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Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks
Forbes ^ | Nov 29, 2016 @ 01:37 PM | Ed Rensi

Posted on 12/01/2016 2:51:29 AM PST by expat_panama

Mr. Rensi is the former president and CEO of McDonald’s USA.

McDonald’s restaurant employees rally after walking off the job to demand a $15 per hour wage and union rights during nationwide ‘Fight for $15 Day of Disruption’ protests on November 29, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)

As the labor union-backed Fight for $15 begins yet another nationwide strike on November 29, I have a simple message for the protest organizers and the reporters covering them: I told you so.

It brings me no joy to write these words. The push for a $15 starter wage has negatively impacted the career prospects of employees...

...start with automation. In 2013...

...this month, McDonald’s announced the nationwide roll-out of touchscreen self-service kiosks. In a video the company released to showcase the new customer experience, it’s striking to see employees who once would have managed a cash register now reduced to monitoring a customer’s choices at an iPad-style kiosk.

It’s not just McDonald’s that has embraced job-replacing technology. Numerous restaurant chains (both quick service and full service) have...

...not all businesses have the capital necessary to shift from full-service to self-service...

...out-of-state labor groups who funded these initiatives aren’t shedding tears over the consequences. Like their Soviet-era predecessors who foolishly thought they could centrally manage prices and business operations...

...money has bought the union a lot of protesters and media coverage. You can expect more of it on November 29. But the real faces of the Fight for $15 are the young people and small business owners who have had their futures compromised. Those faces are not happy ones.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; government; investing
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To: rarestia

[the woman kicks the computer, and it sprays a fast-acting tranquilizer in her face] This should help you calm down. Please come back when you can afford to make a purchase. Your kids are starving. Carl’s Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl’s Jr. Carl’s Jr... “____ You, I’m Eating!


41 posted on 12/01/2016 4:19:44 AM PST by Califreak (All Alinsky All The Time)
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To: bert

save for later


42 posted on 12/01/2016 4:20:03 AM PST by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against whites. Beware.)
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To: expat_panama

File this one under the “Overreach” heading.

Karma’s a bitch, and she ain’t playing.


43 posted on 12/01/2016 4:27:44 AM PST by ScottinVA
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To: Spktyr

And that is what we like about the Italians!


44 posted on 12/01/2016 4:41:07 AM PST by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: expat_panama

That’s awesome!


45 posted on 12/01/2016 4:47:03 AM PST by sipow
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To: rarestia

That movie Idiocracy was probably written by liberals to make fun of dumb ‘rednecks’ and describe the world as it would be if us rednecks were to take over.

What’s hilarious is that DEMOCRAT liberal policies push us toward that world every day. They are literally creating elements of idiocracy all over the place and they are too dumb to realize it.


46 posted on 12/01/2016 4:49:14 AM PST by bigtoona (The media, GOPe, dems, commie Pope, hate Trump. He is the destroyerttk we've been waiting for!)
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To: SolidWood

That’s what I was thinking. I might start eating out again. Right now I consider it too dangerous.


47 posted on 12/01/2016 4:56:59 AM PST by SisterK (its a spiritual war)
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To: bert; expat_panama; Jack Hammer; ari-freedom; Spktyr; connyankee; SolidWood; prov1813man; JimSEA; ..
Check out this video from Prager "University":

"I Learned More at McDonalds than at College"

This really applies, because...these minimum wage jobs are meant to do for someone EXACTLY what they do for this girl in the video. They aren't meant to be worked at for live or support a family from. They are meant to teach you about work...customer service...working as a team...being on time...being presentable...being accountable...and teaching you how to take and give orders/instruction.

For those who are interested, there are dozens and dozens of really well produced, short, informative videos here that frame all manner of issues and historical questions from a conservative perspective (or explain why the liberal perspective is flawed).

Prager University Videos

It isn't really a "university", but Dennis Prager should be a professor. These videos are short (often less than five minutes) and feature people from across the conservative spectrum from Dennis Prager himself, Steven Crowder, Amity Shales, Heather Macdonald, Bjom Lomberg, Larry Elder, Victor Davis Hansen, and so on. Brilliant, informative, entertaining!

And free, but...I am going to contribute...:)

48 posted on 12/01/2016 5:01:17 AM PST by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: expat_panama

I’d prefer a touch screen ordering system.


49 posted on 12/01/2016 5:12:56 AM PST by New Jersey Realist (America is the land of the free BECAUSE of the brave)
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To: expat_panama

When I can get a hamburger perfectly constructed and cooked by automated robots, and not by surly, entitled, lackadaisical, petri dishes demanding artisan wages, I might start shopping at fast-food restaurants again.


50 posted on 12/01/2016 5:13:23 AM PST by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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To: Spktyr

I’m looking forward to the first fully-automated fast food place. Where the only employee is the on-site janitor, and the occasional repair technician.

Bring on McSwiney’s (fully-automated place from the Stainless Steel Rat books. . . described in the 1960s. . .)


51 posted on 12/01/2016 5:13:37 AM PST by Salgak (You're in Strange Hands with Tom Stranger. . . .)
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To: rlmorel

I am going to add the link to the Prager video to the essay.

Ms Legaspi gets it.

I drag the essay out every once and a while to make the point. Not that one should avoid college and education, but that a job at McDonalds can be a teaching experience that opens the door to experiencing on a small scale the myriad of possible directions one can go.


52 posted on 12/01/2016 5:18:12 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Does America still have lots of safe closets?)
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To: expat_panama
I think there is another reason for this move: it also reduces the language barrier issue.

Imagine being able to order at a fast-food restaurant in your own native language, whether it's English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. Many sushi restaurants in Japan where you order by touchscreen already implemented this in the major cities (Tokyo and Osaka especially), where the touchscreen can switch between Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean.

53 posted on 12/01/2016 5:21:18 AM PST by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: expat_panama

Hopefully, the brighter McDonald’s employees might recognize what is happening...and get some tech training to service these bots.

Double win...a skill AND higher pay.


54 posted on 12/01/2016 5:25:08 AM PST by moovova
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To: expat_panama

I have been a McDonald’s patron since the beginning. I have been a frequent user of the drive-thru.

We all know about the quality (term used loosely) of the speakers.

We have two McDonald’s in my area. One is close by my home, which is where I usually go.

Recently, I went to the other and at the drive-thru I was SHOCKED! They had installed a new drive-thru kiosk that made it sound as if the order taker was standing right outside my car window. It was amazing.

So after all these years, they finally get it right, only to get replaced by a robot.


55 posted on 12/01/2016 5:35:20 AM PST by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: Jack Hammer

Not only that, but the scam of “Corporate Taxes” the tax-and-spenders use to raise revenue for them to pi$$ away on boondoggles or as handouts to cronies. Corporations do not PAY taxes! Any taxes laid on them by gubmint winds up in the prices of their products.


56 posted on 12/01/2016 5:36:38 AM PST by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in theolog and politics.)
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To: expat_panama

You know, I love that McDonalds is teaching these fools a lesson in economics. When these kiosks get to my area, I might have to patronize them once in a while, help make the point.


57 posted on 12/01/2016 5:36:58 AM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: expat_panama
What a shame. Both of my kids worked at McD's when they were in high school. McD's was the only place in town that would hire 15 year olds.
58 posted on 12/01/2016 5:41:47 AM PST by CAluvdubya (<---has now left CA for NV, where God/guns have not been outlawed! She's done and he's won!)
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To: rlmorel
Prager University Videos imho are absolutely fabulous.  I downloaded a big batch and bring one up whenever I got time.  His 'Happiness is a Serious Problem" book is great too, I got it right next to my desk here.  Also, having a live feed for his radio show cued up is a must for whenever I get mad at Rush...
59 posted on 12/01/2016 5:47:16 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: expat_panama

there should be no minimum wage, business owners should set their own wages for workers based on whatever they see fit.It’s there business they should be able to run it as they want. people have the choice to apply for work there or not.

I think too many people are stuck in the mindset they have to work for som done else. SO many people who claim unemployed or underemployed likely have skills or knowhow that they could likely make their own work. Clean a house, change some one’s oil, run errands for home bound or elderly, so many ideas of making money.


60 posted on 12/01/2016 5:54:49 AM PST by b4me (If Jesus came to set us free, why are so many professed Believers still in chains?)
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