Within the past few weeks and across the country, thousands of Fast Food workers have walked off the job. They’re on strike, and insist on being paid more than double our national minimum wage.
Now, many of us have spent some amount of time employed in a Wendy’s, McDonald’s or a Burger King, commonly back when we were just teenagers: the hours are flexible, and the level of mental effort required is minimal. Entry level employment in this industry is usually considered to be a stepping stone on to greater things, whether that means a management position within the fast food chain, or a different job altogether.
But the Fast Food folks who are striking, in addition to wanting double their current hourly wage, ALSO want better benefits, more hours and the right to unionize.
They may wish to rethink their strategy…..
From SingularityHub.com, and courtesy of Instapundit:
(The) Alpha machine from Momentum Machines cooks up a tasty burger with all the fixins. And it does it with such quality and efficiency it’ll produce “gourmet quality burgers at fast food prices.”
With a conveyor belt-type system the burgers are freshly ground, shaped and grilled to the customer’s liking. And only when the burger’s finished cooking does Alpha slice the tomatoes and pickles and place them on the burger as fresh as can be. Finally, the machine wraps the burger up for serving.
And while you fret over how many people you invited to the barbecue, Alpha churns out a painless 360 hamburgers per hour.
This would appear to change the landscape of the entire industry. Those fancy self-serve touch screens (popularized in places like Sheetz and Wawa, and even test marketed by McDonald’s overseas) have been available for years, but now there’s even a mechanized system which can make the food flawlessly and efficiently. Plus, the machines will never go on strike, and don’t need health care.
Score: Machines – 4; Humans – 0.
Having the current fast food workers arguing for more money and benefits strikes me as eerily similar to France’s creation of the Maginot Line prior to WWII: they appear to be fighting the previous war. As you’ll recall, this didn’t end well for the French.
Word to the wise: when current technology has already made your job obsolete, digging in for battle on the issue may just be the impetus your employer needed to make a change.
And if you thought $7.25/hour wasn’t enough, just wait until ‘Uniblab’ is doing your job …for free.
Two Heads are Better Than One 
Missouri is a hot bed for ignorance lately… the ‘city folk’ and the ‘elected officials’ (elected by the ‘city folk’) do not speak for most of Missouri, but one would never know that based on the media coverage of what this state is all about. ALL we hear (here in Missouri) is the ‘news reports’ of the fast food workers marching for more money, the ‘racism’ of a rodeo clown, the pro death fight of the abortionists, etc… etc… If the NON ‘city folk’ (who tend to be conservative AND Christian (by the way, we are of all skin colors)) do not speak up, Missouri is lost.
I never stopped being amazed at the idiocy of those who say “Just raise/double the minimum wage”, and have ZERO idea of how that would ACTUALLY impact employment, prices, etc. As a former small business owner I GUARANTEE you that if it happened to me, people would be getting laid off…..
“Anything else for you?”
“That’s it.”
“OK, a #5 value meal with Coke. That will be $60.25. Please pull up to the first window.”
Oh yummy! Nice catch on this. Glad to know there is a future for my burger.
Greed is a sin.
It’s also a bad quality in the secular world.
People don’t think well of greedy people.
My first job was as a customer service clerk at a precursor to the Wal-Mart super stores called Gemco in SoCal when I was sixteen. I made 2.10 an hour and worked there for about two weeks. It was a summer job, but they expected me to join the union for which I would get a 13 cent an hour raise and have about 2 bucks a week taken out of my check for union dues.
Thankfully, my Dad advised me against joining the union and shortly thereafter, we moved to WNC. My next job before joining the service was as a clerk in a combination Indian jewelry store/ice cream store on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
Thank the good Lord, I never had the experience of working in a fast food joint.
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