Watch: Cops Kick Customer out of McDonald’s After Buying Food for Homeless Man

(ANTIMEDIA) Myrtle Beach, SC — For one South Carolina resident, it was a case of “no good deed goes unpunished” this week when his attempt to buy a homeless man a meal ended with police involvement. On Wednesday, Yossi Gallo entered a Myrtle Beach McDonald’s with another man, James Davis. Gallo bought the homeless Davis a meal, but as […]

It Is Seven Times More Difficult To Get A Flight Attendant Job At Delta Than Enter Harvard

One of our preferred "off beat" economic indicators is how many workers apply at any one given moment in time for jobs that are hardly considered career-track. An example of this is the number of applicants for minimum wage line cook jobs at McDonalds, or flight attendant positions at Delta Airlines; conveniently, this is a series which we have tracked on and off for the past 7 years.

As regular readers may recall, back in October 2010, the Atlanta-based carrier received 100,000 applications for 1,000 jobs, an "acceptance ratio" of 1.0%. Things appeared to improve modestly in 2012 when Bloomberg reported that Delta had received 22,000 applicants for 300 flight attendant jobs: this pushed the acceptance ratio slightly higher to 1.3%, as by this point the job market had improved somewhat, and there were far better job career options available.

Fast forward to today when things have turned decidedly more grim for the US job market once again, at least based on this one particular indicator. According to CNN, Delta is once again on the hunt for new flight attendants, and has roughly 1,000 open positions for 2018, although this year the competition is virtually unprecedented: so far, Delta has received more than 125,000 applications for this hiring round, which all else equal would result in an acceptance ratio of 0.8%. Note, we said "virtually unprecedented" because this year ratio of applicants to open positions is identical to last year, when 150,000 people applied for 1,200 flight attendant jobs, resulting in an identical, 0.8% acceptance ratio.

So what makes it such a tough gig to land?

"You need to not only be a customer service professional, but also a safety expert," said Ashton Morrow, a Delta spokeswoman.

Political correctness aside, you have to be young, relatively good looking, preferably a female (sorry, sexism does exist)... oh and willing to accept next to minimum wage.

Even so, one would think one is trying to get into Harvard: applicants first submit an application, then chosen candidates submit a video of themselves answering a set of questions. Selected candidates are then asked to come in for an in-person interview. Last year, 35,000 people made it to the video interview part. The candidate pool was then whittled down to 6,000 people for in-person interviews.

The Delta "admissions committee" was happy to chime in:

"After making it through the highly competitive and exhaustive selection process, they put all their previous experience and skills to the test during our flight attendant initial training," said Allison Ausband, Delta"s senior vice president of in-flight service, in a release Monday.

Having made it so far through the process, in which the lucky candidate literally has to be better than 99 of their peers, the new hires go through an eight-week training program in Atlanta where they learn how to handle mid-flight emergencies like a fire or a sick passenger. The company describes the training program as "grueling" and that it will "stretch each trainee to the limit" in a video.

Finally, having reached the promised land, what untold wealth and riches await the lucky guy or gal? Well... nothing more than minimum wage: average entry-level flight attendants earn roughly $25,000 a year, according to the company. Wait, that"s it? Well, there are perks, such as the increasingly more unaffordable - for most - employee benefits which include health insurance coverage, 401(k) with a company match and a profit-sharing program. Workers also get travel privileges for themselves and family member.

Oh, and once hired, forget about having a personal life: "work-life balance can be tricky for flight attendants early in their careers since they don"t have a lot of control over their flight schedules."

For any reader contemplating applying, here are the minimum qualifications:

applicants must be at least 21 years old, have a high school degree or GED and be able to work in the U.S. Flight attendants cannot have any tattoos that are visible while in the company"s uniform. Visible body piercings and earlobe plugs are also not allowed.

Putting this entire farcical process, which among other things demonstrates the true state of the US job market, Harvard"s acceptance rate for the class of 2021 was 5.2%. In other words, it is 6.5x times (round it up) easier to enter Harvard than to get a job at Delta. As an attendant.  And there is your jobs supply-demand reality in one snapshot.

P.S. it is somewhat easier to get the desired job if one fits the following physical parameters.

US Restaurant Industry Stuck In Worst Collapse Since 2009

One month after we reported that the "restaurant industry hasn"t reported a positive month since February 2016", we can add one more month to the running total: according to the latest update from Black Box Intelligence"s TDn2K research, in June both same-store sales and foot traffic "growth" declined once more, dropping by -1% and -3%, respectively, extending the longest stretch of year-over-year declines for the US restaurant industry to 16 consecutive months - the longest stretch since the financial crisis - with sales rising in 45 markets while declining in 150 with Texas, the worst region in the US, suffering a 2.2% and 4.1% decline in sales and traffic respectively.

Source: TDn2K

As Black Box adds, "bad news is same-store sales and traffic growth were still negative in June and the second quarter of 2017; and year-over-year, same-store sales have been declining for the last six consecutive quarters."

While there was some offsetting "good news", namely that "June results were the best for the industry for both sales and traffic growth since January" - in other words a 3% decline in traffic is now spun as "good" -  it may have been due to a calendar effect and certainly was not enough to offset growing concerns about the relentless deterioration in the space.

“This is likely the result of a combination of factors,” commented Victor Fernandez, Executive Director of Insights and Knowledge for TDn2K. “While economic indicators have been pointing to some improved conditions this year, the reality is that we are also lapping over some weak results in 2016 which make the comparisons much easier for the industry in 2017.”

More importantly, on a topic that is especially dear to the Fed"s heart now that inflation has missed for 4 consecutive months, average guest checks grew at the same rate in Q2 as Q1, or 2.2%, still unable to offset the decline in overall traffic. What is concerning is that check averages have been growing more slowly since 2015, when the average check was up 2.8%, well above core inflation.

And in the biggest red flag for the Fed, Black Box" Fernandex confirmed that the Fed"s fears about lack of pricing power, at least in the restaurant sector, are justified, as “brands seem to be reluctant to implement significant price increases given the current environment." Making matters worse, in order to boost traffic, "price promotions have been widely utilized, especially by struggling brands and segments” said Fernandez. “Average guest checks for the ‘bar and grill’ sub-segment of casual dining remain flat year over year for the first two quarters of 2017, while casual dining overall has seen its guest checks grow by only 1.2 percent.”

According to Joel Naroff, chief economist at TDn2K, while employment continues to grow at a robust pace, a disconnect has emerged as "consumption, meanwhile, has slowed and vehicle sales have faltered." This is also evident in the latest retail sales data which has been on a steady decline for the past two years.

... a fact corroborated by Bank of America"s internal spending data:

In an effort worthy of a Fed economist, Naroff tried to spin that data, saying that "this is good news for other retail sectors, including restaurants, as credit growth is moderating. The rise in debt payments has funneled money from spending on other goods and services." Odd, it"s almost as if he is saying that savings and living within one"s means - two ideas that are anathema to any Keynesian - are... good. Still, he does admit that while the outflow from restaurants is ending, "an uptick in demand has yet to appear.”

Digging through the data, reveals that the decline is not uniform, and that affluent consumers are enjoying the recent promotional scramble, responding positively to those brands that provide a more experience-driven dining occasion. "Fine dining was the best performing segment based on same-store sales growth in the second quarter, followed by upscale casual. These were the only two segments with positive sales. They were also the top performing segments in the first quarter."

Here, too, a problem emerges because as the report admits, the ranks of the "affluent" are not growing: even those segments with positive growth in their same-store sales are doing so through increases in average guest checks and not through driving incremental guest visits.

In fact, all segments experienced a fall in their guest counts year over year during the quarter. The deteriorating traffic was attributed to increased competition for dining from within the industry (independent operators) and from other sectors (grab-and-go prepared food options, meal replacement kits, and other players like convenience stores and food trucks) which continue to grab additional share from traditional chain restaurants. The weakest segments based on second quarter results were fast casual and the ‘bar and grill’ sub-segment within casual dining.

Meanwhile, in a potential threat to the likes of McDonalds and Shake Shack, quick service, which was the top-performing segment in 2016 and was among the top three segments in 2015, is now struggling to keep up building on that rapid growth. The segment has now experienced three consecutive quarters of negative same-store sales growth, although one wouldn"t know it by looking at McDonalds" share price.

* * *

Ironically, in addition to challenges from falling guest counts, the inability to pass through price increases, rising competition and declining overall spending, strong challenges continue to confront restaurants in both staffing and retaining enough qualified workers. We say ironically, because as we showed after the latest jobs report, restaurant/fast food/waiter/bartender hiring remains the only strong spot in the US labor market. As the chart below shows, starting in March of 2010 and continuing through June of 2017, there have been 89 consecutive month of payroll gains for America"s waiters and bartenders, an unprecedented feat and an all time record for any job category. Putting this number in context, total job gains for the sector over the past 7 years have amounted to 2.4 million or over 14% of the total 16.7 million in new jobs created by the US over the past 89 months.

And yet, according to BlackBox, restaurant operators are pessimistic regarding the difficulty of recruiting in the upcoming quarters. According to TDn2K’s People Report, when it comes to finding enough qualified employees to staff the restaurants and retaining them once they are hired, the industry is still facing an uphill battle with rolling-12-month restaurant hourly employee turnover increased again in May. Turnover for restaurant managers is also on the rise and is tracking at a 10-year high, with brands reporting that the majority of applicants are coming from competing restaurants.

And while one has yet to see it emerge in average hourly earnings, the result is - at least according to Black Box - pressure on restaurant wages, "which are expected to increase in the upcoming quarters." Almost 75% of restaurant companies report that they are offering higher wages as an incentive for potential employees.

Meanwhile, as the restaurant industry is stuck in its longest slump since the "second great depression", US consumer spending continues to decline, with declines not just across the chain restaurant space, but also at food and beverage stores...

... hammered by rising healthcare, housing and college costs, even as the broader US population is now burdened by a record $1.4 trillion in student loans.

In such an environment restaurants - from mediocre QSRs to the upscale sector - will continue facing challenges in both traffic and pricing.

As Black Box" Naroff concludes in an attempt to put a silver lining on the situation, "the summer season should be solid as people have money to spend. Unfortunately, until wage gains improve, which so far continue to be disappointing, no major acceleration in spending at restaurants should be expected.”

How Can A Human Justify Asking To Be Paid $15 To Work?

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

McDonald’s announced it will replace cashiers in 2,500 stores with self-service kiosks.

The story buzzed across the internet but Business Insider reported McDonald’s shoots down fears it is planning to replace cashiers with kiosks.

Official Denial

“McDonald’s has repeatedly said that adding kiosks won’t result in mass layoffs, but will instead move some cashiers to other parts of the restaurant where it’s adding new jobs, such as table service. The burger chain reiterated that position again on Friday.”

Is McDonald’s denial believable? What would you expect the company to say?

McDonald’s has to deny the story or it might have a hiring problem, a morale problem, and other problems.

“Our CEO, Steve Easterbrook, has said on many occasions that self-order kiosks in McDonald’s restaurants are not a labor replacement,” a spokeswoman told Business Insider. “They provide an opportunity to transition back-of-the-house positions to more customer service roles such as concierges and table service where they are able to truly engage with guests and enhance the dining experience.”

Move cashiers to table service? Really?

Yeah, right.

An interesting political rule from the British sitcom “Yes, Minister” is to “never believe anything until it’s officially denied”.

Will Humans Be Necessary?

When someone can be replaced by a robot, how can the push for $15 be justified?

Psychology Today asks Will Humans Be Necessary?

Will automation kill as many jobs as is feared? A widely cited Oxford University study predicts that 47% of  jobs could be automated in the next decade of two. Price Waterhouse pegs the U.S. risk at 38%. McKinsey estimates that 45% of what people are paid for could be automated using existing technology!

No less than Tesla’s Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking fear the loss of jobs will cause world cataclysm.

Lower-level jobs at risk

Let’s start with jobs likely to be eliminated, starting with the present and with those lower-level jobs.

Already, don’t you prefer a ATM to a teller, self-checkout to the supermarket checker, drive-through tolls rather than stop for the toll-taker, automated airline check-in rather than waiting for a clerk, shopping on Amazon rather than fighting traffic, parking, and the check-out experience with a live clerk, assuming the store has what you want in your size? Indeed, malls are closing while online retailers led by Amazon are growing.

As minimum wage and mandated benefits rise, fast-food restaurants especially are accelerating use of, for example, order-taking kiosks, which McDonald’s is rolling out in 2,500 stores, robotic burger flippers and fry cooks, even pizza, ramen and sushi makers. Even that fail-safe job, barista, is at-risk, Bosch now makes an automated barista. Mid-range restaurants such as Olive Garden, Outback, and Applebee are replacing waiters with tabletop tablets. Will you really miss having your conversation interrupted by a waiter hawking hors de oeuvres and expecting a 15+% tip? If you owned a fast-food franchise, mighn’t you be looking to replace people with automated solutions? Can it really be long until there are completely automated fast-food and even mid-range restaurants?

Robots are already being used as security guards. There are humanoid robots that can move heavy boxes, walk in uneven snow, and get up, not annoyed when thrown to the ground. (And won’t sue for failure to supervise or an OSHA violation.)

Instead of hiring architects for tens of thousands of dollars, many people are opting to spend just a few hundred bucks to instantly get any of thousands of often award-winning house plans which, if needed, can be inexpensively customized to suit. Far fewer architects needed.

BlackRock, the world’s largest fund company has replaced seven of its 53 analysts with AI-driven stock-picking.

The remaining jobs

In such a world, how can a human justify asking to be paid to work?

Four scenarios

The range of scenarios would seem circumscribed by these. How likely do you think each of these are?

• Continue on the current path: The world continues to slowly make progress, e.g., birth rates declining in developing nations, slowed global warming, more education and health care. Those positives would be mitigated by declining jobs, more concentration of wealth.


•  World socialism.


• Mass population reduction, for example, by nuclear war, pandemic, or, per  Clive Cussler, highly communicable biovirus simultaneously put into the water supply of a half-dozen cruise ships?


• A world run by machines and the few people they deem worthy.

Here is a debate between an optimistic and a pessimist on the future of the world.

The truth may well be something we can’t even envision. After all, he who lives by the crystal ball usually eats broken glass.

Note that Psychology Today author Marty Nemko did not ask about $15. He wonders if pay for some jobs is worth anything at all.

McDonalds Is Replacing 2,500 Human Cashiers With Digital Kiosks: Here Is Its Math

The stock market is luvin" McDonalds stock, which has continued its recent relentless rise to all time highs, up 26% YTD, oblivious to the carnage among the broader restaurant and fast-food sector. There is a reason for Wall Street"s euphoria: the same one we discussed in January in "Dear Bernie, Meet the "Big Mac ATM" That Will Replace All Of Your $15 Per Hour Fast Food Workers."

In a report released this week by Cowen"s Andrew Charles, the analyst calculates the jump in sales as a result of the company"s new Experience of the Future strategy which anticipates that digital ordering kiosks (shown above) will replace cashiers in at least 2,500 restaurants by the end of 2017 and another 3,000 over 2018. Cowen also cited plans for the restaurant chain to roll out mobile ordering across 14,000 U.S. locations by the end of 2017 (we did not show that particular math, but the logic was similarly compelling).

Here is a snapshot of the math that Cowen, likely in conjunction with management, used to come up with the cost-savings as McDonalds increasingly lays off more and more minimum wage workers and replaces them with "Big Mac ATMs"

MCD is cultivating a digital platform through mobile ordering and Experience of the Future (EOTF), an in-store technological overhaul most conspicuous through kiosk ordering and table delivery. Our analysis suggests efforts should bear fruit in 2018 with a combined 130 bps contribution to U.S. comps. We believe mobile ordering better supplements the drive-thru business where 70%+ of U.S. sales are transacted. In our view, MCD"s differentiation lies in the operational enhancements of mobile ordering that includes curbside pick-up of orders in order to not disrupt the drive-thru.

Below we show Cowen"s full math laying out why the restaurant chain"s client-facing fast food workers are now obsolete:

We are most excited for mobile ordering, Experience of the Future and the launch of fresh beef to help drive U.S. same store sales in 2018. We provide analysis for the latter three, which cumulatively we expect to contribute roughly 150 bps to U.S. same store sales in 2018, respectively. This gives us confidence to raise our 2018 U.S. same store sales forecast from 2% to 3%, in excess of Consensus Metrix’s 2.5%.

Experience of the Future Features Lower ROI Than Mobile Order, But Offers Greater Potential Longer Term

We are constructive on the use of guest facing technology for the restaurant industry. MCD’s longer-term U.S. story revolves around Experience of the Future (EOTF), a holistic operational and technological overhaul to the store base. MCD’s March 2017 investor meeting centered around the initiative with interactive displays. Perhaps the most conspicuous piece of Experience of the Future lies in digital kiosk ordering, which have seen success in International Lead Markets. Additionally, food ordered via the kiosk is delivered to the customer’s table. We believe EOTF better enhances the instore experience, which represents roughly 30% of domestic sales compared to mobile ordering, which allows customers to avoid leaving their cars.

Our ROI math suggests EOTF leads to a 9% cash/cash return in Year 1 in the 55% of domestic stores that do not require a store remodel, and 5% in the 45% of stores that require a remodel, which is a predecessor to implementing EOTF. Our math is premised on total costs of $150,000 for the Experience of the Future enhancement, and $700,000 of all-in costs when including EOTF as well as a store remodel. MCD has offered to pay 55% of the cost for Experience of the Future, in excess of the 40% the company contributed to the store remodel initiative beginning in 2010, for restaurants that commit to the program by the end of 2017.

McDonald’s targets a high-teens return on incrementally invested capital (ROIIC, or McSpeak for evaluating ROI), improving to the mid-20% range beginning in 2019. We believe EOTF’s ROI is captured over time as the sales lift does not dissolve as in the case of a traditional restaurant remodel. Rather, the lift should sustain as we expect consumers to increasingly embrace technological change. This is evidenced across concepts, such as Panera’s experience with 2.0, as well as McDonald’s own experience in Canada, where kiosks saw 12-13% sales mix in Year 1 and 27% in Year 2. We also note kiosk ordering will also likely lead to labor savings over time which should help boost ROIIC, but is unlikely for the foreseeable future.

In 2017, MCD expects to end the year with EOTF offered in 2,500 domestic locations from 500 at 2016-end. MCD targets the majority of domestic locations to feature EOTF by 2020, but has not given intermediary targets. The amount of stores adding EOTF depends on franchise reception to the initiative but we see positive indicators given our checks as well as the company’s disclosure that 90% of franchisees approved of the initiative after taking the same interactive tour that was given at the March 2017 investor day.

We estimate 3,000 locations to add EOTF in 2018, which should lead to a 70 bps contribution to U.S. same store sales assuming an even cadence of restaurants adding the initiative over the course of the year. Further we assume the mix of stores adding EOTF in 2018 reflects the mix of overall stores needed to add EOTF, or 55% of stores that already have a remodel while 45% require a store remodel. McDonald’s  has previously announced plans to remodel 650 restaurants in 2017, which we expect will also add EOTF.

Summarizing all of the above: the workers you see in the photo below are now an endangered species.

Mcdonald’s Is Replacing 2,500 Human Cashiers With Digital Kiosks This Year

(ZH) — The stock market is luvin’ McDonalds stock, which has continued its recent relentless rise to all time highs, up 26% YTD, oblivious to the carnage among the broader restaurant and fast-food sector. There is a reason for Wall Street’s euphoria: the same one we discussed in January in “Dear Bernie, Meet the “Big Mac ATM” That Will Replace All Of Your $15 Per Hour Fast Food Workers.”

In a report released this week by Cowen’s Andrew Charles, the analyst calculates the jump in sales as a result of the company’s new Experience of the Future strategy which anticipates that digital ordering kiosks (shown above) will replace cashiers in at least 2,500 restaurants by the end of 2017 and another 3,000 over 2018. Cowen also cited plans for the restaurant chain to roll out mobile ordering across 14,000 U.S. locations by the end of 2017 (we did not show that particular math, but the logic was similarly compelling).

Here is a snapshot of the math that Cowen, likely in conjunction with management, used to come up with the cost-savings as McDonalds increasingly lays off more and more minimum wage workers and replaces them with “Big Mac ATMs”

MCD is cultivating a digital platform through mobile ordering and Experience of the Future (EOTF), an in-store technological overhaul most conspicuous through kiosk ordering and table delivery. Our analysis suggests efforts should bear fruit in 2018 with a combined 130 bps contribution to U.S. comps. We believe mobile ordering better supplements the drive-thru business where 70%+ of U.S. sales are transacted. In our view, MCD’s differentiation lies in the operational enhancements of mobile ordering that includes curbside pick-up of orders in order to not disrupt the drive-thru.

Below we show Cowen’s full math laying out why the restaurant chain’s client-facing fast food workers are now obsolete:

We are most excited for mobile ordering, Experience of the Future and the launch of fresh beef to help drive U.S. same store sales in 2018. We provide analysis for the latter three, which cumulatively we expect to contribute roughly 150 bps to U.S. same store sales in 2018, respectively. This gives us confidence to raise our 2018 U.S. same store sales forecast from 2% to 3%, in excess of Consensus Metrix’s 2.5%.

Experience of the Future Features Lower ROI Than Mobile Order, But Offers Greater Potential Longer Term

We are constructive on the use of guest facing technology for the restaurant industry. MCD’s longer-term U.S. story revolves around Experience of the Future (EOTF), a holistic operational and technological overhaul to the store base. MCD’s March 2017 investor meeting centered around the initiative with interactive displays. Perhaps the most conspicuous piece of Experience of the Future lies in digital kiosk ordering, which have seen success in International Lead Markets. Additionally, food ordered via the kiosk is delivered to the customer’s table. We believe EOTF better enhances the instore experience, which represents roughly 30% of domestic sales compared to mobile ordering, which allows customers to avoid leaving their cars.

Our ROI math suggests EOTF leads to a 9% cash/cash return in Year 1 in the 55% of domestic stores that do not require a store remodel, and 5% in the 45% of stores that require a remodel, which is a predecessor to implementing EOTF. Our math is premised on total costs of $150,000 for the Experience of the Future enhancement, and $700,000 of all-in costs when including EOTF as well as a store remodel. MCD has offered to pay 55% of the cost for Experience of the Future, in excess of the 40% the company contributed to the store remodel initiative beginning in 2010, for restaurants that commit to the program by the end of 2017.

McDonald’s targets a high-teens return on incrementally invested capital (ROIIC, or McSpeak for evaluating ROI), improving to the mid-20% range beginning in 2019. We believe EOTF’s ROI is captured over time as the sales lift does not dissolve as in the case of a traditional restaurant remodel. Rather, the lift should sustain as we expect consumers to increasingly embrace technological change. This is evidenced across concepts, such as Panera’s experience with 2.0, as well as McDonald’s own experience in Canada, where kiosks saw 12-13% sales mix in Year 1 and 27% in Year 2. We also note kiosk ordering will also likely lead to labor savings over time which should help boost ROIIC, but is unlikely for the foreseeable future.

In 2017, MCD expects to end the year with EOTF offered in 2,500 domestic locations from 500 at 2016-end. MCD targets the majority of domestic locations to feature EOTF by 2020, but has not given intermediary targets. The amount of stores adding EOTF depends on franchise reception to the initiative but we see positive indicators given our checks as well as the company’s disclosure that 90% of franchisees approved of the initiative after taking the same interactive tour that was given at the March 2017 investor day.

We estimate 3,000 locations to add EOTF in 2018, which should lead to a 70 bps contribution to U.S. same store sales assuming an even cadence of restaurants adding the initiative over the course of the year. Further we assume the mix of stores adding EOTF in 2018 reflects the mix of overall stores needed to add EOTF, or 55% of stores that already have a remodel while 45% require a store remodel. McDonald’s has previously announced plans to remodel 650 restaurants in 2017, which we expect will also add EOTF.

Summarizing all of the above: the workers you see in the photo below are now an endangered species.

By Tyler Durden / Republished with permission / ZeroHedge.com / Report a typo

McDonalds To Hire 250,000 This Summer Via SnapChat, Spotify And Hulu

And just like that, the term Snaplicant was born, when moments ago McDonalds - which appears to have run out of "qualified" line cook and fast food job candidates (as our latest overview of the restaurant industry showed) - announced that it hopes to hire a quarter million workers this summer, of which more than half are projected to be between the ages of 16 – 24 years old, and to aid the hiring effort of these workers, for many of whom this will be their first job, MCD will use Snapchat. Hence the bolded term.

‘Snaplications,’ a term coined by McDonald’s, is a first-to-market hiring tool in the U.S. that allows job seekers to be served an ad and opportunity to begin the application process for a job at a McDonald’s restaurant through the Snapchat app. McDonald’s used a similar Snaplications execution in Australia earlier this year, and the company is also utilizing platforms including Spotify and Hulu to reach potential job seekers in a new way for the brand.

And because "new paradigm" gimmicks never cease, McDonalds is also "utilizing platforms including Spotify and Hulu to reach potential job seekers in a new way for the brand."

We wish McDonalds the best of luck: if documented indiations of young Americans" willingness to work (or not) are any indication, the world"s biggest fast food chain may have trouble filling all the open slots...

Full press release below:

McDonald’s Restaurants Expect to Hire 250,000 People this Summer

With summer around the corner, McDonald’s and its independent franchisees are gearing up to hire approximately 250,000 restaurant employees across the U.S.

More than half of the hires at company-owned restaurants are projected to be between the ages of 16 – 24 years old, and for many, it is their first job. For young job seekers, this is good news since according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than a third of teenagers will have a job between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

To aid in hiring efforts, McDonald’s is leading the way with a modern approach to recruiting – Snapchat. ‘Snaplications,’ a term coined by McDonald’s, is a first-to-market hiring tool in the U.S. that allows job seekers to be served an ad and opportunity to begin the application process for a job at a McDonald’s restaurant through the Snapchat app. McDonald’s used a similar Snaplications execution in Australia earlier this year, and the company is also utilizing platforms including Spotify and Hulu to reach potential job seekers in a new way for the brand.

“We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to find job seekers. We thought Snaplications was a great way to allow us to meet job seekers where they are – their phones,” said Jez Langhorn, Senior Director in Human Resources, McDonald’s USA. “As we see the younger generations seeking out their first jobs, we want to make them aware of the great opportunities available at McDonald’s, especially considering we’re committed to being America’s best first job.”

Starting June 13, Snapchat users nationwide may be served 10-second video ads of real restaurant employees talking about the benefits of working at McDonald’s. Viewers can then ‘swipe up’ to instantly visit the McDonald’s career webpage in Snapchat to explore the opportunities offered by McDonald’s, and apply to their local restaurants if they so choose.

McDonald’s and its independent franchisees strive to offer a work environment that sets employees up for success at McDonald’s and beyond… with education programs like Archways to Opportunity®, which gives employees in participating restaurants an opportunity to earn a high school diploma, receive upfront tuition assistance for college courses, access academic advising courses, and learn English as a second language.

Job seekers can visit McDonalds.com/careers to learn more and apply.
 

Bill Introduced Allowing Cancellation Of Over $1 Trillion In Student Debt Through Bankruptcy

Courtesy of Sov Man"s Simon Black, here are several of the most bizarre legal anecdotes to take place in the US and around the globe over the past week, staring with a bill currently making its way through Congress, which is seeking to wipe out over $1 trillion in student loans.

* * *

A Convenient Way to Cancel a Trillion Dollars of Debt

What happened:

Bankruptcy is like the ultimate get out of jail free card. You just get to wipe the slate clean, and even though your credit score and ability to borrow might suffer, you are free from all your previous obligations. But student loans have long been exempted from being erased by bankruptcy.

If this bill passes Congress however, hundreds of billions of currently delinquent student loans, potentially as much as $1.4 trillion worth of student loan debt...

.... would be eligible to be wiped out by declaring bankruptcy.

As the number of those defaulting on their student loans grows, this provision could be widely used by those seeking to escape their college debt.

What this means:

The government has helped raise the costs of college and basically scam people into accepting their loans, so it is easy to be sympathetic towards those with student loans. But still, it is messed up to allow people to discharge debts they agreed to pay.

There might be a little piece in most of us that doesn’t mind seeing what we consider a predatory lender get screwed and be left with the bill.

But apart from the overall immorality of failing to pay your debts, since the government owns most of the student loans, it would basically be the taxpayers getting screwed over once again. What a surprise.

Basically if massive amounts of debt were erased, it would be another bubble bursting, which would send the U.S. into a fresh round of economic instability.

The economy would spiral downward in relation to how many people took advantage of their get out of jail free card.

* * *

Criminal Consequences for Filming on Private Property?

What happened:

If you sneak beer into a football stadium, you have explicitly broken a stadium rule. You might expect to be kicked off their private property for this transgression. But what if instead you got a year in prison?

That’s what an Idaho “Ag Gag” law did; made it illegal to take photographs or videos on private property without permission from the owner. It also made it illegal to gain access to private property through misrepresentation, for instance an undercover reporter seeking a job. Violation of the law was punishable by a year in prison and/ or $5,000 fine.

The law was drafted and sponsored by The Idaho Dairymen"s Association after a video came out showing horrible abuse of cows at a dairy in Hansen Idaho. The video was taken by an employee of Mercy for Animals conducting an undercover investigation.

The bill quickly passed the legislature and was signed by the governor, but was then struck down on the grounds that it violated free speech, and equal protection for employees who may be ensnared attempting to document unsafe working conditions.

The state appealed, and now the the courts will decide whether or not to reinstate the law.

What this means:

Private property owners surely have the right to kick someone off their land or seek civil damages for having their rules broken. But it is going entirely too far when the government is used as a henchman to enforce rules on private property that prohibit actions which are otherwise legal.

Rarely is a law passed in such an obvious effort to stifle the public’s ability to see what is happening behind the scenes in food production.

The government claims it regulates these industries, yet private organizations were the ones who brought the abuse of animals to light. But the government was more interested in supporting the dairy lobby than doing their job.

So how does the government solve the issue of the public taking regulation into their own hands? Make it illegal!

It is important to respect private property, but the government has no business enforcing criminal code for the violation of private rules.

If you don’t want people to film your property, then don’t allow them onto it in the first place. Or maybe just behave in a way that you aren’t afraid of the public seeing.

* * *

Can’t Find an Investor? Force the Taxpayers to Fund Your Startup!

What happened:

Nothing screams success-in-the-making like failing to fund your startup in the private sector, and having to beg the government for money. This is especially true as America is at the peak of the startup bubble, on the heels of easy money pouring countless millions into less than spectacular business ideas.

What does the government do when it sees a good bubble? Blow it bigger! How could something so enchanting ever burst?

The feds want to get in on startups, and start investing in entrepreneurs. After all, they are the ones who created the artificially low interest rates on lending by printing all this money ever since their last major financial bubble popped.

The government’s latest shenanigans is a bill in Congress that would spend tax dollars on startups and entrepreneurship, pouring grant money into “resources and services” for the “formation and early growth stages” of a company.

For the taxpayers, you will get all the exciting risk of investing, without any possible returns!

What this means:

As if there wasn’t enough money pouring into silly businesses without any real potential. At least those in the private sector lose their own money when they invest in stupid businesses, but now the taxpayers could be robbed to do the same. But if a startup can’t get funding in the private sector, it is probably for a good reason.

For the politicians, they can say that they created jobs… even if the jobs only last six months. That’s the thing about government; they highlight the initial benefits of their actions, and somehow forget to report back later on the lack of sustainability or unintended consequences of these genius ideas.

And even if the government could pick winning companies, that literally amounts to stealing your money and handing it out to private businesses.

But they can’t, and so the money they take from the taxpayers will more likely be misappropriated into the next Pets.com style failure.

* * *

You Are Liable For Your Employees’ Actions in Australia

What happened:

It would make sense if McDonalds was responsible for making sure their employees don’t sell drugs on their premises. But what if the fast food chain had to make sure their employees weren’t dealing drugs once they clocked out, and left McDonald"s property? That would be a pretty huge liability for McDonald"s, which would basically have to hire a full on internal investigations police force to make sure they weren’t blamed when one of their employees got caught pushing drugs.

Sounds ridiculous, yet many governments shift their policing responsibility to companies, and simply threaten them with fines if the business does not perform the government’s investigatory job for them.

Australia is doing just that, putting the burden of policing on companies, with new proposals to expand laws against foreign bribery in business. Under the proposals, companies would be responsible for preventing their employees from bribing foreign governments, even if the employee is not acting in official capacity, and even if there was no specific gain for the company.

So this means Australian companies will need to somehow prevent employees not only from acting illegally on behalf of the company, but also from conducting any illegal activity in their own personal lives that involves foreign governments.

What this means:

Basically this is a huge disincentive to doing business overseas if you own an Australian company. The new proposals create numerous costly liabilities and add substantial risk to international operations.

Under the proposals the company who employs the person accused of bribing a foreign official would be automatically held accountable. The rules specifically say that the employee does not have to be acting on behalf of the company, and could be ensnared for bribing for the sake of personal gain.

The safest bet would be for Australian companies to simply not operate internationally.  Of course that seems like suicide in a modern global market.

Perhaps the proposed regulations are Australia’s way of disincentivizing foreign trade and promoting nationalism. But they risk crippling their worldwide competitiveness the more they burden Australian companies with doing the government’s policing duties.

For The First Time In Its History, Subway Shutters Hundreds Of US Stores

For the first time in its 52 years of operation, Subway announced that it contracted in 2016, shuttering 359 US locations which as Bloomberg described was the "biggest retrenchment in the history of the restaurant chain" whose total store count dropped 1.3% from 27,103 in 2015 to 26,744 even as it remained the most ubiquitous fast-food eatery in the US, although McDonalds still tops if by sales.

“Sales for 2016 reflect our focus on international growth,” the Connecticut-based company said in a statement. “We are undertaking an exciting transformation that includes introducing new and improved products, creating an even greater customer experience, refining operations, and positioning Subway franchisees for continued success.”

Confirming that the domestic sales slowdown has continued into 2017, even as the Sub-par chain has been competing with dozens of newer, more exciting fast food eateries, U.S. same-store sales continued to slide during March, dropping 0.6% in the fourth straight month of decreases, according to MillerPulse data cited by Bloomberg.

The good news is that despite the domestic contraction, Subway is still growing internationally with sales outside the U.S. rising 3.7% to $5.8 billion as it continued to open locations.

The private company has been pressured not only by a sharp recent decline in US restaurant traffic and sales  - an industry which as we reported recently suffered its worst collapse since 2009 - but by the industry’s heavy reliance on discounts and promotions. Subway also has lost some of its luster as a healthier-food option, Bloomberg notes as it has been working to restore its status by eliminating antibiotics from its chicken and switching to cage-free eggs.

In another bid to revive growth, Subway is adding delivery services -- a strategy that’s also been embraced by McDonald’s. And it even unveiled a new, more contemporary logo. But so far, the changes haven’t helped much: Sales fell 1.7 percent last year to about $11.3 billion.

As Bloomberg adds, the sandwich chain, which infamously lost its iconic spokesman Jared Fogle in 2015 under humiliating circumstances, has also been overhauling its management team. On Wednesday, the company said it’s bringing on former McDonald’s executive Karlin Linhardt to lead marketing for the more than 30,000 Subway stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Last year, Subway hired Katie Coleman to handle global public relations. She was tasked in part with helping the chain recover from a scandal involving former spokesman Jared Fogle. He pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and was sentenced to prison in 2015.

Subway, owned by Doctor’s Associates Inc., was founded about 52 years ago by Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck. DeLuca died in 2015, leaving the company in the hands of his younger sister, Suzanne Greco, who became chief executive officer. The chain’s restaurants are entirely owned by franchisees.

Meanwhile, as US eaters seemingly grow tired with Subway"s choices, UBS was out with the following report...

Perfect Example Of Why Job Losses From Minimum-Wage-Hikes Are Being Underestimated, 'Bigly'

Over the past several months, we"ve highlighted a number of economic studies analyzing the potential negative impact, in terms of job losses, that may be expected to result from the state-mandated minimum wage hikes that are currently being implemented around the country.

One such study came from the American Action Forum (AAF) and estimated that 2.6 million jobs will be lost around the country over the next several years as states phase-in minimum wage hikes that have already been passed (see "State Minimum Wage Hikes Already Passed Into Law Expected To Cost 2.6 Million Jobs, New Study Finds").  Here were a few of the key takeaways:

• In isolation, the minimum wage increases in 2017 will cost 383,000 jobs;


• The entire minimum wage increases currently phasing-in will cost over 2.6 million jobs; and


• Each job lost only leads to an extra $6,900 in total wage earnings across all workers.

After running a lot of really complicated math using complex equations that most of us stupid people just wouldn"t understand, these studies ultimately come down to a simple economic premise: elasticity of demand (a.k.a. "the higher shit is priced the less people will buy of it" rule).  In fact, the AAF analysis even summarized their study by saying that each 10% increase in wages results in an proximate 0.3% - 0.5% decline in net job growth...a rule which they used to conclude the following:

While proposals to raise the minimum wage are well intended, it is important to consider the negative labor market consequences. Meer & West (2015) find that raising the minimum wage reduces job creation. Specifically, they find that a 10 percent increase in the real minimum wage is associated with a 0.3 to 0.5 percentage-point decline in the net job growth rate. As a result, three years later employment becomes 0.7 percent lower than it would have been absent the minimum wage increase.

While the Meer & West (2015) findings may not seem very problematic, when taking into account the magnitude of the minimum wage increases and the number of states implementing new laws, the negative labor market consequences add up. Let’s first examine the minimum wage hikes of 2017 in isolation, without considering previous or future minimum wage increases under the new state laws.

The problem is that these studies consistently underestimate the number of jobs that will be impacted by minimum wage hikes.  For the most part, the economists simply tally up the number of jobs in a given market that currently fall beneath the new minimum wage threshold and then assume that a certain percentage of them will disappear.

In reality, minimum wage hikes trigger pay increases across the pay scale, not just for the employees earning minimum wage, because most people make employment decisions based on relative wages and not absolute wages. 

Consider, for example, the folks working at a California McDonalds where the minimum wage was $10 per hour in 2016 but is set to increase to $15 over the coming years.  Lets also assume that most of the customer service staff earns the minimum pay rate while managers earn $15.  Under the methodology above, the manager would never be counted as an "at-risk" position because his job would never technically fall below the new minimum wage.  But, in reality, there"s no conceivable world where the manager will simply agree to keep his $15 per hour pay rate once all of his workers have received a 50% pay increase and now make the same as him...instead, he"ll run some basic math and conclude he needs to be making $22.50 per hour to have the same "relative" compensation he had before or he"ll just go work as an order taker with less responsibility. 

And while these are simple concepts to most of us, even if we don"t understand the complicated econometrics equations, as the Associated Press points out today they"re completely foreign concepts to our elected officials who ignorantly passed minimum wage bills across the country without understanding the real economic consequences.  As a perfect example, apparently New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was shocked to learn that home healthcare experts would rather take his new $15 per hour minimum wage job flipping burgers with no stress than to earn the same amount of money for a job that requires a ton of expensive education and stressful, long hours....who knew?

It"s a national problem advocates say could get worse in New York because of a phased-in, $15-an-hour minimum wage that will be statewide by 2021, pushing notoriously poorly paid health aides into other jobs, in retail or fast food, that don"t involve hours of training and the pressure of keeping someone else alive.

"These should not be low-wage jobs," said Bruce Darling, executive director at the Center for Disability Rights. "We"re paying someone who gives you a burger the same as the person who operates your relative"s ventilator or feeding tubes."

There are 2.2 million home health aides and personal care aides in the U.S., with another 630,000 needed by 2024 as the Baby Boomer generation ages, according to the nonprofit research and consulting group PHI. New York state employs about 326,000 home health workers but is predicted to need another 125,000 by 2024.

For now, home health aides in New York state earn an average of about $11 an hour, though wages are lower in upstate regions. Advocates say the system needs an overhaul that focuses on higher pay, worker retention and finding methods of compensation beyond what is provided through Medicaid.

Here"s an idea...how about we just let markets set wage rates?

McDonalds Tweets Trump: "You Are A Disgusting Excuse Of A President, Also You Have Tiny Hands"

Update: It appears McDonalds needed Twitter to tell Robert Gibbs and the company"s Corporate relations team that their account had been "compromised."

Twitter notified us that our account was compromised. We deleted the tweet, secured our account and are now investigating this.

— McDonald"s (@McDonaldsCorp) March 16, 2017

And so, as MCD has washed its hands of the rogue tweet and blamed "compromising" actors, the company has generated substantial media buzz... the only question is whether the buzz will lead to more or less sales.

*  *  *

One day after Twitter stock tumbled after a pervasive hack showed just how vulnerable the underperforming social network (where 15% of total users appear to be bots) remains, moments ago McDonalds tweeted to president Trump, in what appears to be the latest hack of a prominent account, that "You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands."

The confrontational tweet was even pinned for a moment:

We assume, of course, that this is a hack. If not, the media is about to have a field day with the latest member of the "resistance."

Of course, it could have been just a rogue employee who is about to join the "unemployed resistance."

It is worth noting that Trump was once in a commercial for the fast food giant, and has posted images eating McDonald"s food on his social media accounts during his campaign.

Of course, it may not have been a "rogue employee" at all: former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs is now the executive vice president and global chief communications officer at McDonald"s. To wit:

June 09, 2015 McDonald’s Corporation today announced the appointments of Robert Gibbs as Executive Vice President, Global Chief Communications Officer and Silvia Lagnado as Executive Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer. Both will report to McDonald’s President and CEO Steve Easterbrook.

In his new role, Gibbs will lead McDonald’s corporate relations group, which manages internal and external communications and government and public affairs. He will lead McDonald’s in communicating clear, coordinated messages to internal and external constituencies, enhancing the brand and supporting corporate strategies. 

Gibbs joins McDonald’s from The Incite Agency, a strategic communications advisory firm he co-founded in 2013. Prior to that he held several senior advisory roles in the White House, serving as President Barack Obama’s press secretary during his first term, then as senior campaign advisor during his re-election campaign.

Which means he also has access to the company"s twitter account...

* * *

Update: the tweet has since been deleted although it does not appear that McDonalds was actually hacked as the account continues its back and forth with other customers in a far more calm and collected manner.

McDonalds tweets Trump: “You are a disgusting excuse of a president, also you have tiny hands”

One day after Twitter stock tumbled after a pervasive hack showed just how vulnerable the underperforming social network (where 15% of total users appear to be bots) remains, moments ago McDonald’s tweeted to president Trump, in what appears to be the latest hack of a prominent account, that “You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands.”

McDonald’s/Twitter

The confrontational tweet was even pinned for a moment:

McDonald’s/Twitter

We assume, of course, that this is a hack. If not, the media is about to have a field day with the latest member of the “resistance.”

Of course, it could have been just a rogue employee who is about to join the “unemployed resistance.”

It is worth noting that Trump was once in a commercial for the fast food giant, and has posted images eating McDonald’s food on his social media accounts during his campaign.

Of course, it may not have been a “rogue employee” at all: former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs is now the executive vice president and global chief communications officer at McDonald’s. To wit:

June 09, 2015 McDonald’s Corporation today announced the appointments of Robert Gibbs as Executive Vice President, Global Chief Communications Officer and Silvia Lagnado as Executive Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer. Both will report to McDonald’s President and CEO Steve Easterbrook.

In his new role, Gibbs will lead McDonald’s corporate relations group, which manages internal and external communications and government and public affairs. He will lead McDonald’s in communicating clear, coordinated messages to internal and external constituencies, enhancing the brand and supporting corporate strategies.

Gibbs joins McDonald’s from The Incite Agency, a strategic communications advisory firm he co-founded in 2013. Prior to that he held several senior advisory roles in the White House, serving as President Barack Obama’s press secretary during his first term, then as senior campaign advisor during his re-election campaign.

Which means he also has access to the company’s twitter account…

* * *

Update: the tweet has since been deleted although it does not appear that McDonald’s was actually hacked as the account continues its back and forth with other customers in a far more calm and collected manner.

Via Zero Hedge

TRUMPED: Trump trolls media, declares very fake news

Trump had a Nixon moment when he led an unscripted trolling of the mainstream news media.  We can"t call it a press conference, although that"s what it was supposed to be.  Many people such as Zero Hedge readers and others have been aware of the flaws and lies in the Mainstream Media (MSM) for years, but for the first time the highest office in the land is calling them out.  It"s a great moment for freedom, and for markets.  As we explain in our book Splitting Pennies - the world of finance isn"t what it seems, as explained by your 401k administrator.

Even Bloomberg can"t resist twisting the lens left, naming their coverage piece on the event "Candidate Trump Tries to Salvage Embattled President Trump":

Blunt and unscripted, the president lambasted the media as dishonest and unfair, blamed Democrats for the "mess" he inherited and bragged about the scope of his electoral victory.

He was, by turns, menacing and jarringly playful, calling reporters by their first names -- only to accuse them of not just spreading "fake news," but a new, more sinister category of dishonesty, "very fake news." He talked over a question about anti-Semitism and asked an African-American reporter to set up a meeting with black lawmakers.  Almost incidentally, he made some news, including at least one potentially pivotal statement: a declaration that he was not aware that any of his campaign advisers were in contact with Russian government officials. "Nobody that I know of," he said. The 77-minute news conference, easily his longest and most unrehearsed encounter with the media since last summer, appeared to satisfy his itch to duke it out with a press corps he feels has treated him unfairly since his inauguration. His supporters no doubt ate it up, but if they watched closely they saw that Trump seemed to enjoy his banter with reporters, so much so that he could barely pry himself away from the cameras.  “I’m actually having a very good time, OK?,” Trump said. “Don’t forget, that’s the way I won. Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech? Which was like every day.”

Trump isn"t trying to "salvage" anything.  This is just another proof that the establishment has lost complete control over the system.  Also it shows how much time leftist losers have to waste time being upset about Trump and cry in crying rooms and protesting and destroying Bank of America ATMs and McDonalds franchises.  (For those of you who are Democrat because you"re afraid Republicans will take away Welfare programs - don"t worry, that will never happen.  There would be riots.  The Welfare issue isn"t a partisan issue, it"s an issue of haves vs. have-nots.  If Medicaid, Food Stamps, and other programs are taken away, there would be literarlly riots overnight.)

It seems the establishment went too far during the election with the "Fake News" meme, exposing themselves to how fake they really are.

For a quick primer on the "real" financial system, checkout Splitting Pennies Understanding Forex.  Want to debate politics?  Checkout the free forums on Global Intel Hub - a "real" site.

Meet the Inevitable Effect of a $15 Minimum Wage — The “Big Mac ATM”

Everyone who’s seen the ominously accurate comedy, Idiocracy, remembers the Carl’s Jr. atm that would, rather terribly, dispense fast food. Well, now they are a reality.

McDonald’s announced this week that they are giving away free Big Macs for people to review their new Big Mac ATM Machines. 

As Forbes reports:

The automated burger dispensary is popping up in one location, for one day only, on Jan. 31, according to the Boston Metro.

At the touch of a screen, customers can choose between three sizes of Big Mac, which will come out of the ATM with no human help. Participants will need to tweet out their experience to receive the free meal.

While the mainstream media is reporting on the fact that McDonald’s is merely giving away free Big Macs, they are missing the entire point of why that machine exists — the minimum wage.

As the political class continues to deceive their voting base with skewed economic policy by continuing to promote and legislate a $15 minimum wage, businesses are reacting — and the Big Mac ATM is the latest proof of that reaction.

Say what?! A Big Mac ATM machine, where you can order real Big Macs, is coming to the Pru/Copley on January 31st. https://t.co/fjMZcrLpr7 pic.twitter.com/MGRxplpsRI

— BostonTweet (@BostonTweet) January 24, 2017

Before you dismiss this article as some ‘right wing rant against minimum wage’, please consider the following.

If the minimum wage was a successful means of boosting income, we could simply set it at $25 and hour and make everyone rich. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

As wage prices increase, so does the price of the end product of the individual company. A company cannot continue to sell a product for a low price if the cost of their labor suddenly shoots up. The result of such an increase in labor, is an immediate increase in the cost of living, due to higher prices for consumers — which, by the way, immediately offsets any perceived increase in income derived from the initial hike in labor cost.

Aside from the spike in living costs derived from minimum wage laws, as shown in study after study, increasing the minimum wage always increases unemployment.

A study by Jeffrey Clemens and Michael Wither, as reported by the Mises Institute, evaluated the effect of minimum wage increases on low-skilled workers during the recession and found that minimum wage increases between December 2006 and December 2012 “… reduced the national employment-population ratio by 0.7 percentage points.” That amounts to about 1.4 million jobs. And more noteworthy, that “… binding minimum wage increases significantly reduced the likelihood that low-skilled workers rose to what we characterize as lower middle class earnings.”

When companies are forced to pay higher wages for lower-skilled jobs, those companies eliminate those jobs altogether. Eliminating entry level jobs reduces the ability of individuals to garner the necessary ‘job experience’ required by future employers, thereby decreasing the possibility of ever acquiring a decent job.

In spite of the myriad of evidence showing the ill-effects of fixing prices in a market economy, politicians, including Donald Trump, continue to champion this terrible idea. For the last decade, economists have warned against such dramatic increases in the price of labor, and now those warnings are coming to fruition.

In a reaction to the recent minimum wage increase victories, those who provide many of the low-skilled jobs in the labor market have reacted. Last year, McDonald’s announced that it has begun to test self-service kiosks — because a robot’s minimum wage is exactly $0.

While the kiosks served to remove the human at the cash register, the food atms serve to remove the human cooking the burger too!

In response to the minimum wage hikes across the country, Wendy’s announced last year that the franchise will be making available “labor-saving technology” in its 6,000 plus stores across the country. While some franchise locations have been raising the price of food to offset the mandatory pay increase for employees, the costs are becoming too high. They are now making available to all franchise owners self-service ordering kiosks that will inevitably eliminate tens of thousands of jobs.

Unfortunately, in spite of the best intentions of the champions of minimum wages, high pay and cheap products do not go hand and hand.

Aside from the countless economists who predicted such reactions to forced wages, Etan Cohen, who co-wrote the satirical movie turned documentary, Idiocracy with Beavis & Butthead creator, Mike Judge, in 2006 — predicted, with incredible accuracy, the future of fast food in today’s rigged economy.

Welcome to the future.

If the economic effects of minimum wage aren’t enough to convince you, perhaps you should consider the racist background of such laws. As Andrew Syrios points out, Americans have no clue about the racist intentions and subsequent effects of the original minimum wage.

When Apartheid was collapsing in South Africa, the economist Walter Williams did a study of South African labor markets and found that many white unions were seeking to increase the minimum wage. He quotes one such union leader as saying “… I support the rate for the job (minimum wages) as the second best way of protecting white artisans.” By pricing out less educated black laborers with a minimum wage, white unions were able to insulate themselves from competition.

Indeed, the Davis-Bacon Act, which demands that private employers pay “prevailing wages” for any government contracts, was explicitly passed as a Jim Crow law in order to protect white jobs from cheaper black competitors. And while the minimum wage is supported with much more pleasant rhetoric these days, the effects on black employment, particularly black teenage employment, have been devastating. As Thomas Sowell observes,

In 1948 … the unemployment rate among black 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds was 9.4 percent, slightly lower than that for white kids the same ages, which was 10.2 percent. Over the decades since then, we have gotten used to unemployment rates among black teenagers being over 30 percent, 40 percent or in some years even 50 percent.

It’s hard to imagine that black unemployment was actually less than that of whites. But that is the effect minimum wage laws can have.

Ending poverty and giving people additional income are praiseworthy goals, but there are no free lunches in this world. And trying to force prosperity through a minimum wage simply creates a whole host of negative and unintended consequences especially for those who are the most vulnerable.

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter and now on Steemit

Dear Bernie, Meet the "Big Mac ATM" That Will Replace All Of Your $15 Per Hour Fast Food Workers

Dear Bernie, as you continue in your never-ending "Fight for $15", we thought you might benefit from a simple example of how economics work in a real life, functioning, capitalistic society.  You see, Bernie, labor, much like your daily serving of crunchy granola, is just another "good" that businesses can choose to consume more or less of, depending on price.  And, just to be crystal clear, when the price of labor (i.e. wages) increases, businesses tend to consume less of it.  Finally, our dearest Bernie, when misinformed politicians radically disrupt labor markets by setting artificially high base prices, like your proposed $15 federal minimum wage, then businesses simply stop consuming labor completely and instead replace that labor with this "Big Mac ATM Machine."

Say what?! A Big Mac ATM machine, where you can order real Big Macs, is coming to the Pru/Copley on January 31st. https://t.co/fjMZcrLpr7 pic.twitter.com/MGRxplpsRI

— BostonTweet (@BostonTweet) January 24, 2017

So, you see Bernie, pretty soon all those McDonald"s workers that you promised a "fair living wage" to make Big Macs, will have absolutely no wages at all courtesy of your "Fight for $15."

Of course, as the Daily Caller points out, the "Big Mac ATM" is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to low-skilled jobs that will be automated as a result of the $15 minimum wage that has already been passed in several states across the country.

Wendy’s, another popular fast-food establishment, announced plans in May to start installing self-serving kiosks at some of its over 6,000 locations later in the year. The chain is replacing cashiers and other low-skilled jobs with computers and automated machines because, as Wendy’s president Todd Penegor told Investor’s Business Daily, it has to compensate for wage hikes.

McDonald’s Europe president Steve Easterbrook announced in 2011 that the fast-food restaurant was planning on “hiring” 7,000 touch-screen cashiers to be installed across the continent, according to CNET and the Financial Times. Easterbrook said it would make transactions more efficient — namely lowering the average interaction three to four seconds each.

So, congrats on getting all those fast food workers fired, we"re sure they really appreciate all your hard work. 

McDonald’s U.S. Operations in Trouble Despite Endless Marketing Schemes

January 23, 2017   |   Carey Wedler

(ANTIMEDIA) Despite McDonald’s extensive efforts to improve U.S. sales over the last several years, its most promising endeavor is coming up short — and as a result, so are the company’s domestic profits.

Reuters reports that according to McDonald’s fourth quarter report, released Monday, “Sales at established U.S. restaurants fell for the first time in six quarters as the novelty of all-day breakfast failed to overcome competition from supermarkets and other food sellers.”

McDonald’s previously bolstered profits by adding all-day breakfast to its menu in October 2014, a move directly intended to stimulate lagging sales.

These efforts were initially successful, but apparently not sufficient enough to constitute a prolonged increase in sales.

However, global sales have been more lucrative. “Sales crushed expectations with a 2.7% gain year-over-year for same-store sales, much higher than the expectations of 1.4% growth,” Business Insider notes.

McDonald’s made most of its gains internationally, and “revenue was just ahead of expectations at $6.03 billion against projections of $6.00 billion.” McDonald’s has made substantial investments in technology in some countries, including adding self-serve kiosks, which have helped their profits abroad.

Domestically, however, where McDonald’s establishments are most profitable, the company surprisingly blamed its decline, in part, on all-day breakfast, arguing it was a “’challenging comparison against the prior-year launch of the very successful All-Day Breakfast,’” according to Reuters.

According to Neil Saunders, head of retail analyst firm Consuming, efforts like adding all-day breakfast have, indeed, fallen short.

“These changes were supposed to drive a steady and sustainable uplift in (consumer) spending rather than a one-off spike in sales, but it is increasingly clear that this strategy is not delivering,” he said in an email to Reuters.

However, other factors also contributed to the overall loss, which was admittedly .1% less than market analysts predicted. “Supermarkets have been passing lower food costs on to shoppers, while restaurants are raising menu prices to offset the impact of minimum wage increases,” Reuters notes.

While McDonald’s fourth quarter sales fell 1.3%, “fourth quarter revenue fell nearly 5 percent, to $6.03 billion.” However, this was “mainly due to the sale of restaurants to franchisees as part of Easterbrook’s turnaround plan.”

McDonald’s has made numerous efforts domestically and abroad to re-energize sales. From all-day breakfast and “healthy” salads in the U.S. to chocolate-drizzled fries in Japan, some of these efforts have worked. As the fourth quarter report notes, the company continues to perform well internationally, where it earns two-thirds of its profits.

As such, CEO Steve Easterbrook was optimistic. “We’ve built the foundation that’s enabling us to transition from turnaround to longer-term growth,” he said in a conference call, as reported by Bloomberg. “We’re now in a position to prioritize initiatives that will further strengthen our business.”

Nevertheless, following the company’s announcement, its shares dropped two percent. According to market analyst David Palmer, “Traffic has fallen more than 10 percent over the last four years at restaurants in the United States, McDonald’s most profitable market.”

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