSocial engineering always fails. The fact is you cannott legislate moral behavior. No employer is going to willingly pay someone else enough to make them rich. If you want to be wealthy you have to get rich on your own. It may be by hook & crook but you have to do it yourself.

      51. you know that dweeb Jarrod from the subway commercial? He is doing 16 years for being a pedophile.

      52. Back when I was driving 18 wheeler I had a weekly run that I made. It was across hwy 141 between ill and Indiana. and there was a toll bridge across the walbash river at the state line. I had to stop and pay a attandent the toll. and thake off again. I didn’t mind paying the toll. Nothing wrong with making those who use something pay for that privalage. Its the chushy jobs the parasite toll workers had. and the stopping cost me time. Then they had me buy a transponder to put on the dash. and tore down the toll booths. that gismo read the number of times I crossed the bridge and took the payment directly from the trucking companys account. It was a good deal saved the taxpayers money. kicked some parasites out of a non producing job. and they lowered the toll and still received more money for bridge maintance in Net revenue than before.

      53. it doesn’t matter whether it’s a robot or an actual human, no one’s going to be able to buy the crappy food they sell because we won’t have any money–perhaps the robots will buy the happy meals..

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