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You probably remember Subway's famous "five-dollar footlong" promotion as much for the obnoxiously catchy jingle as for the sandwiches themselves. (Sorry for getting that stuck in your head all day.)
The sandwich chain recently resurrected the promotion in a national advertising campaign promising foot-long subs for just $4.99—but the special deal won't fly at one Subway restaurant in Seattle, where owner David Jones posted a sign this week giving customers the bad news.
Sadly, the consequences of high minimum wages, excessive taxation, and mandate-happy public policy are not limited to the death of cheap sandwiches. The cost of doing business in Seattle is higher than the Space Needle, and the unintended consequences of those policies are piling up too.
The biggest cost driver, as Jones' sign mentions, is Seattle's highest-in-the-nation minimum wage. It went from $9.47 to $11 per hour in 2015, then to $13 per hour in 2016, with a further increase to $15 per hour planned.
The result? According to researchers at the University of Washington's School of Public Policy and Governance, the number of hours worked in low-wage jobs has declined by around 9 percent since the start of 2016 "while hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent." The net outcome: In 2016, the "higher" minimum wage actually lowered low-wage workers' earnings by an average of $125 a month.
And now those same employees will have to pay more for sandwiches from Subway—and everything else too.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @05:00AM (20 children)
is businesses hiring a lot less employees, because they cannot afford to. That means more low education people on government cheese, which means more Democrat voters, to keep the handouts flowing. Everything going according to plan.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @05:04AM (1 child)
A small boy runs up to his father, crying.
Son: "Daddy, daddy! I broke my toy!"
Father: "Again? That's the tenth one this week. Well, I'll just buy you another one, since they are cheap and disposable."
Son: "Yay! Thanks, daddy! I love you!"
A heartwarming moment between a father and son. In the background, the corpse of a naked woman could be seen lying in a pool of her blood.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @02:16AM
Wow, I almost want to mod this up funny.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @05:15AM (3 children)
Really, who cares? Subway kept Jared as their spokesperson even as they knew he was getting underager prostitutes sent to his room. I know that many corporations in America are evil and amoral, but that really takes the cake.
Boycott Subway so you can be emptying some poor sexually abused underage prostitutes' wallet, the same way a five dollar footlong fills you up like Jared had been filling them up.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:53AM (2 children)
You'd prefer underage whores be out of work and starve? You heartless bastard!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:12PM (1 child)
Gotta love how RWNJ propaganda is now regularly published here but Aristarchus' LWNJ pieces are routinely suppressed. Yup, nothing to see here!
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 13 2018, @07:12PM
Calling empirical evidence "RWNJ propaganda" tells me you are in fact a LWNJ yourself.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by seeprime on Saturday January 13 2018, @07:21AM (1 child)
I doubt the plan was to hurt people. That's just the unintended consequences of forcing higher wages upon workers in jobs that were never intended to be careers.
Get a real account. Posting political opinions as anon makes you a troll.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday January 13 2018, @09:43AM
I think it may well be the Government/Banking using their power to stoke inflation... so as to try to keep spending curves "looking good" numerically. With more wages, landlords can hike rents, and get it instead of getting a moveout-to-their-car. More people will no longer qualify for government subsidies, even though everything now costs more.
Every businessman would love to hike prices, but the economy has been moderating the price hikes, as most people simply would not buy if saw the thing had been hiked. I know in my case, a coupon often makes the decision of where I am going to eat... a twofer burger is a good incentive. I quit going to both Burger King and Subway several years ago, discouraged by pricing.
Business and Government plan on inflation, and depend on the Government and Banking sector to keep liquidating the economy by flooding it with money injections, usually in the form of loans or pay hikes, but the gravy train is running out.
I cite the "Federal Reserve Interest Rate Chart" for my speculation of how they are nipping at anything they can get to place money in the hands of people who will spend it in a store. Trouble is they can't drop interest rates much lower for another wave of spending sprees by people spending borrowed money. Last year's Christmasses are still due and payable, every month... for years to come.
We are still trying to push those HARP loans to persuade people with underwater loans on houses to continue to pay the banks. Can't have the rich people eating the loss, you know, just a shake of the Hand of a Congressman will divert public monies to the banks to make sure that loan stays put, and the interest continues to be paid.
To me, its like crossing a wide expanse, and watching the fuel gauge. While the Congressmen and Bankers just want me to mash down on the accelerator, and constantly point to the speedometer telling everyone just how rosy everything is. That gauge marked "Debt" scares the hell out of me. I have seen what happens when other people did not pay attention to it. The debt-holder came in and took their stuff, while the Sheriff watched. And I have a whole riverbed of people nearby that this exact same thing happened to. They were playing around with their damned pills and toys while other people were lawyering up to go after their stuff.
They had a "good time", got to smile and pay for stuff they could not afford - "with card!", and paid for it, dearly.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by KiloByte on Saturday January 13 2018, @09:09AM (9 children)
I don't get why the AC got modded to -1 rather than +5. The very same trick has been, successfully, pulled by the far right in Poland. Their voter base is almost exclusively the uneducated, unemployed and very religious; all of which tend to produce lots of kids. Thus, the "500+" program: every kid beyond the first get their parents paid 500PLN, no strings attached (guess what most of this money gets spent on). (500PLN is just $142, but Poland is a country where a doctor after studies and three years of work experience earns $10800 ($7800 after taxes) annually).
For the first kid you get the 500 only if your family's total income per person is below a given threshold. If you exceed it by just a penny, you don't get 499.99, you get 0 — which led to a lot of workers asking their employers for a wage decrease. This money is also exempt from debt collection (and not included in calculation of the exemption cap on other income), which goes well with PiS' rhetoric of banks being owned by foreign agents, mostly Germans and "international Jewry". Obviously, this means that a recipient of 500+ is less likely to get a loan — getting involved in any kind of business would risk making that person not depend on welfare, and PiS doesn't want that.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday January 13 2018, @10:39AM (4 children)
I also disagree with the moderation, and did what I could. I believe both you and the AC are right on.
It's just inflationary... and discourages businesses from hiring, leaving the public to pick up yet more laid off people.
Once people have lost their job, its all too likely they will be on the dole for the rest of their lives, as the welfare way of life becomes ingrained.
I talk quite often to the "people of the riverbed", and I hear the same story over and over. Lost job, heavy debt, lost everything to debt payments, now can't afford rent. While the merchants of misery ply the riverbed up and down selling drugs, cigarettes, weed, and alcohol, to "help" the unfortunate weather their misery. Its the biggest congressdammed mess I have ever seen.
Yeh, I know, most of those people got themselves in that mess. The allure of a "good time" overrode their common sense. A lot of people are quite naive. And, admittedly, from what I could tell, a lot of them got themselves there trying to live up to others ( especially spouse and family ) expectations of them. I mean just what does a dad do if Christmas is coming up and his kids want expensive electronics - and everyone is running themselves silly in debt so they they won't be upended by their children's/spouses disappointment on Christmas Day?
Relentless rat-race. Keep up with the Joneses. Like that stupid "hat and mink coat" crap amongst the wivery that my dad's generation had to put up with. I am where I am now because dad and mom didn't fall for that crap. Hollywood was pushing that crap hard during the day in all those movies. ( The "diamond as a symbol of betrothal", pushed by DeBeers, via Hollywood, lingers to this day! )
The "system" has us all in a helluva bind, because all this stuff is available, but at a price. And we hate so much to not live up to the expectations of a loved one. Who wants to be known as the Grinch? So, we borrow against tomorrow for the jubilation of one day, buying crap that will be in next year's trash, but amortized for far longer.... for "easy" monthly payments. Often for years.
Very few of us will stand up against the system, and those of us that will do so are usually not very popular and seen as "selfish", not "prudent", and then thought of as "fortunate" because we still are hanging onto what we worked for.
Yes, I saw that little pink dinosaur on TV urging me to spend even more, as he could "help" me get stuff that was "out of reach". Easy payments... just a few sawbucks... per week. Yes week. So the little pink dinosaur would not have to say a very big number and shock people into reality of what they were committing to. Stuff like this predatory lending crap makes me sick. But I know there was a helluva lotta people that would go for it. And they will have to find the money to send to that company. Every week. In addition to the money they have to scrape up to scrape by for the month.
I feel helpless, watching people spend money they don't have, for things they don't need, then when the timer runs out on the loans, these people lose everything, and expect those of us who wouldn't fall for this chicanery to bail them out. Then it becomes a matter of them doing what they have to do to survive, which is not a pretty picture. While somebody else who did nothing more than manipulate others ends up with all their stuff. All because that's how the law that governs our investment and business behaviour is written/regulated.
Fractional Reserve Banking.
Whose end result is the inevitable transfer of all wealth to the banks through the mechanism of debt.
TL:DR - Another of my long winded rants. Take with grain of salt.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:21AM (2 children)
The poor/heavy spenders just need to spend so much money that they become, collectively, too big to fail, and then if they throw a few more dollars each at their senator, maybe the government will bail them out!
That's how wall Street does it!
💩
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @03:57PM (1 child)
If you really think the poor are getting a good deal, why don't you go try it for a few years? The poor in the USA are fucked over and trodden on.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday January 14 2018, @12:43AM
Ummm.... maybe turn your monitor sideways so you can see the sarcasm/irony?
I'm saying, basically, that the government is willing to bail out the rich because they are "too big to fail", but the poor can just suck ass cause the government will do nothing for them.
m'kay? You got that Timmy?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @04:40PM
I suppose educating people about responsibility is too late for your worldview?
Not that you would be the one to do it. It just seems that your cause is against those giving the money and those collecting the debt, rather than insisting the people taking out the loans and blowing it on pills and whatever else actually read more than personalized advertising.
I guess willpower is in short supply since it it's not for sale.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 13 2018, @05:12PM (2 children)
And, yet, Poland has the biggest wild forest in Europe, so... clearly they aren't overpopulating the place yet.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Saturday January 13 2018, @08:16PM (1 child)
To those who didn't get parent's joke: said far-right government not only converted said wild forest to a commercial forest (in all but law), but even made the minister of environment do so.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 13 2018, @08:38PM
Out Trump-ing Trump... he can only wish to do such effective damage to the environment in the name of lining kleptocrats' pockets.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @06:04PM
Birth rates need to keep up, or the ethnicity goes extinct, lost forever.
Birth rates are killed by working women, the ban on child labor, legalized divorce with child support and alimony, porn, video games, the expectation of expensive education, and generally the expectation of expensive toys and housing.
That 500PLN is a start. It isn't really enough. To get the smarter people making smart kids, it needs to scale with income.
At least Poland is trying. Other places, like Germany and Sweden and France, are going to be wiped out.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday January 13 2018, @12:03PM
FTFY.
I don't think Microsoft and Amazon is hiring a lot less employee in Seattle.
And I also don't believe that even closing all Subway outlets in Seattle will impact Seattle economy's significantly - other fastfood outlets will just take its place and charge the (affording) customers a bit more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 14 2018, @09:40AM
We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated!
I want to create jobs so that you don’t have to worry about the minimum wage. They’ll do a great job that they’re making much more than the minimum wage. But I think having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country. I want to keep the minimum wage pretty much where it is right now, because of the fact that we have a country that is now competing more than ever before because of airplanes and transportation and the Internet.
I want to COMPETE with the rest of the world. What I do want to do is bring in jobs so much so that people don’t have to live on minimum wage. But we are going to have to compete with the rest of the world.
Our taxes are too high, our wages are too high. Everything is too high. We’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum. But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it.
What’s going to happen is now people are going to start firing people. You know, the old story. It’s happened a hundred times. It’s always happening. But I’m not even saying from that standpoint. We have got to do something to compete with the rest of the world. Our country is not competitive any more. Should we increase the minimum wage? I’m saying that if we’re going to compete with other countries, we can’t do that because the wages would be too high.
I’m going to make sure that people are making much more money because we’re going to bring so many jobs back that we’re not going to have to be worrying about minimum wage so much. We’re going to be bringing the jobs back where people can really make a good living, not just a minimum wage living. I’m going to be bringing so many jobs back. We’re bringing jobs back so that people can really get out there and make a tremendous living again. You look at wages, they effectively haven’t gone up in close to 20 years. We’re going to bring so much competition back and so many jobs back that people are going to make a far better living than anything you can even talk about with respect to minimum wage.
You know, the minimum wage is a very, very complex situation, because we are a noncompetitive country. If you look at what’s going on throughout the world, one of the big problems we have are wages. I am going to make our country so competitive that people at minimum wage are going to escape the minimum wage. They’re going to go up and they’re going to make a lot of money and they’re going to have companies and be involved with companies that are really successful, where they can be paid more and more money. But if you start raising that minimum wage, you’re going to make a lot of our companies even more noncompetitive. And it would be a big, big problem.
I’m very different from most Republicans. You have to have something you can live on. Now, if you start playing around too much with the lower number, you’re not going to be competitive. I’ll say raise the minimum wage to $15. Raise the minimum wage to whatever it might be. But the problem we have is that our country is losing businesses. You look at corporate inversions and all the things that are happening. We have to COMPETE with the rest of the world. The middle-class has worked so hard, are not getting the kind of jobs that they have long dreamed of -- and no effective raise in years. BAD!!!!