Quote Originally Posted by mikeg19
We were all sold the idea of the American Dream. Work hard, pay your dues, and good things will come in the form of good jobs, benefits, nice homes and cars, good schools for the kids, a college education. We've quickly realized it was just a facade. And I think a lot of people are pissed about that.

You have to broaden your perspective, man. What if I told that both you AND fast food workers deserve to make more money? I know - crazy, right?

Let's start with fast food. McDonald's is making over a billion dollars a quarter, and if you've been to many McDonald's recently, you'd know that's with the company reinvesting substantially into its restaurants. You think the company can't afford to pay workers a few bucks more?

I've read varying estimates on yearly employee turnover in the fast food industry, but I feel safe saying it's probably close to or above 100%. Now if McDonald's increases the average pay for an employee by 30% - which wouldn't even be that much money in real terms - you don't think turnover will decrease? And if job turnover decreases, that substantially cuts job training costs and should result in a more consistent product.

Who knows, people might even be willing to pay an extra 20 cents for a McNasty! That raise would barely hurt old McDonald's.

On to you: you probably don't work in fast food. You're a big shot, of course. But what if I told you that real wages in most professional fields have stagnated for decades, all while the real wages of CEOs and the profits of companies [[adjusted for inflation) have increased steadily? That, in reality, you're being shafted just as bad as the fast food worker, just on a different scale? In all likelihood, your job could afford to pay you more. If it went under after it wouldn't be because it paid you an extra 5 bucks an hour. It would be the end result of a series of unrelated bad decisions that happened way above your pay scale.

Just think, in America, companies hand out bonuses to executives and pay millions for a TV spots while telling us that there is nothing left in the vault for us. How stupid do we look?

Wake up.