Great quote from the fast food workers strike in Chicago (Time: student loan, primary school)

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by NARFALICIOUS

There's a huge difference between manufacturing cars and serving burgers.

Not really. You're conflating the people who engineer the car's design with the people actually putting the car together.

That was the whole point of the assembly line, break down the manufacturing process of an incredibly complicated machine into many simple tasks.

Have workers repeat one of said tasks for 8 - 12 hours a day until carpal tunnel or other injuries prevent them from doing so.

Grudgingly train workers to do 2 or 3 separate simple tasks if injury rates warrant. Then make them rotate from one to another throughout the day.

Oh, and don't forget to bring about institutionalized public education to break the spirits of your workforce at a young age. It's not a coincidence that schools and factories all feature obnoxiously loud buzzers/bells to tell you when it's time to get up and go do something different.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by MassVt

He was well aware that his employees were also his customers; why make cars that no one can afford?

Yep. The Ford approach was to drive up wages, to create more middle class people who could afford his product. The Wal-Mart approach is to help drive down wages, to create more poor people, but sell products so cheaply that even poor people can afford them. The latter approach has clearly won. It might be sustainable if all people needed for a decent life was plastic crap from China. Unfortunately there are things like health care and education that can't be purchased from Wal-Mart, and are therefore out of the reach of low-wage workers.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Not really. You're conflating the people who engineer the car's design with the people actually putting the car together.

People in plants are at serious risk for injury or death. That's why you'll see them wearing kevlar gloves, glasses, ear protectors, backbelts, etc. and also going through periodic safety meetings.

They also build 20000 dollar cars, not $5.00 happy meals.

There are a lot of repetitive jobs out there; don't try to compare fast food to manufacturing simply because of repetitive processes.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by NARFALICIOUS

People in plants are at serious risk for injury or death. That's why you'll see them wearing kevlar gloves, glasses, ear protectors, backbelts, etc. and also going through periodic safety meetings.

They also build 20000 dollar cars, not $5.00 happy meals.

There are a lot of repetitive jobs out there; don't try to compare fast food to manufacturing simply because of repetitive processes.

At least people in plants actually have safety equipment. And you still don't have a point, the repetitive process is the knock on fast food workers, not their relative health compared to assembly line workers.

Regardless, those workers (and every other assembly line worker) DIDN'T have those things while under Henry Ford's roof, they had to organize and demand them. While we're at it, keep in mind it's not like child labor laws in America are actually even that old. The idea that capital yields to labor is clearly a thesis ridden with too many holes to bother debating. They didn't call these folks robber barons, or enact a flurry of anti-trust legislation, for nothing.

[ptug101]

They should raise it to about 11.50-12.00,but it might be cheaper just to give everybody 8,000 a year in basic income,along with universal healthcare and abolish minimum wage or set the wage to the global wage of 4.00

[reneeh63]

I think people need to be responsible for themselves...and this young woman is holding down a full-time job so I think she qualifies. I also think the pursuit of happiness includes having children - a full-time job, even that at minimum wage should allow someone to raise one child (no, I'm not saying 2 or 4 or 6!). College-educated people making 50k a year are not the only people who should be allowed to reproduce.

[reneeh63]

Note to everyone referencing "ECON 101" - just like PSYCH 101 and PHYS 101 won't get you very far, ECON 101 won't either. It's only the FIRST class - there are a lot of complexities you won't even cover until you get all the way to grad school...so don't act like we're all stupid - you are for thinking your knowledge from one course will get us out of the problems the U.S. is in now.

[Prost]

Guns or Butter? Guns or Butter?

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by emathias

At least you have the balls to admit you only have the mental capacity to process soundbites.

No.... I read the first sentence and lost interest.

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by MassVt

I see that you enjoy your job carrying water for the 1%....

I'm probably in the 1% (or at least used to be when we were dual income) and I think everyone should aspire to be in the 1%. Well, maybe you don't have to be in the 1% to make yourself happy but you don't want to be in the bottom and constantly struggling either.