That Fast Food Workers Strike

Go Ahead. Pay 'em.

But find ways to cut staff in half.  

The math works - double the pay, cut the staff in half.  Net result: a wash.

But wait, how can one cut the staff in half?  Aren't most of those fast food joints already low in staff?

No.  Next time you're in one of those places do a nose count of workers.  Now imagine the quality of people and work you'd get for twice the pay.  Could you replace two of those minimum wage workers with one better-paid, more ambitious worker?

And could you, as you wait there at the register for your Big Mac and watch all the activity back in the kitchen, imagine how investing in better kitchen machinery could result in further cutting staff?  Why not an automated fry maker, for example?  Drop the spuds in the top at the start of the day, and harvest fresh hot fries all day long at the push of a button.  That's at least two staff positions right there that could be eliminated.

How about pre-cooked burgers that only need a quick nuking?  Sure, that might not be 'fresh,' but they would be more like home cookin' to many of us.  Or if you just MUST have 'fresh,' how about a cooking conveyor like they use for doughnuts at Krispy Kreme?  A machine drops wads of dough (hamburgers, for us) onto what amounts to a conveyor and it moves them along the cooking route, until they come out done at the far end.  No cook needed.  There's another at least two staff positions.  Or even more than two, if you count shift changes.  The french fries and burger cooking could all be handled by one virtual button-pusher working from home over the internet.  Hell, he could probably handle that for more than one store.

Put your Ostrich Killer in charge of reducing staff and watch the bottom line swell.

Of course, that would mean that half the staff - the least valuable, slow-moving knuckle-dragging half that's let go because they're not worth the money they're already being paid, much less what they want - would be unemployed . . . but their co-workers, the ones who actually work and produce, would be better paid.  And worth the money, mostly.

Another cup of coffee now.  You're welcome.  And by the way, if you know John Galt, have him drop me a note, will you?