A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier • Hacker News Board

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#51

Post by dbtx » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

jammygit wrote: post #25

echelon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably emigrate, to be honest. A brain drain or loss of labor might do the trick. It's the ultimate peaceful vote of no confidence. The system isn't changing right now because it works for those in power. Without bodies to do the work, they'll change their tone. I don't expect this to happen, though. A lot of engineers are comfy with the top-tier healthcare provided by their employers, so they're likely not willing…

Come to Canada!

Canada very likely disagrees on this being a good idea in many individual cases, such as mine...

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#52

Post by outworlder » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

papreclip wrote: post #17

moonbug wrote: post #2

Americans: fix your healthcare system.

I agree, but at the same time an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment. 40% of American adults, including the woman featured here, are obese. You can't just eat 3000 calories of junk food a day and expect the doctor to "fix it"

> 40% of American adults, including the woman featured here, are obese

This is severely lacking in empathy.

You know WHY they are obese, especially including the woman featured here? Junk food is dirt cheap. When you work your ass off for two weeks and have all of $200 dollars to show for it, you are not going to be cooking healthy foods and free range Chicken eggs. You are going to get the cheap stuff, the highly caloric, highly processed stuff. And guess what, she works at McDonalds, which gives employees some food every 5 hours worked.

Or if you don't work there, you can hit a Taco Bell and fullfill your hunger with $5. $5 may be enough to get ingredients to cook a better meal, but again, this person works her ass off in multiple jobs and has a long commute by bus.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#53

Post by paggle » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #45

larnmar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think the solution is emigration. There are places in the world where you can make a living without any particular skill set, but I don’t think the US, or any other first-world country, should really be among them. The US needs immigration reform to bring more high-skilled people into the country, but it also needs emigration reform to find new homes for people who can’t necessarily make a reasonable livin…

Please correct me if I misunderstood this, but are you seriously suggesting that the way we solve problems of poverty is to just get rid of the poor people?

That doesn’t seem to be what he’s suggesting at all. It seems like he’s suggesting they relocate to a place where they can make a better living, like my parents did by moving to the US in 1971.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#54

Post by Slartie » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:41 PM UTC

x2f10 wrote: post #18

Her job is already going away; McDonald's around me have already replaced cashiers with kiosks. Unionizing and requiring $15/hr + full benefits is only going to accelerate McDonald's automation plans. Is the answer to fight for $15/hr or is the answer to go back to school, apply to more jobs, and/or go into a trade? Honest question.

It's not like they can replace human personnel that easy. Ordering kiosks are the low-hanging fruit, and then comes a long, long stretch of nothing, because it turns out that developing McDonalds-compatible robots capable of preparing burgers and packing up meals is about as easy as developing actually-working autonomous vehicles. And about as expensive. It's probably easier to automate the managers away. Meaning the McDonald's of tomorrow will surely rely on a horde of human personnel for food preparation and related simple tasks for the foreseeable future.

But of course it's kind of convenient if people at least think that their job can be automated tomorrow: that makes it easier to make them sell their workforce for peanuts today. You just need to hope that they don't realize that it doesn't make a difference once the day comes on which they can be automated away - it won't matter then whether they get $9.50 or $15 an hour, the automation will be cheaper regardless. But by demanding $15 now they will at least have earned a lot more during the decades until that day finally arrives.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#55

Post by reaperducer » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #16

Miner49er wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would McDonald's pay for a taxi for her? I can't imagine them doing that. She might not live that far from work. It might be a 20 minute drive, but with the bus system in most towns in the US it's not crazy for that to take a couple of hours on a bus with walking (the closest bus stop to her is a 30 minute walk it said). I'm sure if she could get a job closer that pays as well she would've by now.

A bike would possibly be the ideal solution for someone in her shoes. Of course, there's that lovely enhanced risk of dying you get for daring to brave the streets on two wheels in the US. But if she gets back significant time from changing it up, it might be worth it.

If she's working two jobs and one of them is McDonald's, she probably can't afford a bike.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#56

Post by gnu8 » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #46

lwf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's mentioned once, in the context of her not having affordable insurance options. > At 29, Brown works approximately 40 hours a week, splitting her time between a McDonald’s in Durham, North Carolina, and a food-service gig a local hospital. “It’s still not enough,” she said. Both jobs are part-time, and she doesn’t receive health insurance through either employer. She can’t afford insurance on her own, either…

I just put her stats into the healthcare.gov calculator. She can get a bronze plan for $370/month, and she qualifies for a $370/month premium tax credit - meaning she can get a bronze level plan for $0/month. Seems affordable. What am I missing here?

She doesn’t have the extra $370/mo in her budget to pay out in anticipation of a $4440 refund next year.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#57

Post by SolaceQuantum » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

papreclip wrote: post #17

moonbug wrote: post #2

Americans: fix your healthcare system.

I agree, but at the same time an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment. 40% of American adults, including the woman featured here, are obese. You can't just eat 3000 calories of junk food a day and expect the doctor to "fix it"

Where is she supposed to get the energy, time, and mental resources to lose weight? Energy to exercise, time to self-educate, mental resources to maintain discipline, emotional health to value herself enough when the world doesn't value her?

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#58

Post by tombert » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

paggle wrote: post #53

tombert wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please correct me if I misunderstood this, but are you seriously suggesting that the way we solve problems of poverty is to just get rid of the poor people?

That doesn’t seem to be what he’s suggesting at all. It seems like he’s suggesting they relocate to a place where they can make a better living, like my parents did by moving to the US in 1971.

Yes, but it seems like the implication is "relocate to a place where they can make a better living, instead of fixing the problems". Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but looking at the sister comments here seems to indicate that I'm not the only one if I did.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#59

Post by throwaway07Ju19 » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

sebringj wrote: post #32

Before I had a programmer job when i was younger, i completely 100% empathize with her in having those types of thankless jobs and constantly being tired. I can't imagine being trapped in that going forward. I bootstrapped my situation but I had a nice parents, a middle-class upbringing and a decent school to start everything, and a knack for programming... but I know/met so many who do not have this leg up in whatev…

In the U.S. there is one presidential candidate championing a UBI of $1000/mo. It would be paid for by a VAT tax.

Typically VAT tax is unpopular because it is regressive. But the UBI more than compensates for the extra tax burden.

Re: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

#60

Post by AtlasBarfed » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 7:44 PM UTC

papreclip wrote: post #17

moonbug wrote: post #2

Americans: fix your healthcare system.

I agree, but at the same time an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment. 40% of American adults, including the woman featured here, are obese. You can't just eat 3000 calories of junk food a day and expect the doctor to "fix it"

I get the fat and obese are frustrating, but you are victim blaming in the context of a US that lets unfettered advertising and product pushing of unhealthy food, healthcare, support, education, and lifestyles.

If economics and policy actually worked, there would be regulatory feedbacks, but not in 'murica