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

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

#171

Post by matz1 » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

jonnycoder wrote: post #158

matz1 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 $1000 poorer relative to other person but not actually poorer in terms of my purchasing power.

What do you think purchasing power for common goods will do once millions of people are on UBI? My bet is that prices will go up.

Could be stay the same or even go down. Producer still have to compete with each other and they even might lower their price to entice buyer to spend their UBI.

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

#172

Post by larrywright » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:31 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #163

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.

I pay $20 for a burger and fries all the time. Just not at McD's.

Right, my point wasn’t that people won’t pay $20 for a burger and fries, just that they won’t pay $20 for a burger and fries at McDonald’s .

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

#173

Post by WorldMaker » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:32 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.

An interesting reminder: kiosks don't eliminate the labor of the cashier, they pass the labor on to the consumer. The same amount of labor overall is still happening in that building, just more of it is unpaid.

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

#174

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:33 PM UTC

derg wrote: post #144

duxup wrote: post #112

I worked a pizza (among others) job through high school and college. I've been overworked at many professional technical jobs in different roles before. I'm paid a great deal more now, and yet I was never more tired or worn out or found it hard to study than when I worked the ovens at the pizza place. I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their tim…

>I often work with people who have never worked such jobs. They're upset that they're 'overworked' and spend their time in the fancy break room with all the perks. Many I suspect have no clue. Not that it's a realistic idea but damn if everyone had experiencing working in the demanding, underpaid, crappy jobs in the service industry, we might be more empathetic and better off as a whole.

[deleted]

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

#175

Post by scottlocklin » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:34 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?

> Seems affordable. What am I missing here?

40 * 4 * 9.50 = $1520

370/1520 = 25% of your GROSS income to stay alive. She doesn't pay $370 a month in taxes, and the tax credit doesn't come out of Social Security tax, which is her largest tax.

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

#176

Post by larrywright » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:35 PM UTC

jellicle wrote: post #155

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.

If you doubled the wages of every McDonald's worker, burger prices would have to go up by 30 cents or so to compensate, if I recall the math properly.

If you’re referring to that Huffpost article from a few years ago, that got pulled because their math was faulty. It was based on assumptions about costs that weren’t rooted in reality, namely that the ingredients were the largest expense in the cost of the food. It’s not, it’s actually the labor, which is why increasing the employee wages has a disproportionate impact on the cost of the menu items.

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

#177

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

Slartie wrote: post #54

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…

[deleted]

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

#178

Post by nickthemagicman » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

jonnycoder wrote: post #153

excalibur wrote: post #133

Everybody seems to be latching on to the McDonald's part of her story, the author included. But it's the hospital part I find mortifying. McDonald's is pinching pennies left and right, it's their key to success. The hospital is not. How much would you guess they're charging per day for the average patient to stay there? I bet it's enough money to cover full-time employment and benefits for their food service workers.

Hopefully Trump's new federal policy of requiring hospital groups to disclose prices will help answer these questions and put pressure on that industry.

"Hospitals could be fined $300 a day by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if they don’t comply with the new disclosure rule, officials said."

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/15/trump-releases-rule-requirin...

The stick is not big enough.

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

#179

Post by jumbopapa » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #103

jumbopapa wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that not imply a degree of hardness?

Playing dumb doesn't really help the argument. If someone says "c'mon, it's not that hard" they don't mean it's difficult , and I suspect you know that.

My larger point is that the formula for improving your situation isn't that hard. You may endure hardship on your path, but for many it is within reach.

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

#180

Post by friendlybus » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:37 PM UTC

Slartie wrote: post #54

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…

The cooking machines are nearly automatic already. They are all designed to accept input and produce output without human action in between. I want to create an automated pizza shop, and have made some mock ups. I don't think it's as hard as you mention.