Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier

vice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 753 posts

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

#641

Post by basch »

stevenwoo wrote: post #324
basch wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50% employee discount. McDonalds is a great place to eat healthy if you so choose. Healthful may be boring but its available.

I looked at the USA menu and there are only a handful of healthy options (the salads, and possibly custom egg only dishes via the all day breakfast menu and talking to the line cook) https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/full-menu.html and that's without the salad dressing, were this the only diet available it lacks any substantial quantity of fruit, dark green veggies, fatty fish, whole grains/nuts off the top of my he…

Chicken Nuggets, Egg White Delight, Grilled Snack Wrap, Sausage Burrito, Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin (w egg too), Fruit and Maple Oatmeal, Fruit n Yogurt Parfait, Strawberry Banana Smoothie, Mango Pineapple Smoothie, Gogurt, Fruit slices, Artisan Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Grilled Chicken BLT Sandwich, Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad, Bacon Ranch Grilled Chicken Salad, regular hamburger, coffee. We can leave Filet-O-Fish and Fries in the more debatable categories but the fish and potatoes themselves are nutritious.

It's also as much portion size and controlling intake of fries and soda as it is about the food items themselves. Adding a large coke to any meal is probably worse than the food itself. 80g of sugar with no nutrition or fiber.

I'll give you that its a low source of nuts and unbreaded fish. But if we are talking about working at McDonalds and not having meal prep time, that could be supplemented by bags of almonds, pistachios, peanuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cans of tuna, salmon, and sardines at home.

That leaves dark veggies. Their bacon ranch salad says its "romaine, baby spinach, baby kale, red leaf lettuce, ribbon-cut carrots and grape tomatoes." Youd probably want to supplement some cooked greens at home.

Being able to buy the above food at 50% off would, imho, be a great foundation to a healthy diet, if you can control portion and avoid temptation.

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

#642

Post by soulofmischief »

bmsleight_ wrote: post #633
soulofmischief wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is, I think, nobody perfectly optimizes their prospects. People are people and people like to be in their social groups and compete in their social groups, which puts you on a track to a specific future. I'm not asking for perfect optimization. Getting out of a minimum wage salary in a 15-year span doesn't require much optimization for most people. So I am asking about the cases where it does. I hear that c…

That is real tough hand. Everything done right, then the rug pulled under you. How are you now ?

I'm doing well enough, working remote for a startup and having all of my basic needs met while being able to save and go out with friends. Thanks for asking. How are you?

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

#643

Post by afiori »

cixter wrote: post #610
soulofmischief wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad truth is that some people simply just start off in a tough situation, work hard, and never get a lucky break. Your tone implies that I don't understand the disparity of the human condition. I lived my entire life very impoverished and at times homeless. I come from a very abusive household and grew up in a rural area with little prospects. I've never caught a break. I saw a way out, computers, and I took it.…

But should it really have been that hard for you? Massive creds for managing to pull yourself out, but it seems unfair and petty to wish upon others the same hardship you've had.

soulofmischief wished no kind of hardship, he is preaching an idea of taking responsibility for improving your life. I personally have not read any moral judgment in his comments; just a simple fact that, in many cases, if you want to improve your life you need to do it yourself.

This together with a conjecture that in most cases the average person has indeed the possibility of upward mobility. A conjecture that was posed with an invite to hear opposing view.

A discussion of how much we should expect help from outside is important (and I believe soulofmischief would agree), but it is not relevant to how to improve your own life in the situation that help does not exist yet.

Personally I think we should separate the morality issue of being poor/rich from the mechanics of how people become/remain poor.

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

#644

Post by Spooky23 »

scarface74 wrote: post #634
Spooky23 wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember with a global system, average doesn’t mean major city. It’s apples and oranges to compare to a SWE. With Chick-Fil-A, operators just get one store. They are buying a job. McDonalds franchisees usually own multiple stores and have different business interests.

And wouldn’t a McDonalds store in the middle of nowhere also make less money than a major city? But even at $150K net income, there isn’t much room to raise salaries.

McDonalds is the place where you can get something like a cheeseburger for a dollar without getting food poisoning. McDonalds was a high quality product at one time.

There’s no regulatory environment that prevents exploitation of the workforce, so doing so is the low risk choice. The company chose a low quality bar and competitive pressure forces them to mercilessly attack cost.

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

#645

Post by soulofmischief »

iliketosleep wrote: post #618
soulofmischief wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad truth is that some people simply just start off in a tough situation, work hard, and never get a lucky break. Your tone implies that I don't understand the disparity of the human condition. I lived my entire life very impoverished and at times homeless. I come from a very abusive household and grew up in a rural area with little prospects. I've never caught a break. I saw a way out, computers, and I took it.…

> Your tone implies that I don't understand the disparity of the human condition. I wasn't implying that at all. > I saw a way out, computers, and I took it. I was able to pivot to a better career by building skills in my free time. To be able to pull that off requires a certain amount of natural aptitude that is not a given for most people. I respect people who have been able to find a way out of tough situations, b…

You're right about that. Me too. And especially retail.

As the poet warrior Lil B The BasedGod once stated, "I'd rather be a broke rapper than wash some dishes."

Well, I ignored that advice once because I figured my dish-washing skills were more employable than my street cred, and ended up having to quit that job because I developed carpal tunnel from being overworked. Several years later, I still suffer from the consequences and have to be vary careful not to injure myself at my desk job. I don't think physical or mental burnout gets anyone anywhere good. At least my former boss ended up having to get surgery for carpal tunnel himself sometime later.

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

#646

Post by afiori »

abvdasker wrote: post #557
soulofmischief wrote: post #508

I’ve worked in the fast food industry for 14 years—about half my life Can someone give me an anecdotal example of how this could come to be without some fault in Brown's decision-making process? For starters, I've always heard that commute time is inversely proportional to career mobility. I made it a rule not to work anywhere farther than half an hour away. And that is the absolute maximum which was necessary when I…

> I made it a rule not to work anywhere farther than half an hour away. And that is the absolute maximum which was necessary when I lived rural area. To me it sounds like you're saying, "why doesn't she live closer to her workplace?" which carries with it a kind of subtext of blame. Reading the article a few possible explanations for her choice come to mind. The author mentions she lives with her boyfriend's parents.…

> But we certainly shouldn't assume these things about her, because we just don't know her circumstances.

That was not what happened; an anecdote was offered as an example and other anecdotes were requested as counterexamples.

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

#647

Post by afiori »

robbiep wrote: post #550
soulofmischief wrote: post #508

I’ve worked in the fast food industry for 14 years—about half my life Can someone give me an anecdotal example of how this could come to be without some fault in Brown's decision-making process? For starters, I've always heard that commute time is inversely proportional to career mobility. I made it a rule not to work anywhere farther than half an hour away. And that is the absolute maximum which was necessary when I…

The danger with this type of response is that it’s perfectly reasonable, but it’s also sociopathic. I’m an emergency room doctor (part of the time). Due to the advantages I had of birth, gender, country of origin etc, I live a great life, most of which has been because I took every advantage; cf. many of my peers from school who squandered it. I also work in emergency departments, in a country where anyone can come t…

This whole thread was started as a discussion on personal agency.

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

#648

Post by oarsinsync »

soulofmischief wrote: post #637
oarsinsync wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come from a poor family. My parents made a point of never spending any more than the bare minimum amount of money on me, and both had to work full time jobs. I would make my own way home from school every day from the age of 7. I would make my own way to school from the age of 11. School was a 90min bus ride one way, or a 30 min drive (60 min round trip, x2 for start+end of day). That doesn't change that I had both…

Nobody exists in a vacuum. You're arguing a strawman. You are introducing absolutes into a conversation which was purposefully framed as fluid. For example, I said most of the positive things. Your post is built upon the premise that I believe all positive things in my life came only from within, however you said the word only , not me. I am immensely privileged to have had the amount of support I have had. That's gr…

Apologies, I misread your statement, and my response was overly broad. This is my mistake.

I may also have not been sufficiently clear in my messaging. I am talking from the perspective of someone born and raised in a "first world" western developed democracy similar in many ways to the USA (in this instance, the UK).

> I am immensely privileged to have had the amount of support I have had.

The intent here is to drive the point that the support I have received is not financial, and while coming from a financially wealthy family is hugely advantageous to future financial success, there are many other variables in play that are not financial.

When I talk about the support I have, I am recognising the time and effort other people have given me.

Having good parents isn't a right. It's entirely luck of the draw. The same largely applies to your teachers. It really shouldn't, but that's what the situation looks like today. If you're in a good school district, your chances of success are significantly better than if you're not.

I'm not talking about Saudi Arabia, I'm talking about being immensely grateful that not only were my parents incredible, hard working people, who did the best they could with what little they had; and that my teachers, overworked and underpaid, never gave up on me, even when I was a total shit in school, and persevered to ensure that I actually got a good education.

My relative financial poverty during my upbringing doesn't change any of that. I still attribute my success to my upbringing. Not the (lack of) money, and not myself.

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

#649

Post by efa »

cixter wrote: post #577

Coming from Norway, this article is horrendous. I can never understand the mentality that lies behind all of the arguments most you guys are presenting here - defending the employers shit salary and rights. You guys know that McDonalds manages to run in countries with decent wages as well, right? And that maybe a company with a yearly global profit of over 10 billion dollars might be able to afford giving their emplo…

I haven't read the article and have no opinion either way, but I want to make it clear McDonalds are franchises (at least in the US). I'm not positive but the local owner can pay what they want. McDonalds making 10 billion a year has nothing to do with it. You'd have to see how much the franchise owner makes. You of course can argue McDonald's charges the franchises too much leaving little room for higher wages.

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

#650

Post by jfk13 »

iamvfl wrote: post #361
jfk13 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't care if I'm poor relatively as long as I'm not poor absolutely. This might be true for you personally, but it is not true in general; whether people are dissatisfied with their level of wealth/poverty has a great deal to do with how it compares to others.

We're not talking about dissatisfaction here. We're talking about meeting basic needs like food, housing, and health services. Wanting to be satisfied of these things is absolutely true in general.

> meeting basic needs like food

It's perfectly possible to get by with rice and lentils and a few vegetables, and if that's the common lifestyle of everyone in the community/country, many people are well satisfied with it. I've lived in such places.

But if you see the people around you enjoying an endless variety of steak and sushi and lobster and so on, and you're working all hours yet still only able to stretch to rice & lentils, your satisfaction may be less.

An illogical reaction? Maybe. A human one? I think so.

Post reply on HN