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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / McDonalds Has Their Hands in All of Our Pockets

McDonalds Has Their Hands in All of Our Pockets

by Elon James White|  October 15, 20137:00 pm| 20 Comments

This post is in: This Week In Blackness

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Do you want to pay for billion dollar companies to make more money?

Of course not, but in a partnership study between the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center and the University of Illinois and another by the National Employment Law Project, we learned that we are, in fact, playing billions of dollar to support low-wage fast food workers for America’s top seven restaurant chains. We were joined by writer and research analysis Jack Temple of the National Employment Law project who broke it down for us:

The low wages are forcing taxpayers to chip in to fund the profits of these companies. . . . In fact, if we want to save taxpayers money, we have to raise wages in the industry, we have to let the frontline workers form a union and bargain collectively for higher wages, and in the meantime we need to raise the minimum wage, that’s how we demand that these companies, that are making billions of profits every year pay a living wage, and don’t rely on the public safety net to help fund their profitable business model.

Indeed.

Also on today’s #TWiBRadio, #TeamBlackness we’re joined by The Urban Scientist and newly crowned #ReasonableNegro Dr. Danielle Lee, we follow up on the EBT story in Louisiana, and Kenan Thompson says there’s no black women ready for SNL.

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And this morning on #amTWiB, The Morning Crew discuss how only Muslims can say Allah, designated driving could get you suspended, and the education of black boys with the producers of American Promise.

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And we welcome back Sportsball with Aaron Rand Freeman, Rachel Parenta, and David von Ebers who talked baseball playoffs, the Adrian Peterson tragedy, and The Onion faking a story about an 8-month pregnant lady in the WNBA.

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(Cross-posted)

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Reader Interactions

20Comments

  1. 1.

    Midwest_Product

    October 15, 2013 at 7:14 pm

    If fast-food wages rise to the point that fast-food workers don’t qualify for public assistance, franchise owners are going to have a vastly larger pool of job applicants to choose from. It seems obvious the group of people willing to work fast-food for $15 but not for $8 is going to look a lot more appealing to the managers doing the hiring than the people who apply for those jobs now. Aren’t all of the high-paying fast-food jobs then inevitably going to be given to a much different group of employees (i.e., whiter, better-educated), leaving the current workers to continue collecting benefits?

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    October 15, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @Midwest_Product: presumes that your whiter, more educated person is willing to work at a fast food joint. There were good jobs available in Georgia last summer to bring in the peanut crop, people refused to bring themselves “down” to perform manual labor that was previously performed by immigrants even though the pay was supposedly comparable to the local economy. The crop rotted in the fields.

  3. 3.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    October 15, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    Studies have shown that these companies can pay a decent wage in other countries (Australia, Germany for example) and still make a profit. The only reason that they pay a pittance in the US is because they are allowed to. I for one would be quite happy to pay 20 cents more per double cheeseburger if it meant that the person working there could make a decent living and I wouldn’t be subsidising their paycheck with foodstamps. I really don’t understand why the tea party people are not all over this like white on rice. I mean why do they think that this type of corporate welfare is not exactly that, welfare to corporations who are supplementing their profits with tax payer dollars? How is it acceptable to pay a CEO 10 million dollars a year when that corporation has relied upon 7billion dollars a year in tax payer money? The CEO of that corporation is the real welfare queen, every dime of his paycheck comes from the taxpayers. Why do people not see that?

  4. 4.

    Eric U.

    October 15, 2013 at 7:35 pm

    i would also like it if they had paid time off. How many sick days does one sick McDonalds worker cause? The barrista at 4bucks was obviously sick today, it has started to occur to me to not buy anything when that happens.

  5. 5.

    jenn

    October 15, 2013 at 7:36 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Total agreement. This is an item that has recently been added to my “what I rant about when I rant about politics” list. It’s been amazing in the process to see the overwhelming percentage of folks who had no clue about this – and encouraging to see how many are pissed off about it.

  6. 6.

    Spaghetti Lee

    October 15, 2013 at 7:42 pm

    Do you want to pay for billion dollar companies to make more money?

    Of course not

    No! I do! I really, really do!

    -Rand Paul

  7. 7.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    October 15, 2013 at 7:51 pm

    @jenn:

    It is amazing to me that people are happy that the Walmart heirs are raking in the coin at the cost of the taxpayers, to the tune of $900,00 per store. What the fuck is wrong with people that they think that we should be lining the pockets of the Walmart heirs with tax payer dollars?

  8. 8.

    srv

    October 15, 2013 at 7:53 pm

    Real Americans don’t want to subsidize gold plans for hamburger flippers at the counter or the voting booth.

    What is going to instill American Values in these people if they don’t have to earn it? It’s like giving trophies to the losers.

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    October 15, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    It is amazing to me that people are happy that the Walmart heirs are raking in the coin at the cost of the taxpayers, to the tune of $900,00 per store.

    That’s because you’re a liberal who thinks workers deserve to be able to make a living for their labor, so you see any public assistance they receive as an indirect subsidy of their employer. The teabagger-type thinks employees should be glad their employers deign to give them anything, and if they want a decent living they should get themselves a better paying job. In their world, the employer is justified in paying whatever they can get away with, and they’ve earned whatever profits they get by paying starvation wages. The problem is the lazy/greedy employees who aren’t willing to tighten their belt and live within their means, and public assistance is just subsidizing their moocher lifestyle.

  10. 10.

    j

    October 15, 2013 at 8:20 pm

    It’s not just the slave wages (and gov’t subsidies) that Mickey D uses to screw the “poor folks”; they have been manipulating commodities prices since forever.

    Do you remember what chicken cost per pound a year ago? How about 3 years ago?

    http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=chicken&months=300

    That’s when Ronald the Rat started buying up futures on that commodity and jacking up the price. Now they are selling off their stockpile to competitors like Long John Silvers and every other bulk buyer and keeping a portion for themselves.

    The same thing applies to that nasty and disgusting “McRib” bullshit on a bun (with a pickle). Check out whenever McD “brings back for a limited time” that pig burger, and backtrack the “futures markets” pricing.

    http://boingboing.net/2011/11/10/understanding-mcdonalds-as-a.html

    Mickey D is behind all of these food “shortages” for products that minorities usually buy.

    They have their own brokers on the CBOT and the Merc, for Christ’s sake. If they decided to screw the minorities by coming up with a collard green side, then collard greens would be the hot commodity, and Mickey D would corner the market for 2 or 3 years. Then sell some off to the competition.

    That is an evil company. Their employees are near starvation wages, their suppliers are literally starving, their competitors are dependent on their market pricing and their CEO makes about 15 million per year as a base salary.

  11. 11.

    j

    October 15, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    @piratedan:

    …supposedly comparable to the local economy..

    Meaning WHAT, exactly? Educated people refused to work for slave wages? “Comparable to the local economy” just means that the local economy NEEDS A RAISE!

    And just for your personal information, (because I know this won’t change your mind) the reason the crops rotted in the fields is because the Teabaggers started a slew of witchhunts.

    http://business.time.com/2012/09/21/bitter-harvest-u-s-farmers-blame-billion-dollar-losses-on-immigration-laws/

    Those Teabagging crackers did it to themselves. I hope they all ended up bankrupt.

    Pay the help and you won’t have to worry about the crops. The workers’ income depends on the crops. Once the racists started demonizing minorities they all said Sayonara and left for the season. The Cracker ate his own shit. It’s called Karma.

  12. 12.

    currants

    October 15, 2013 at 8:49 pm

    OT, Elon, thanks for the Danielle Lee post the other day. She is TEH AWESOME. And of course I fiddled around and found–because OF COURSE it existed though I didn’t know it–The Journal of Are You Fucking Kidding? which included the memorable “Don’t Pee On My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining” and Isis the Scientist which I love JUST BECAUSE.

    So thanks.

  13. 13.

    j

    October 15, 2013 at 8:50 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    A Chicago suburban school district told the Waltons to go pound sand.

    http://business.time.com/2012/09/21/bitter-harvest-u-s-farmers-blame-billion-dollar-losses-on-immigration-laws/

  14. 14.

    j

    October 15, 2013 at 8:57 pm

    @srv:

    It’s like giving trophies to the losers.

    That already happened when the drunkard was appointed “(p)resident”.

    IF the party of responsibility is so damn self sufficient, they wouldn’t need tax subsidies.

    That includes EXXON and Shell and BP/Amoco too. We should cut off oil company subsidies NOW.

  15. 15.

    j

    October 15, 2013 at 9:08 pm

    @srv:

    What is going to instill American Values in these people if they don’t have to earn it?

    “Real American values” used to be:

    Work hard
    Be loyal to the company
    Get regular raises
    Earn a pension
    As the com[any profits, so do the workers.

    Now it’s just “WORK HARD AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY OR ELSE SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE YOUR SHITTY MINIMUM WAGE JOB TOMORROW!! AND DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT RETIRING!! YOU WILL DIE HERE!!!

    You republitards have this “Leave it to Beaver” idea that people are working shitty paying jobs because they are lazy.

    You couldn’t be more wrong, and the major complaint that came from the Chamber of Commerce against “Obamacare” is that the peons would no longer be chained to shitty low paying jobs just to keep their shitty high cost insurance.

    We win, you republitards lose.

    Game over. People can now start demanding raises or take their talents elsewhere, or start their own companies.

  16. 16.

    JoyfulA

    October 15, 2013 at 9:11 pm

    @j: Wrong link; it’s about not harvesting watermelons.

  17. 17.

    j

    October 15, 2013 at 9:27 pm

    @JoyfulA: Sorry, I don’t know why that other link stuck in my “copy” thing.

    Here is the “Tinley Park Schools Tells Wal-Mart to GFYS” link:

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-10-10/news/ct-tl-1017-s-wal-mart-summit-hill-district-20131010_1_wal-mart-deal-tinley-park-tax-abatement

    Here is the “money quote”:

    “…”Philosophically, it comes down to an issue of fairness,” Doyle said, noting that Wal-Mart has billions of dollars in income and yet was “demanding a school district give up $1.4 million dollars to help them develop a site, put up a store and make money.”

  18. 18.

    AA+ Bonds

    October 15, 2013 at 9:59 pm

    maybe we should have a worker-citizens’ union, called the dictatorship of the proletariat.

  19. 19.

    Pete Mack

    October 15, 2013 at 10:14 pm

    Good list, as far as it goes. I want to see Walmart results as well. They get more of my ire than McD’s, which is not so much in direct competition with main street. And restaurant food does not qualify for EBT payments, which can (and DO) pay for Walmart groceries. This is the real catch-22 of food support: Walmart gets your taxes coming and going.

  20. 20.

    Paul in KY

    October 16, 2013 at 7:45 am

    @AA+ Bonds: Just make sure no samall cabal makes it a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’.

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