So, You Want $15 An Hour?

[Street Glider]

Grandmother's great grandfather.

All I have is 2nd hand hand-me-down info.

More likely that your great great grandfather didn't flee the French Revolution as much as he was carried out by your great great great grandfather.

My grandfather was born in 1908. His father (my great grandfather), was born in 1879. His father (my great great grandfather) was born in 1853. I'd have to go back two more generations to get back to 1789...

 

[Matt Dillon]

More likely that your great great grandfather didn't flee the French Revolution as much as he was carried out by your great great great grandfather.

My grandfather was born in 1908. His father (my great grandfather), was born in 1879. His father (my great great grandfather) was born in 1853. I'd have to go back two more generations to get back to 1789...

Fled as young man..had to make it in America before he could settle down and take a wife.

Too many "greats", head hurt.

 

[Concart]

Here's the "bottom line": I haven't said a single word about demand.

A simple scenario:

Let's say I own a store; call it "SG's Doohicky Store". I have ten employees who make the Florida minimum wage of $10 an hour, and each one works 40 hours a week. That's $4,000 per week going out in wages.

I buy my doohickies from the Acme Doohicky Company for $20.00 per doohicky. I have an order come in every week consisting of 100 doohickies eve, which costs me $2,000 per order. I sell each doohicky for $40 a piece, and I sell out of doohickies every week (people, after all, love their doohickies). My gross profit is $2,000 on a single order of doohickies, or $8,000 a month. Now, deduct the wages I pay the employees and there is a net profit for the business of $4,000.

If I suddenly had to start paying employees $15 an hour, I would then be paying out $6,000 in wages instead of $4,000, which means my net profit is cut in half to $2,000.

Do you honestly believe that I should simply absorb that $2,000 hit? That'd be bad business. The choices I have are to raise my prices to mitigate the impact of the increase of minimum wage, or let half my employees go to recoup that $2,000.

Which is preferable to you?

Once again you prove yourself to be a simpleton. You don’t own a business. No chance. You obviously don’t know what elastic demand is. It would prevent your scenario from happening. Use google. If you had any critical thinking ability you’d understand that raising minimum wage will result in greater productivity and less turnover. HUGE factors for a business. You can also raise prices to a certain extent without impacting demand. And in fact demand will go up because now minimum wage workers now have more discretionary income . That’s the difference between your fifth grade understanding and my advanced degree understanding.

 

[Street Glider]

Once again you prove yourself to be a simpleton. You don’t own a business. No chance. You obviously don’t know what elastic demand is. It would prevent your scenario from happening. Use google. If you had any critical thinking ability you’d understand that raising minimum wage will result in greater productivity and less turnover. HUGE factors for a business. You can also raise prices to a certain extent without impacting demand. And in fact demand will go up because now minimum wage workers now have more discretionary income . That’s the difference between your fifth grade understanding and my advanced degree understanding.

You're serving as another wonderful example of how some of the dumbest people alive are some of the most educated...

 

[Concart]

You're serving as another wonderful example of how some of the dumbest people alive are some of the most educated...

Translation: I got nothing.

 

[Matt Dillon]

You're serving as another wonderful example of how some of the dumbest people alive are some of the most educated...

"Those that can, do. Those that can't...teach."

A teacher told me that one.

 

[Into the Night]

So, you want $15 to start as a cashier at Wal-Mart?

I rarely go to Wal-Mart, but the last time I was there (about three weeks ago) there were two cashiers on duty, and eight self-service lanes open.

It's a smart move by Wal-Mart. At $15 an hour, eight cashier lanes running 17 hours a day (my local Wal-Mart is open from 6am-11pm) costs Wal-Mart $2,040 per day to operate. In just 2-1/2 days a single kiosk can pay for itself (they run around five grand a pop). The kiosk then no longer needs anything; no training, no time off, no breaks, no health insurance, no paid holidays; nothing.

This is where retail is headed. If we assume ten kiosks per store and an otherwise hourly wage of $15 an hour per soon-to-be-out-of-work cashier, once these kiosks pay for themselves (which would happen in rather short order) Wal-Mart will save a total of $2,550 per day in hourly wages. That's $17,850 per week, or $928,200 a year, and that's per store. Wal-Mart has approximately 10,500 stores. If this approach was put in place in all of their stores, Wal_Mart would save $9,746,100,00 per year.

Many retailers will follow Wal-Mart's lead. If the kiosk idea ultimately fails, Wal-Mart is large enough to absorb the loss. If it succeeds, though, other retailers will start adopting the use of kiosks instead of employing cashier's. Even the largest grocery stores (which are also currently employing self-serve kiosks) will be able to operate with far fewer employees.

This is just an observation based on what I've seen locally here in northeast Florida. I have to believe that northeast Florida is not unique...

It isn't unique. Self service checkout is now common not only in Walmart, but in Home Depot, Safeway, Kroger, and many other places. These have already paid for themselves.

 

[Into the Night]

Fewer cashiers means there could be more client relations/customer service personnel.

No. There is just fewer personnel.

 

[Into the Night]

Better customer service/client relations should matter to most consumers.

You don't get to speak for most consumers.

Perhaps you should actually look at shopping habits at your local Walmart store. What service/client relations are you referring to? Ignoring the cashing out, what is there that hasn't always been there?

 

[Into the Night]

I refuse to use the self checker-outer.

I want to deal with a person.

Fine. Go stand in line and have fun.

 

[Into the Night]

So, then the fact that they're continuing to do it can only mean that they see the benefit of automating and not having actual employees...

Self checkout still has a cashier monitoring the kiosks.

 

[Into the Night]

Walmart is starting at $16+/hour.

I always use the self checkout, in large part because there are on other lanes moving as quickly. But they only accept credit cards lately, so there will always be a need for humans. Less cashiers up front means there can be one manned register in the perimeter departments.

If your argument is that Walmart is moving toward self checkout because they can't afford to pay humans, that's nuts.

They're making record profits and paying a dividend that will more than likely increase due to automation.

Which is what the investors demand. They don't shop in Walmart.

Why would someone buying stock in Walmart not shop at Walmart??

 

[Ross Dolan]

Once again you prove yourself to be a simpleton. You don’t own a business. No chance. You obviously don’t know what elastic demand is. It would prevent your scenario from happening. Use google. If you had any critical thinking ability you’d understand that raising minimum wage will result in greater productivity and less turnover. HUGE factors for a business. You can also raise prices to a certain extent without impacting demand. And in fact demand will go up because now minimum wage workers now have more discretionary income . That’s the difference between your fifth grade understanding and my advanced degree understanding.

Careful, Concart. You are getting too good at handing him his ass. He'll end up pretending to put you on IGNORE so he doesn't have to deal with you...like he did with me.

 

[Into the Night]

We should ask the Fed for an optimum minimum wage for our economy.

Price controls do not work. They always cause shortages.

 

[Into the Night]

You’ve inspected my balls? Fucking weird, dude.

Here’s the bottom line. Increases in minimum wage have almost no effect on demand. Study after study has shown this. And your desperate and repeated attempts to convince everyone you are a big shot business owner are belied by your obvious lack of even basic business understanding. No one cares. Let’s talk about demand elasticity. I’ll give you five minutes to google that. Lol at you.

It's not about demand. It's about price controls. Price controls never work. They always cause shortages. In the case of minimum wage laws, shortages of jobs.

 

[danielpalos]

Price controls do not work. They always cause shortages.

Then reserving Labor through equal protection of our at-will employment laws must be the market friendly solution.

 

[Into the Night]

Here's the "bottom line": I haven't said a single word about demand.

A simple scenario:

Let's say I own a store; call it "SG's Doohicky Store". I have ten employees who make the Florida minimum wage of $10 an hour, and each one works 40 hours a week. That's $4,000 per week going out in wages.

I buy my doohickies from the Acme Doohicky Company for $20.00 per doohicky. I have an order come in every week consisting of 100 doohickies eve, which costs me $2,000 per order. I sell each doohicky for $40 a piece, and I sell out of doohickies every week (people, after all, love their doohickies). My gross profit is $2,000 on a single order of doohickies, or $8,000 a month. Now, deduct the wages I pay the employees and there is a net profit for the business of $4,000.

If I suddenly had to start paying employees $15 an hour, I would then be paying out $6,000 in wages instead of $4,000, which means my net profit is cut in half to $2,000.

Do you honestly believe that I should simply absorb that $2,000 hit? That'd be bad business. The choices I have are to raise my prices to mitigate the impact of the increase of minimum wage, or let half my employees go to recoup that $2,000.

Which is preferable to you?

What is preferable to him is some form of socialism, either fascism or communism. This isn't the first time he's wandered here. He has NO understanding of capitalism. He somehow thinks it only involves Wall Street or The (evil) Bankers.

 

[Into the Night]

Once again you prove yourself to be a simpleton. You don’t own a business. No chance.

He accurately described the business model. Apparently you did not understand it.

You obviously don’t know what elastic demand is.

A meaningless buzzword.

It would prevent your scenario from happening.

Buzzwords don't prevent anything except communicating.

Use google.

Google is not God nor a source.

If you had any critical thinking ability you’d understand that raising minimum wage will result in greater productivity and less turnover.

Price controls never work. It is socialism. Price controls always cause shortages. There is NO turnover for people you don't hire.

HUGE factors for a business.

A void isn't a factor.

You can also raise prices to a certain extent without impacting demand.

You cannot just arbitrarily raise prices. Prices are set by market forces. If you just raise prices, some competitor will come along and just undercut you. YOU lose business, and your competitor GAINS business.

And in fact demand will go up because now minimum wage workers now have more discretionary income.

There are fewer workers. They make NO money.

That’s the difference between your fifth grade understanding and my advanced degree understanding.

Attempted proof by sanctification.

Level of education makes no difference here.

 

[Into the Night]

Translation: I got nothing.

Inversion fallacy. You are, quite literally, a college educated idiot.

 

[Into the Night]

Then reserving Labor through equal protection of our at-will employment laws must be the market friendly solution.

Labor is not reserved. What solution? To what? You have not defined The Problem.