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posted by takyon on Sunday October 22 2017, @09:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the FIRE-sector-doing-bad-math-again dept.

The Intercept reports:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded Chipotle and warned investors that the stock will "underperform", complaining that the restaurant chain is paying its workers too much, and that cutting labor costs further will be difficult for the chain.

[...] Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold called Bank of America's analysis "flawed and inaccurate", adding that the restaurant chain hasn't cut employee hours but recently increased hours in conjunction with the addition of queso to the menu.

"That analysis is making estimates and conclusions about our management practices over a 12-year time frame from 2006 to 2017", Arnold told The Intercept. "Obviously, the scale of our business and labor wages have changed dramatically over that time frame. Drawing conclusions from 2006 and applying them as a directional change to our business over the past 12 months is simply flawed."

[...] "We continue to pay wages and offer benefits that are competitive and that reflect the priorities of our employees", Arnold said. "And with a commitment to developing and promoting people from within, we are providing significant opportunities for advancement."

The downgrade is a symptom of Wall Street's maniacal obsession with labor costs.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:24AM (21 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:24AM (#585921)

    Money is just a logistics technology; not only does money make it possible to account for resources, but when combined with capitalism, it allows for finding which allocation of resources makes the most sense to society, including finding which people should be the ones making the decisions about resource allocation (people who make productive allocations are rewarded with more decision-making power, while people who make anti-productive allocations are stripped of their decision-making power).

    Money is great. There's no possible way for society work without it. Ever.

    Far from enslaving people, money frees people, by allowing them to cooperate across the planet without even realizing it. People who otherwise hate each other are working together to build a useful world, thanks to money, and then their children are growing up with less hatred due to the prosperity.

    You almost nailed the problem, though: The Mafia is an authoritarian organization; the mafia is founded on the principle of "do-as-I-say" coercion, just like "government". Money is a technology that does not work well under authoritarianism. It only works well under libertarianism ("do-as-we-agreed" voluntary exchange); it only works well under capitalism in particular—this is because nobody knows how anything should be priced, a question which must be asked continuously, and answered continuously by a market of voluntary exchange.

    That's why socialist regimes always fail. They do not respect the organic, evolutionary nature of the price mechanism; their only recourse is to try to control the subjugated population by authoritarian means, imposing some particular structure to society that just doesn't make any sense, and thus the universe crushes them like a species that won't adapt.

    Long live money. It is our savior.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:30AM (11 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:30AM (#585923) Journal

    The problem is that workers are treated as resources rather than as humans.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Sunday October 22 2017, @01:27PM (4 children)

      by fliptop (1666) on Sunday October 22 2017, @01:27PM (#585945) Journal

      workers are treated as resources rather than as humans

      So the HR department should change their title to just H? Problem solved!

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:00PM (#585949)

        No, because that would imply that HR themselves are human.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:44PM (2 children)

        by acid andy (1683) on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:44PM (#585954) Homepage Journal

        So the HR department should change their title to just H? Problem solved!

        P for Personnel.

        --
        If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:58PM

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:58PM (#585959) Journal

          Any suit who can say the word "personnel" and *mean it* is gonna fry...

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday October 22 2017, @03:36PM

          by Gaaark (41) on Sunday October 22 2017, @03:36PM (#585967) Journal

          HP? Mmmmmm.... that and sriracha sauce.....makes Gaaark something something

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by digitalaudiorock on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:29PM (2 children)

      by digitalaudiorock (688) on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:29PM (#585951) Journal

      The problem is that workers are treated as resources rather than as humans.

      Absolutely...and corporate America has been doing that for so long that Wall Street has completely forgotten the benefits of productivity, loyalty, low employee turnover etc etc that you get from...you know...having employees that don't hate your fucking guts. Too bizarre of a concept these days I guess.

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by Gaaark on Sunday October 22 2017, @03:40PM (1 child)

        by Gaaark (41) on Sunday October 22 2017, @03:40PM (#585969) Journal

        Another problem is rewarding failure:

        Sears executives fail INCREDIBLY well, but get big bonuses for their excellence at being shite.

        So long as you're not a grunt, you get rewarded no matter how badly you SUCK AT YOUR FUCKING JOB!!!

        Should not be allowed: their bonuses should go to covering creditors and what is left is shared equally among all employees.

        Only prostitutes should get well rewarded for sucking.

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:44PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:44PM (#586083)

          You can only imagine how many times I say that at my screen in a week's time as I traverse the internet.

          Any instructor|tech book author who doesn't understand the "DEGRADES GRACEFULLY" thing should be taken out and beaten with a stick.

          So, it's not only applicable to C-level jerks.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:52PM (2 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:52PM (#585958)

      workers are treated as resources rather than as humans.

      That's not a problem if you're a resource manager, like a bank.

      It is a problem if you are both a human and a worker, thus: labor unions.

      Begs an interesting question about robot workers, and if they will react similarly to human workers someday? Global electronic network communication will be a dangerous tool in the hands of organized robot workers, but, luckily, the TensorFlow style machine learning currently in use has a compute-expensive learning phase that produces a cheap to deploy production phase that isn't as dynamic in its behavior. If (when) the field deployed instances become self-learners, it could get interesting in a very short time.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:17PM (#586014)

        Don't worry, the lizard people have used the moon matrix media to completely destroy the idea of labor unions. Until humans evolve into angels, they'll keep being convinced by the crap on the moon matrix, encouraged by their tribal identity and status as temporarily embarrassed millionaire.

        It would be nice if we could figure out how to implement some of ancap AC's ideas (all things are good in moderation). Then R team followers could all enter into a voluntary contract with the R team, so that I can stop paying for their fucking socialist welfare with my taxes. Would also be amusing to see how long the R team has followers that way. It seems that R team followers all depend on welfare, disability, etc.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @10:58PM (#586087)

        https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question#firstHeading [wikipedia.org]

        Begging the question is commonly known as circular reasoning

        So, NO, it doesn't "beg".
        ...and adding "interesting" doesn't make the usage any less incorrect.

        Appropriate words: asks; poses; proposes; puts forward.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday October 22 2017, @06:01PM (5 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Sunday October 22 2017, @06:01PM (#585996)

    If this were true, how would people get filthy stinking rich by pushing paper around?

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:53PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:53PM (#586028)
      1. Currently, society exists with a huge distorting force: The Government, which is an authoritarian, coercive, anti-capitalist organization that has used violent imposition to place itself near the very foundations of social interaction; it's not surprising that a lot of people use this coercive mechanism to become wealthy through theft rather than productive work, and you are conflating those 2 modes of personal profit.

        When you live in a culture that reveres government, don't be surprised that people seek wealth through pillaging rather than societal profit—it's natural to them.

      2. Pushing papers is actually a very important role.

        Pulling a lever to stamp out a widget is not nearly as important as knowing what shape that widget should be; the intellectual work of the means of production is worthy of a great deal of compensation, and that intellectual work includes a lot of paper pushing and deal making, and organization of resources flows, etc.

      • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday October 22 2017, @08:35PM (1 child)

        by mhajicek (51) on Sunday October 22 2017, @08:35PM (#586044)

        I'm not referring to engineering and design or process engineering, I'm referring to those who amass their wealth by moving fiat currency around into different piles, and making wagers with other people's money.

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:26PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:26PM (#586955)

          Making bets on different economies (currency trading), and pooling people's resources with which to make investment bets, are all very important activities.

          The real problem is that when these activities become dysfunctional and thus become in need of disbanding, they are saved and propped up through bailouts imposed by this one particular, strangely revered, anti-capitalist, authoritarian organization called "government".

          Bailing out failures goes against the OP's point that people who make anti-productive allocations of resources should be stripped of their decision-making powers (e.g., they should go bankrupt).

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @11:45PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @11:45PM (#586094)

        What country^W planet are you from?

        USA bombed the living shit out of Vietnam, killing 5 million people.
        USA spewed Agent Orange over the place, poisoning plants, soil, and people (notably, birth defects) causing multi-generational damage.
        USA didn't win that scrap, but it made damned sure that that country was thoroughly destroyed and would never be an example of Anti-Capitalism and would never suggest that USAian hegemony|mercantilism isn't global.

        In 1953, USA staged a coup in Iran and put a tyrant in power after a democratically-elected prime minister moved to nationalize the oil industry there.

        Ronald Reagan sold weapons to a country that wasn't approved by Congress and directed that money to a bunch of murderous Anti-Socialist insurgents in Nicaragua.

        USA has had a blockade on Cuba since 1959 because that country has economic ideas that are counter to USA's insistence on Oligarchical Capitalism.

        USA is in the process of pulling similar shit in Venezuela.

        In short, you have swallowed a bunch of Neoliberal bullshit and have no fucking idea what you are talking about.

        .
        The Government, which is an authoritarian, coercive

        On his weekly radio program, Ralph Nader regularly says that it's amazing how few people it takes getting seriously involved (1 percent) in order to get things changed.

        Thom Hartmann closes his radio/TV program with, "Don't forget. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Get out there. Get active. Tag, you're it!"

        There's a powerful painting among Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms series.
        It shows a guy who is obviously Working Class speaking while guys in suits listen, apparently at a town hall meeting.
        upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/%22Freedom_of_Speech%22_-_NARA_-_513536.jpg/472px-%22Freedom_of_Speech%22_-_NARA_-_513536.jpg [1]

        As the old saying goes: You get the government that you deserve.

        [1] The S/N comments engine strips stuff like %22 out of hyperlinks, ruining those, so just do a copy&paste.
        Wikimedia is also https-only, but will redirect.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:28PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:28PM (#586958)

          I'm sure your twisted mind thinks you've hit the nail, but your ranting seems to be completely irrelevant to the OP's points.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:11PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:11PM (#586011)

    Uh... please explain, given that men aren't angels, how we prevent anarcho-capitalism, because you're not talking about libertarianism, dipshit, from devolving into mafia.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:41PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:41PM (#586024)

      Why would your solution to "men aren't angels" be a centralized monopoly on violence? That makes no sense, dipshit.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @02:46AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @02:46AM (#586142)

        Look around you! People are self-organizing, voluntarily, into violent forces, and all are bidding on their centralized force becoming a violently imposed monopoly. Men are tribal animals above all else.

        That's what I'm trying to say when I say men aren't angels. Humans are an inherently authoritarian species. The majority of humans desire following authoritarian leaders, which is why, because humans desire violent imposition, the best way forward is to grant a monopoly on contract enforcement.

        Allowing contract enforcement services to use the free market during this species' stage of evolution would invite disaster and another return to dark ages for them.

        The bad news is that this must needs imply a one world government founded on strict libertarian principles. I believe that must evolve before humans will be able to evolve into a more angelic species.

        Anarcho-capitalism is a system that is too advanced for man. One day, but not today.

        I hope that helps explain my position.