I Shot an Arrow into the Air

So, here's the plan. "Fast-food workers plan strikes in 150 cities across the United States and protests in 33 other countries on May 15 to demand higher pay and better working conditions."

I've looked in the past at the idea of raising the minimum wage and the questionable benefits of doing so, but I'm more interested in this basic strategy. Cause some controlled pain in order to force people to provide what they want.

So, let's think about this. First, who will pay for this? Well, of course, the striking workers will because they won't get paid while they're not working. But they figure that's a cost worth bearing. Then the customers will because they'll have a harder time getting served due to the lack of workers. And, of course, I would think that the primary target would be the companies themselves -- the McDonalds and Burger Kings.

As it turns out, of course, that's not quite the way it works. According to McDonald's website, of the 35,000 restaurants worldwide, 80% are franchised. That is, 80% of those 35,000 restaurants are owned by private owners, not corporate owners. Thus, 28,000 private owners will be paying for this strike. And that's just for McDonalds. Burger King claims 12,000 restaurants with 90% franchise owned. You know, it doesn't take very long to figure out that the ones getting stuck with this strike action will not be corporations, but private owners.

The final irony, of course, is that neither the companies, the private owners, nor the customers can raise the minimum wage. That's a function of the government ... who won't be suffering any undue discomfort from this little action. And when they do, $15/hour will no longer be a living wage. We'll have to do it again. Because as we all know it is the duty of every company to pay its employees whatever they feel is a living wage or whatever they think they're worth and it is unfair of any company to fail to do so. Who says? The unions, of course.

Longfellow wrote of shooting an arrow into the air -- "I know not where" -- and breathing a song into the air. He later found the arrow lodged in a tree and the song lodged in a friend's heart. I suspect we'll more likely find this protest lodged in the heart of the American economy if this goes through. So, tell me again, how is this a good idea?