As a former Fast Food Worker(tm) I’d like to put in my $.02. (Before it’s go’vt mandated to be $.04).
Fast food jobs are the lowest rung on the employment ladder, that’s just a fact.
They’re the jobs that anybody who has at least one finger and a thumb can do.
Except for baking and finishing (putting on the frosting and stuff), everything in Dunkin’ Donuts was done with one finger and only occasionally was the thumb needed.
The cash register had the name of the product on the keys, they were switching to pictures when I last worked there in the 90s.
To make coffee you have to remember to put the basket under the coffee grinder thingy (and remember to fill the grinder thingy. You can tell it needs more beans when nothing comes out, it’s funny how many people you have to explain that to, and push the button. Then, you have to remember to put the basket back on the coffee maker and push a button. For cream, you have to push a little weight up for “a little cream”, up twice for “regular” and more than two for “extra”. You have to be able to follow where people are pointing or maybe even know the names of the products. You have to be able to read numbers for change.
Burger King is similarly set up, or at least it was 33 years ago, I doubt it’s done anything but get more automated, you just need someone to push the right button, ditto KFC.
I’m not saying that all fast food workers are booger eating morons, I’m saying that they do a lot to make sure that type of person can work there. That’s how they keep costs down.
So quite often people who work at fast food are workally challenged or, decreasingly, teenagers needing some $$.
Now who eats fast food? Sure everybody eats it once in a while, but when I have money, I don’t go to McD’s for anything except I feel like eating something quick, undisgusting and very close to food “food”. If I have more than 15 minutes and more than $10 I’ll go to a diner or a real restaurant, not that crap,
I’d think most people are that way, if you have money you usually don’t spend a lot of time at fast food. . So poor people eat there more, relatively writing.
So in other words, they’re working to make the costs of stuff that poor people eat higher to pay poor people more money.
So increasing taxes on both food and payroll, and possibly (I’d like to see some stats) moving people who work in fast food into tax-paying status from tax-receiving status.
Hmmmm, I’m going to have to think about that one.
For the record, I didn’t start writing this so undecided about it, I was pretty agin it, I meant to go to McD’s today, but I done fergitted.
doubleplusundead 