By Jon Sherfey
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV.
If you are one of the millions of Americans who eat fast food like myself, you surely have noticed the recent drop in quality it has suffered. Fast food is no longer fast, the food is much too expensive, and the average minimum wage worker is to blame.
Take my most recent trip to classic American restaurant McDonalds for example. I placed my usual order of three McDoubles, a ten-piece McNugget, a large fry, a chicken McCrispy, a McFlurry and an apple pie. To my disgust this meal clocked in at over $40. I thought fast food was supposed to be an affordable bite to eat, yet I’m breaking the bank for a single order. With prices this high for just one person, how is someone expected to feed their entire family?
I begrudgingly placed my order on the kiosk because it’s my right to order however much food fills my appetite without speaking to anyone. As I waited, I noticed others receiving their food before me.
Thirty minutes passed and not a single worker cared enough to check in on me. At that point, Ronald McDonald himself should’ve been feeding me nugget by nugget. Instead, kids ran wild around the store, employees made TikToks on company time, and my stomach growled louder.
Another thirty minutes passed and the McDonalds was about to close. Finally, one of the lethargic employees came up and notified me they are nearing close, so I’d have to leave. I very politely let him know that my order had been lost and not prepared. But deep down, I know if he had not been coasting on this nation’s ridiculously high minimum wage, he may have had an ounce of care to notice. He shuffled away, and now I had to talk to the manager. Very mature of the teen who will remain nameless but whose red eyes and careless attitude will remain ingrained in my mind.
The manager let me know if I simply said something to someone an hour ago, they could have gotten me my food. So now I guess it’s my responsibility to notify employees of the orders, despite the fact that they push you to order on the kiosk. What’s next, I have to make my own McNuggets too?
A few minutes later, my food came and I double checked the bag to make sure I wasn’t missing even a single fry. It came out good so I left. Of course, the food was delicious. That goes without saying.
All I want to know is where is the care? Where is the love? McDonalds workers must have gotten healthcare and completely given up. If the human workers are there and not pulling their weight, then why do we even care that their jobs will be automated? I say get rid of the humans. Fast food is too expensive to be paying for workers who couldn’t even care less about customer service.
McDonalds has started this automation with their kiosks, and it’s a great step, but it’s not enough. If I don’t need a person to take my order, I shouldn’t have to pay for the expensive premium of extra dipping sauces or the myriad of other ways corporate fast food steals your money.
As you read this story, I’m sure you nodded your head in agreement after suffering a similar experience. Keep that in mind with this next tidbit; across this country, fast food restaurants unionization has begun. Starbucks employees have fought hard to ensure they receive a $20 minimum wage as one of their demands. If McDonalds did that, just imagine how much lazier these employees would be and how much more a delicious spicy McCrispy would cost.
In addition to higher wages, Starbucks workers also bargained for healthcare for part-time and full-time workers. If these workers can’t care for me when I’m starving, then I shouldn’t have to care for them through increased prices when they deal with their own medical emergencies.
These workers are so selfish they have the gall to not only ask for healthcare but also an exorbitant wage even though they barely work as it is. If these people wanted to be paid like burger kings and queens, then they should have had the genius idea of creating a McDonalds-esque corporation.
You might be saying, “Doesn’t McDonalds make enough money to increase workers’ wages? And wouldn’t a worker who is paid more be a happier and better worker?” To that I say absolutely not.
It is Ronald McDonald’s right to keep all of the profits from his restaurant. Why? Because he’s the one who founded the place. The founder of McDonald’s is a businessman, not a charity. Except for his charity The Ronald McDonald House.
Employees should be good workers because of the pride they feel for the corporation they work for, not because of the compensation they receive for their labor.
The fast-food workers which run these beloved eateries were once like a gazelle grazing through the meadows but are now nothing more than a mangled roadkill deer, frothing at the mouth and leaking blood. It’s up to us as the American people to shoot its brains out and put it out of its misery. We’ll let the robots do the rest.
Going to fast food restaurants used to be great. They were convenient, cheap, and let’s be frank; delicious. That is why automation is good for the country. To bring back the people’s food, we have to get rid of the people.
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