Tech talk, cold comfort.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.2612659

Foreign workers recruited from Belize are accusing McDonald's Canada of treating them like "slaves," by effectively forcing them to share an expensive apartment - then deducting almost half their take-home pay as rent.

Since recent Go Public reports about McDonald's practices with foreign workers, they said the corporation required all staff to sign an agreement, stipulating they would not speak to the media.

You're seeing the future America!!! "Too big to fail"!

The big corporations do that stuff in Europe as well. They bring people from India but won't pay them "normal" european wages. They shove them all, like several 5-10 people into some apartment, each get probably one bed or something. Lowering the wages and using these people as some kind of modern slaves.

Of course, it can be argued that the corporations don't force these people but in reality, everyone has to eat! So these poor souls are forced into these situations. I can't wait for the day, where the robots take over all kinds of work that humans do. That day, no human will have to do work ever again and will truly be free.

I suppose it bugs me that an *American Corporation* thinks that this is okay, especially given our country's history. We've seen an expansion of corporate influence over the past decade that is beyond ridiculous. The current and former regimes administrations pumped tons of tax dollars into corporations, declaring the sky would fall if they did not. The current one is forcing us to donate pre-tax dollars to big corporations (insurance companies). We're on a very slippery slope.

You spoke of the future. A year or so ago, a friend and I ate at McDonald's and I had a vision of the future:

I imagined walking up to a vending machine with several buttons on it, one for each of today's fast-food restaurants. To keep things short, I'll stick to two of today's restaurants, McDonalds and Taco Bell. If you pressed the McDonalds button a bun would be dispensed, If Taco Bell was pressed a tortilla shell would be dispensed. The machine would inform you to take them out of their wrapper, and hold them under the nozzle. The selection you made would add different seasonings to the base soy paste, warm it up and squirt it out on your bun or in your shell. For dessert you could have chocolate, vanilla or strawberry flavored paste.

In my vision, the machine was running low on paste and its pump popped and some of the paste went everywhere. I imagined walking back to a table, wiping soy paste off myself and a guy at the table next to mine asks, "Are yo gonna eat yer 'niller paste?".

http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_c ... alues.html

Under "McDonalds Values":

We are committed to our people. We provide opportunity, nurture talent, develop leaders and reward achievement. We believe that a team of well-trained individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, working together in an environment that fosters respect and drives high levels of engagement, is essential to our continued success.

Steven W wrote:... A year or so ago, a friend and I ate at McDonald's and I had a vision of the future:

I imagined walking up to a vending machine with several buttons on it, one for each of today's fast-food restaurants. To keep things short, I'll stick to two of today's restaurants, McDonalds and Taco Bell. If you pressed the McDonalds button a bun would be dispensed, If Taco Bell was pressed a tortilla shell would be dispensed. The machine would inform you to take them out of their wrapper, and hold them under the nozzle. The selection you made would add different seasonings to the base soy paste, warm it up and squirt it out on your bun or in your shell. For dessert you could have chocolate, vanilla or strawberry flavored paste.

In my vision, the machine was running low on paste and its pump popped and some of the paste went everywhere. I imagined walking back to a table, wiping soy paste off myself and a guy at the table next to mine asks, "Are yo gonna eat yer 'niller paste?"...

For those fews seconds that your short story lasted, I enjoyed reading it. It was like I'm actually there right with them (you) and watching it happen. I personally think you have a talent for story telling, perhaps you should write a novel or even a book? I'm serious.