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

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

#221

Post by jumbopapa » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:00 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #198

jumbopapa wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 the…

How does putting in $100, getting a $7 match, and immediately pulling it out and paying a $10.70 penalty on the withdrawal leave her with more disposable income? (She avoids income tax on the $100, but then pays tax on the withdrawal so if they happen in the same year, that’s also a wash.) I literally can’t see how this tactic helps her in any way.

It's a dollar for dollar match on up to 7% of pay. Let's say she makes $100. She puts in $7 and her employer also puts in $7. That's $14, and upon early withdraw she would pay $1.40 (penalty) + income tax (likely $0). She would come out with an additional $5.60.

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

#222

Post by tehwebguy » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:00 PM UTC

dls2016 wrote: post #154

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #114

This is why I get annoyed when people praise the successes of the economy (aka artificially manipulated stock market) and our low unemployment rate. $9, $10, $11 may be a _survivable_ wage in Durham, SC, but prices and costs of living keep going up, and wages remain stagnant. In real wages this woman is probably bringing home only $6-$7 an hour, effectively making _less_ than she would have in, say, 2005 or 2010. I d…

> effectively making _less_ than she would have in, say, 2005 or 2010 I started working in 1998 at 16-years-old. I could make $9.50/hr washing dishes or more as a bus boy on a busy night. Shit's whack. Of course as a suburban kid I had reliable transportation. The constantly rotating cast of dishwashers virtually never had this access.

How? I made $6.25 bagging groceries in 2002

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

#223

Post by bob1029 » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:00 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…

I would argue it's substantially easier to produce a fully-automatic McDonalds than it is to produce an autonomous car that can actually deal with any reasonable situation in the real world.

With a McDonalds restaurant, you can control your environment almost perfectly. If you throw away the kitchen that was designed to be used by humans, and then develop a kitchen never intended to be used by humans, you can drop a lot of environmental constraints in terms of the automation concerns. Trying to fully-automate the existing kitchen layout will certainly end in disaster.

As you reach 100% automation, it actually starts to get easier because the system is now all oriented in this direction, and you have standardized specifications/interfaces across the board. Also, once you fully-automate a single McD restaurant, the next one becomes trivial because it's simply another copy of the exact same thing.

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

#224

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:00 PM UTC

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #20

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"

> You can't just eat 3000 calories of junk food a day and expect the doctor to "fix it" What you're saying is true, but that's not what everyone believes. If you watch any episode of My 600 Pound Life, you will realize just how unwilling some of these people are to help themselves because it's hard work (and many people featured on the show die as a result). Yes, those are obviously extreme examples, but they're all…

> but weirdly it doesn't seem the US healthcare system is designed for that

That's true. Your average interaction with a physician in the US to a 20 minute conversation while they fill out some forms in Epic, barely paying attention, then kick you out of their office as quickly as possible. A month or more later the bureaucratic machines of both hospital and insurance finally get around to sending you a bill for $250+.

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

#225

Post by bad-joke » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

sezna wrote: post #3

moonbug wrote: post #2

Americans: fix your healthcare system.

I vote and I protest, but yet those with money continue to corrupt the system. I feel much more like a victim of the system than a participant. How would you suggest a typical American HN reader go about effecting change?

You may find community organizing rewarding. Depending on your comfort level, you can try things like: - Volunteer work - Participating in city/town board/council meetings - Direct action (eg the TN chapter of the DSA replaced tail lights for free, since broken tail lights are the most common reason for minorities getting pulled over) - Canvassing for candidates, referendums, etc. - Solidarity actions (eg joining strike members on the picket line)

If you're not sure where to start, try researching local candidates that share your views and find out which organizations endorsed them.

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

#226

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

sh1mmer wrote: post #41

sezna wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vote and I protest, but yet those with money continue to corrupt the system. I feel much more like a victim of the system than a participant. How would you suggest a typical American HN reader go about effecting change?

Have you considered contributing your technical expertise to something like Code for America? Their two flagship projects (GetCalFresh and Criminal Justice) reform both started off as simple web forms to make it easier to file for SNAP (food stamps) and sealing eligible marijuana convictions respectively. However as they gained traction they were able to engage state and local governments as collaborators and signifi…

> Have you considered contributing your technical expertise to something like Code for America?

You can't fix everything with a website.

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

#227

Post by jumbopapa » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:03 PM UTC

RcktMan77 wrote: post #187

jumbopapa wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 the…

The 401K administrators wouldn't allow this scheme of yours to be feasible. When you open a 401K account and start contributing to it, you can't just keep withdrawing from it at regular intervals like you suggest. At most you can make a one time loan against a balance that exists in your account if you want to keep using the account without closing it. You have to pay this loan amount back with interest--you're payin…

You're right that YMMV, but it is an option with some providers. Even with the penalty you get more income.

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

#228

Post by frgtpsswrdlame » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:03 PM UTC

whack wrote: post #215

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.

I find it very interesting that most people assume it should be the employer's responsibility to provide for the employee's wellbeing. Call me naive, but I think it should be society's responsibility. What about Hedge Funds, Technology companies, Law Firms and every other company that hires primarily 6-figure white collar employees. Should they be completely off the hook, just because their business model only requir…

Corporations are a part and a result of our society. The government should not be in the business of subsidizing companies who aren't profitable enough to pay a living wage, it should just mandate a living wage and companies who aren't able to meet it go out of business. 'Creative destruction' and all that.

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

#229

Post by oh_sigh » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:03 PM UTC

scottlocklin wrote: post #175

oh_sigh wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

She isn't paying $370 out of pocket though. She could be paying $0 out of pocket using the advanced payments to pay for her premium. And tax credits can make it so you are owed money by the government - it doesn't matter if she pays $370/mo in taxes or not.

As other posters have said, bronze doesn't buy you much - but I can't understand why she can't afford it if it is $0 out of pocket.

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

#230

Post by kevinqiu1 » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 10:04 PM UTC

Even though it seems like she lives in an urban area (or urban enough to be squeezed by rising home prices), the public transit is so poor that she spends 3-5x more time getting to work without a car than with one. Sometimes she can't even get home. That's crazy, the car dependence of America means that you need to pay for insurance + a car to even function in society. That is the opposite of freedom