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A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

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

#81

Post by threatofrain »

outworlder wrote: post #52
papreclip wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ca…

I don't disagree with empathy, but I definitely push back on the idea that McDonalds is cheap. People will always go to the grocery store and it's very hard to beat rice, beans, eggs, and ethnic veggies. That makes the cost and time proposition of McDonalds only okay at the right time of day.

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

#82

Post by hisnameismanuel »

Miner49er wrote: post #70
throwaway07Ju19 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yang's implementation is very regressive. You have the regressive VAT tax, but then you also have the fact that you are cutting government benefits then giving everyone $1000. So the poor just end up net poorer. Example: Now: $12,000 a year + $12,000 in benefits = $24,000 $50,000 a year + $0 in benefits = $50,000 UBI: $12,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $24,000 $50,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $62,000 The poorer perso…

Yep - the key thing you're missing is that Yang is going to allow people to choose whether they want to keep their benefits or switch to UBI.

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

#83

Post by Xavdidtheshadow »

ceejayoz wrote: post #50
NicoJuicy wrote: post #34

One of the best services a supermarket can have is: free-policy when you have to wait > 2 people. They do it with human cashier's and are insanely popular and low-cost. No one truelly cares about self-service, it's just hype. ( Personal opinion)

> No one truelly cares about self-service, it's just hype. My grocery store recently instituted scan-as-you-go via a smartphone app, and I love it. I bag as I go along, precisely the way I want everything bagged (no crushed bread, no meat juice dripping on the candy) and basically walk out the door.

What grocery store is that, and what region?

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

#85

Post by larrywright »

ceejayoz wrote: post #79
larrywright wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a compelling argument that unions, combined with the fight for $15 minimum wage, will do nothing but make the situation worse. Nobody is going to pay $20 for a burger and fries. McDonald’s would either have to go almost entirely automated or cease to exist as a company.

McDonalds workers are unionized in Australia ( https://www.sda.org.au/media-release-new-mcdonalds-agreement... ). The Australian minimum wage is AU$19.49. A burger and fries doesn't cost you $20.

No, it’s closer to $15 (depending on what you get), which is still too high to be tenable here.

https://www.aussieprices.com.au/mcdonalds-prices/

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

#86

Post by outworlder »

threatofrain wrote: post #81
outworlder wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ca…

I don't disagree with empathy, but I definitely push back on the idea that McDonalds is cheap. People will always go to the grocery store and it's very hard to beat rice, beans, eggs, and ethnic veggies. That makes the cost and time proposition of McDonalds only okay at the right time of day.

> I definitely push back on the idea that McDonalds is cheap

If you work there, it is. But I was talking about Taco Bell for non McDonalds workers, which IS cheap.

Your groceries list again is assuming there is enough time(and energy) to prepare the food.

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

#87

Post by Miner49er »

hisnameismanuel wrote: post #82
Miner49er wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yang's implementation is very regressive. You have the regressive VAT tax, but then you also have the fact that you are cutting government benefits then giving everyone $1000. So the poor just end up net poorer. Example: Now: $12,000 a year + $12,000 in benefits = $24,000 $50,000 a year + $0 in benefits = $50,000 UBI: $12,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $24,000 $50,000 a year + $12,000 in UBI = $62,000 The poorer perso…

Yep - the key thing you're missing is that Yang is going to allow people to choose whether they want to keep their benefits or switch to UBI.

How does that change my point though? Either way they end up net poorer. If you're poor and don't take the $1000, you are the same and everyone else is $1000 richer. This makes you effectively $1000 poorer. Yang actually says UBI will save money compared to benefits. So if you pick UBI you're even more than $1000 poorer, if he's right.

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

#88

Post by ceejayoz »

larrywright wrote: post #85
ceejayoz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonalds workers are unionized in Australia ( https://www.sda.org.au/media-release-new-mcdonalds-agreement... ). The Australian minimum wage is AU$19.49. A burger and fries doesn't cost you $20.

No, it’s closer to $15 (depending on what you get), which is still too high to be tenable here. https://www.aussieprices.com.au/mcdonalds-prices/

That page indicates a Big Mac meal (which includes a drink, too) starts at $9.80, which is US$6.70.

The cost for this meal appears to be US$5.99 in the US - quite similar.

That's not close to $15 (or $20) by any stretch of the imagination.

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

#89

Post by KingMachiavelli »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #65
KingMachiavelli wrote: post #36

> She says she plans to work for as long as possible, trying to provide for her baby. As part time employees, we don’t get health insurance or paid sick days. And the cycle repeats. I know it's a cold, impersonal take, but when life sucks, having a child is going to make it worse and most likely just lead to a new generation of suffering. As much as a $15 minimum wage might help, even at $12 in Colorado, McDonald's a…

" I know it's a cold, impersonal take, but when life sucks, having a child is going to make it worse and most likely just lead to a new generation of suffering." She could've had the child when her economics were in a better place. She could've been assaulted. She could've been denied the education to prevent the pregnancy. There are a bajillion and one reasons why a child might exist and she is responsible for it.

> She could've had the child when her economics were in a better place. She could've been assaulted. She could've been denied the education to prevent the pregnancy

It's possible but not probable when you consider that 42.3% of births are paid for via Medicaid [1].

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_13-508.pdf

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

#90

Post by jumbopapa »

davidcelis wrote: post #78
jumbopapa wrote: post #47

I'm probably going to catch some flak, but I see some optimizations she can make. - McDonald's offers college tuition reimbursement, when you're low income this is one of the best ROI you have available to you. - McDonald's offers a 401k plan with up to 7% match. Even if you took the 10% early withdrawal penalty this is money in your pocket. I don't think the best use of her time is lobbying for a $15/hr minimum wage…

> McDonald's offers a 401k plan with up to 7% match. Even if you took the 10% early withdrawal penalty this is money in your pocket. This woman is literally living paycheck to paycheck, and your suggestion is to... put money into a 401k? That simply isn't an option for people living in poverty like this. > Gain knowledge, skills, and have a good work ethic and it is not that hard to get ahead in America. This is a re…

I'm saying she puts it in and takes it out as soon as she can. This gives her more disposable income. The only issue I see is the time it takes her to make the first distribution, but then she shouldn't have any issues with lagging income if she budgets it properly.

It's not that out of touch. She doesn't have to work at McDonald's. I know there's opportunities out there that pay better and are in LCOL areas, but they have to be pursued.

I'm sorry, but I can't empathize when I read through an article and the only thing she is doing to better her situation is use the power of government to force someone to pay her more. I gave actionable advice that she herself has the power to act on to improve her situation.

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