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

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

#681

Post by timwaagh » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

soulofmischief wrote: post #602

timwaagh wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How do we increase intelligence over time? Purely mutational, or do you believe it can be passed down epigenetically similarly to weight?

I don't know whether we do increase in intelligence anymore there are problems that increase in the most intelligent populations that might put a limit on it. As to whether some part of intelligence can be accounted for with epigenetics I'd bet on it as it's a complex trait but you'd have to ask a researcher.

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

#682

Post by dv_dt » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

maxaf wrote: post #309

dv_dt wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think UBI is definitely interesting, but it can't wholesale replace benefits. For example, a major illness like cancer now can wipe out your income, your savings, and a UBI quite easily. I think UBI might be better than a range of some lower end benefits - but the also exists a variation of needs where we should commit to helping people with, that is going to exceed almost any general UBI threshhold in many cases,…

Which existing means-tested government benefits are capable of paving over a major illness such as cancer?

One example might be medicaid - given it's in an incredibly barbaric and stressful way of exhausting your finances first, then trying to get onto the program all while fighting the illness.

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

#683

Post by SauciestGNU » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

efa wrote: post #649

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.

Franchising is also a contractual process. If McDonald's Corp decided to, they could dictate a wage floor to their franchisees.

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

#684

Post by greedo » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

JD_MRT wrote: post #628

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…

You have to realize that Norway is swimming in oil, so quite easy to subsidize all that you want. Then McDonald's net income is about USD 6bn not USD10bn. Which divided by its 1.7 million employees would make an extra USD 294 per month, which as someone already pointed out would go straight into the landlord's pockets. By comparison McDonald's is also quite profitable (net income margins close to 30%), unlike most co…

Unless McDonalds has done an incredible job of increasing their margins threefold since I worked there (left in 1995), there's no way their net margins are so high. Our best store made 10% net, and that paid for a lot of the crappier stores.

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

#685

Post by virmundi » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

username90 wrote: post #671

virmundi wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we implement it like the Scandinavian countries, the average poor family would still have to pay 600-700 per month. I believe that would be about 2/3 of her monthly income.

No they wouldn't, taxes don't just pay for healthcare in Scandinavia it also pays for free daycare, free college and a year of state paid parental leave.

While not Scandinavian that is about what Germany pays per house hold.

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

#686

Post by shrimpx » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 5:58 PM UTC

bromuro wrote: post #632

shrimpx wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are generally reluctant to allow rich social benefits that aren't "earned". People who don't earn are called "lazy". In reality they're unable. They're unable because they lack access to good education starting very early in life. They lack access because their parents also lacked access, and nobody with access is willing to give these "lazy" people a "handout". This sharp (and sharpening) class divide is t…

Some (most) are unable because they just prefer to spend life on other things than chasing “success” or compete to be better than others. Why exclude and punish these people too?

That's true but the real problem is for people who had no access to education and are truly unable. It's a privilege to have the choice to not chase success.

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

#687

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #680

scarface74 wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back of the napkin math. If we assume that a McDonalds is open 16 hours a day and they have an average of 4 people every hour. 16 hours x 4 people x 7 days x 52 weeks Equals about 2400 hours a year. How much could they raise the hourly rate of their employees and raise prices before the demand went down and still be profitable if they are only making $150K now? At what point does it not make sense to invest $1 - $3 m…

That is McDonald's problem. They may need to look at the business and franchise model. They have a fubar business with hundreds of SKUs. 5 Guys is able to make money on a freshly cooked burger, higher standards for quality and higher cost. Make a "McDonald's Classic" concept that cooks real food at higher prices. Again, McDonald's makes a business decision to have a system that encourages franchisees to utilize labor…

So the people working for minimum wage would be better off if they didn’t have a job at all? If all of McDonalds employees all of the sudden were out of work - taxpayers would pay more.

What’s the percentage of people that work at McDonalds are working there as a primary income?

Isn’t kind of hypocritical that you criticize McDonald’s profitable business model but you’re okay with all of the startups - including ones that are backed by YC who are losing millions of dollars but are able to access capital?

Five Guys also costs a lot more. The people who eat at McDonalds every day couldn’t afford Five Guys.

And if the magical competitor becomes available, are they going to be able to sell food as cheaply as McDonalds?

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

#688

Post by partomniscient » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

dpeck wrote: post #254

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…

working in heat, whether from ovens/fryer, engines, or something else is so incredibly draining that its hard for people to understand unless they've done it. At the end of the day you just want a room temperature shower and a cold drink, the mental capacity isn't really there for much else.

It's like everyday work is an endurance sport.

This is why I feel so much for those building the stadiums for the next football(/soccer) world cup. What's even worse is they're being worked to death as slaves in all but name.

If you don't have enough downtime/nutrition to recover between shifts you slowly fall apart.

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

#689

Post by cableshaft » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

bashinator wrote: post #398

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…

By this logic, dead end jobs that do not lead to prosperity, should be among the easiest ones. No one has ever said, "I don't want to have to work hard, so I'm going to go into retail."

At least for me, the one retail sales associate job I had wasn't terribly difficult or stressful except the week before Christmas and Black Friday. And on those days I was so busy that it was always over before I realized it. If I got paid as much as I do now to go back to that I would probably switch jobs to that again.

Every single office job I've had, except my first (which was a data entry job, not programming), has been a lot more stressful a lot more often, and I'm including the job where the first thing my coworkers and I did each morning was play a video game to determine who was going to go pick up coffee (Carcassonne on Xbox Live Arcade, if you're curious, took about 20 minutes).

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

#690

Post by timwaagh » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

topologistics wrote: post #663

timwaagh wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It doesn't matter how many people downvote if I get a reaction like this. Have a great day, sir.