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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

#731

Post by ShinTakuya »

scarface74 wrote: post #726
ShinTakuya wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and there's nothing stopping your country from doing the same. I mean healthcare is basically irrelevant since minimum wage workers can't afford to look after health conditions regardless of whether or not they have a job. Regardless, there's no observed correlation between minimum wage and unemployment if that's what you're getting at.

Well, the unemployment rate in most European countries is twice that of the US....

What about all the many years before 2014 that the US unemployment rate was significantly more than almost all of the European countries? Did the lack of minimum wage help in 2010 when the unemployment rate was 10%?

Also, that's a flat out lie. Greece, Spain, and Italy are pulling up the average with their huge unemployment rates, and the vast majority of unemployment rates besides that are almost the same as the US and in some cases lower.

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

#732

Post by ShinTakuya »

BurningFrog wrote: post #668
ShinTakuya wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

>I'm saying MW does hurt low skilled workers quite a lot

Citation needed. In fact, I did a quick Google search and found out that several US cities/states have increased minimum wage this year and they've seen NO significant job losses. In fact, in some cases these states have seen more growth in low-income jobs than states with lower minimum wages.

Minimum wage takes money out of the pockets of the rich and puts it in the pockets of the poor. Half the time the rich people would have spent this money on luxury goods instead of spending this money on everyday things anyway. As such, in many cases you end up seeing increases (or at least no impact) in the numbers of low wage jobs because of the increase in demand of the products of said workers.

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

#733

Post by scarface74 »

ShinTakuya wrote: post #731
scarface74 wrote: post #726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the unemployment rate in most European countries is twice that of the US....

What about all the many years before 2014 that the US unemployment rate was significantly more than almost all of the European countries? Did the lack of minimum wage help in 2010 when the unemployment rate was 10%? Also, that's a flat out lie. Greece, Spain, and Italy are pulling up the average with their huge unemployment rates, and the vast majority of unemployment rates besides that are almost the same as the US…

Every country in the EU has a higher rate than the EU.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268830/unemployment-rate...

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

#734

Post by [deleted] »

scarface74 wrote: post #726
ShinTakuya wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and there's nothing stopping your country from doing the same. I mean healthcare is basically irrelevant since minimum wage workers can't afford to look after health conditions regardless of whether or not they have a job. Regardless, there's no observed correlation between minimum wage and unemployment if that's what you're getting at.

Well, the unemployment rate in most European countries is twice that of the US....

[deleted]

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

#735

Post by ShinTakuya »

scarface74 wrote: post #733
ShinTakuya wrote: post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about all the many years before 2014 that the US unemployment rate was significantly more than almost all of the European countries? Did the lack of minimum wage help in 2010 when the unemployment rate was 10%? Also, that's a flat out lie. Greece, Spain, and Italy are pulling up the average with their huge unemployment rates, and the vast majority of unemployment rates besides that are almost the same as the US…

Every country in the EU has a higher rate than the EU. https://www.statista.com/statistics/268830/unemployment-rate...

I'm assuming you mean than the US. The Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Malta, Germany and Czech Republic aren't in the EU? Last time I checked they were.

Germany and the Netherlands have some of the highest minimum wages in the world, and yet they have unemployment rates that are lower than the US.

Moreover, your claim was that most of the countries have twice the unemployment rate of the US. Your very own source shows that only 5 of the 28 nations have double or more, and less than half have an unemployment rate 50% greater than the US. Are you going to admit to your lie or are you going to change the story?

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

#736

Post by scarface74 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #676
scarface74 wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “living wage” would be different for someone with no dependents and no health problems than someone who has health problems and/or kids.

When I read "living wage" I parse it very literally. It sounds like something close to "capable of purchasing just enough food calories for one person to live." It certainly would not afford you luxuries like having children. I'm sure that's not what most people are intending to communicate, but I think that's a good starting point to demonstrate how meaningless the phrase "living wage" really is.

Well, you can buy a lot of food calories cheaply from McDonalds....

http://freakonomics.com/2013/03/21/the-most-bountiful-food-i...

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

#737

Post by ArmThePoor »

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…

Many Americans who use this site are wealthy urbanites from upper-class families. They were born so far ahead of everyone else, they can't relate.

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

#738

Post by ido »

tripzilch wrote: post #723
ido wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest difference is that housing is a lot more expensive in western cities - it is likely that even a modest 2-room (1-bedroom) apartment in a major city like Amsterdam would cost the majority of that wage to rent (and we're not talking about just students, but older people who can't get better jobs).

You say it like you just grabbed a random example, but Amsterdam is one of the most expensive places to rent in NL. It's also generally not at all representative for the Netherlands as a whole.

Ok, you may replace it with London, Paris, Zürich, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm and probably a dozen other western european cities (not to mention major American cities, which are sometimes even more extreme).

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

#739

Post by Noumenon72 »

monoideism wrote: post #730
Noumenon72 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am with you on: * not having to cut labor to the minimum as a basic value * sooo many jobs would be unobjectionable at 8 hours per week. Almost any job. * professions should be designed to balance physical and mental labor, particularly to offer breaks from painful standing. I am not with you on: * Giving people 167% of the average hourly wage for an easy job like retail. As a society, we do not _want_ retail to be…

> ...an easy job like retail....Retail should pay less than other jobs, _because_ it's more fun to interact with people all day than to work at a hot grill. Your response screams , "I've never worked a retail job in my life!!". There's nothing easy about working retail in the United States, and interacting with the majority of retail customers is far from "fun".

I stocked shelves in a drugstore. I imagine cashier is a bit worse and customer service is a lot worse.

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

#740

Post by Noumenon72 »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #613
Noumenon72 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am with you on: * not having to cut labor to the minimum as a basic value * sooo many jobs would be unobjectionable at 8 hours per week. Almost any job. * professions should be designed to balance physical and mental labor, particularly to offer breaks from painful standing. I am not with you on: * Giving people 167% of the average hourly wage for an easy job like retail. As a society, we do not _want_ retail to be…

Actually, we do want retail to be a great career. Lots of great careers pay little: Pre-K teachers usually make just over minimum wage in the US, despite needing a 2-year degree to do the job. But it is rewarding and fufilling. And everyone needs to shop. Retail isn't just interacting with people all day: You are filing shelves. Sometimes you are a pharmacist or a pharmacy tech. Sometimes you are doing payroll or man…

I do want retail to be rewarding and fulfilling, just not a smart career move that makes you lots of money. I want ambitious, motivated people becoming my coworkers and bosses, not doing retail for fun.

I don't like interacting with people but it is way more cushy than the factory work I did for fifteen years. I guess you're right about not taking more intelligence or training, but it takes so much more physical stamina and risk of accident.

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