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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

#661

Post by pnutjam »

soulofmischief wrote: post #603
danans wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anecdotal example of how this could come to be without some fault in Brown's decision-making process? You've really never made 1 bad decision, or 10, in your life? I have plenty of bad decisions, total screwups even, in my history. Some of them were from being petulant, or naive. Some because I was depressed. Yet I'm a white collar educated professional, I'm part because I made some good decisions, and also because…

I make bad decisions every day. How does that have to do with anything? Ms. Brown has had 14 years to come up with a career trajectory. I don't think she has ever bothered in that time to visit a career consultant after realizing she couldn't figure it out on her own. Random fluctuations in decision quality average out over time to reveal a smooth function of decision-making prowess.

Without examples, it's impossible to imagine something different for many people. We tech workers job hop because our experience is valuable and we make more money, but in crappy jobs the only way to more money is to put in more time. It makes sense for people in these sectors to stay at the same job.

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

#662

Post by scarface74 »

asdff wrote: post #581
scarface74 wrote: post #376

This by far not a popular opinion, but some jobs aren’t worth $15 an hour. We shouldn’t force social policy on private corporations. Sure she needs more than $9.15/hour to live as an adult and pay for insurance but a teenager staying at home doesn’t. I am strong believer in a social safety net but I think that should be the role of government. She shouldn’t have to depend on private corporations for insurance, that s…

I think what you are arguing for is we raise minimum wage for adults to a living wage but keep it low for minors claimed as dependents. We should force social policy on private corporations when they are being deliberately exploitative.

And the only reason that people who are working for money losing startups aren’t being “exploited” is because of the access to venture capital. And VCs get a lot of money from public pensions. If low margin businesses don’t “deserve” to be in business, neither do companies losing billions a year.

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

#663

Post by topologistics »

timwaagh wrote: post #583
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…

She's likely not too bright. Of course there's going to be problems with her decision making process. Can she be blamed for it? Not really, because intelligence is mostly genetic.

You're going to get downvoted for saying something objectively true.

I, on the other hand, desire social accolades. The emperor's new clothes are beautiful.

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

#664

Post by topologistics »

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.

I have toyed with the idea of making it illegal for companies to replace people with robots and not give those people some other job to do. On the other hand, I have pretty strong feelings about regulation tending to favor large industries even when it is intended to restrict them, because they can afford expensive lawyers who find loopholes and other ways for them to exploit the law.

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

#665

Post by wglb »

dba7dba wrote: post #238
codedokode wrote: post #10

> The bus stops running at 10 p.m. on Sunday, but McDonald's asked me to stay until close at 1 a.m. They asked me to stay because they need my help. I know it’s going to be rough to find a way home, but I need the money so I said yes. Cannot she ask them to pay for a taxi then? Also I didn't understand why she lives so far away from work.

Your comment has been down voted into invisible state to the point I had to really try to read it. But no, that's now how capitalism works.

If you click on the time next to the name, you will see the comment in un-greyed-out form.

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

#666

Post by [deleted] »

devcpp wrote: post #614
dm319 wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from the UK and I'm shocked at the discussion going on here. Most people commenting here are in vastly different situations to the person written about - probably both in terms of natural ability as well as education, not to mention actual salary or opportunity. Do we agree as a society we need people to work these jobs? Because if we do, it is not an argument to point out ways an intelligent person can manuveure…

I've been a Libertarian since long before I started programming, back when I used to earn next to nothing at the Army and realized the shortcomings of regulation. In fact, I started from the lower class, never had robots, computers, consoles or cellphones like my friends growing up. So no silver spoon here. You can keep telling yourself I'm a "temporarily embarrassed billionaire" but I have my opinions on economics.…

[deleted]

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

#667

Post by leetcrew »

monoideism wrote: post #216
leetcrew wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure about that. I worked in a takeout place for a few years, and it just made me a lot more cynical. the privileged and the poor seem to enjoy abusing service workers at about the same rate in my experience.

> the privileged and the poor seem to enjoy abusing service workers at about the same rate in my experience. Agreed. When I worked retail and waiting jobs, I got grief from both out-of-touch wealthy people, and bitter poor people (although there were also kind people from both of those categories).

interestingly, I did identify one group of people who were consistently great customers. every construction worker who walked through the door treated us with respect and always tipped, even for carry-out. not sure why exactly, but I appreciated it.

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

#668

Post by BurningFrog »

ShinTakuya wrote: post #518
BurningFrog wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much all changes in minimum wages are small. This makes it very hard to measure the effect with any precision. You have to remember that wages are not 100% of the compensation for employees. So if MW increases from $10 to $10:50, fringe benefits may be cut from $2 to $1:50, and you end up with no measurable effect. > But the reality is that these shops need the workers regardless. If their expenses become high…

Then why not implement it that way? Make the minimum wage small and bump it up a bit ahead of inflation every year. If things go south (this hasn't happened in any other country that has done it) it can always be reversed. For what it's worth, here in Australia there's only around 10% less McDonald's stores per capita to the US, despite a $20 minimum wage. All these workers can afford to eat and live in some of the m…

You might miss my point. I'm saying MW does hurt low skilled workers quite a lot, but adjusting it for inflation every few years doesn't make it worse.

If I was emperor, abolishing MW would be my first and most obvious reform to help the poor.

> All these workers can afford to eat and live...

But the problem is the people who can't get work because on MW!

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

#669

Post by username90 »

lsiebert wrote: post #554
lurquer wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is no bigger lie than hard work = prosperity. It is literally the exact opposite. Hard work leads to prosperity. That's not the same as equating prosperity to hard work. Most prosperous people achieved prosperity due to earlier hard work and sacrifice of themselves (or their immediate ancestors.) Clearly, the 'value chain', as you put it, exists as evidenced by the numerous posts on this thread of describing t…

The best predictor of income, more then academic performance, more then having married parents or educated parents or going to pre school, is parental wealth. And this is true whether your folks won the lottery or earned their money through hard work. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/29/study-to-succeed-in-america-...

> And this is true whether your folks won the lottery or earned their money through hard work.

This part wasn't in your link, I don't believe this is true.

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

#670

Post by natalyarostova »

quaice wrote: post #546
natalyarostova wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of these people are just really stupid. They’re the inverse of the Stanford CS wiz. It’s not their fault. They have trouble with basic discounting and planning on a fundamental intellectual level. Part of a functioning society is to afford those without the intellectuals means to have some modicum of comfort beyond subsistence work.

Intelligence has very little to do with the majority. Geographical location, overall family health, education, peer pressure, inherited ignorance... These are all things that can put people at a great disadvantage. It's easy to cast judgment with little to no intimate knowledge of these people and situations. It's even easier to think oneself better than others when you can't recognize your own privileges. It's easy…

I’m not judging anyone. Judgement is a moral action. I’m recognizing the self evident truth that for many people they fundamentally lack the ability to plan and take care of themselves properly or thoughtfully with regard to the long run.

It’s not about thinking we’re better than them — which is an ambiguous moral statement. It’s recognizing we have a substantially greater ability than them and viewing that as a responsibility we owe to those in society less capable, and then to take care of them.

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