How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#251

Post by EL_Loco » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 11:39 AM UTC

betwixthewires wrote: post #244

joshAg wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that $12/hr is still "in poverty". You've set up a false dichotomy between everyone out of poverty vs most farther out of poverty, but some still in poverty. There's literally nowhere in the US where a single minimum wage job can rent and "affordable" (defined as And it gets even worse in expensive metro areas. The poverty line in san francisco is $117,000 for a family of 4 and $82,000 for an individua…

Man I have a hard time dealing with comments like this, because people say this sort of thing and it is simply not true. When you get to brass tacks that's when all the other "necessary" expenses usually come up. Gotta have Netflix, gotta eat out once or twice a week, what is the point in life if you cannot consume products? What other ways are there to have fun? My bills are 800 dollars a month, total. My rent is 40…

Yours and the other comments below are all saying "yeah, it's fine, you can do it if you don't have kids nor health insurance". Which basically means "it's not fine". A good standard of living is not measured by how a person can live as long as she remains single and decides to forego health insurance.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#252

Post by Gustomaximus » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 12:10 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #7

Great story, but it can’t happen today. No janitor works for the company whose floors he’s mopping anymore, so janitors wouldn’t get that company-wide email.

I find this contractor mindset amusing from personal perspective.

I've consulted to a company for ~6 years which has gone through some pretty huge growth. Until recently I felt was one of the guys helping the business and just happened to have a finger across several companies in non competing industries.

Now the growth is on and 'corporate employees' are joining mid size success corp. As a consultant so many treat me as second tier as though signing that full time contract changes something. Is strange how that status changes peoples behaviour.

Also amazing how much meetings took over and people there for the sake of it are involved in everything. Changed incredibly in 18 months when the money was rolling in and headcount opened. A bunch for the better but also incredible how much bureaucracy came in so quickly.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#253

Post by newerduder » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 12:35 PM UTC

mhh__ wrote: post #243

babyshake wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair wages and guaranteed jobs can both exist.

Is there any point in guaranteeing a job rather than just giving the person the money?

devil's advocate; doing a job takes time, whereas just getting paid does not. Making it harder to have an additional side-job. (it's a common belief that you need to be unemployed and looking for employment before getting a handout)

Also, whoever's "guaranteeing" those jobs can get work done, if you're into that sort of thing. e.g. digging/filling holes, or building roads to nowhere.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#254

Post by kfrncs » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 1:41 PM UTC

anshumankmr wrote: post #250

11235813213455 wrote: post #241

I understand that from an economical perspective, this is brilliant, but the natural part of myself also think that this kinda of junk food is ruining this planet. Its more or less directly the cause of most pollution troubles (over-consumerism, transports, .., at the expense of organic local "good" food)

You can choose not to eat it. And plus, a bag of chips once in a while doesn't hurt anyone unless you are allergic to it or a heart patient perhaps.

The plastic hurts _a lot_ of animals. And the microplastics are hurting us too.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#255

Post by 11235813213455 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

anshumankmr wrote: post #250

11235813213455 wrote: post #241

I understand that from an economical perspective, this is brilliant, but the natural part of myself also think that this kinda of junk food is ruining this planet. Its more or less directly the cause of most pollution troubles (over-consumerism, transports, .., at the expense of organic local "good" food)

You can choose not to eat it. And plus, a bag of chips once in a while doesn't hurt anyone unless you are allergic to it or a heart patient perhaps.

If most people made this good choice to not eat it, then this article wouldn't exist

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#256

Post by baron816 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

djrobstep wrote: post #231

baron816 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. You can get full employment and a respectable standard of living floor through stuff like a negative income tax and universal health coverage. But making it illegal to work for what YOU consider a low wage and permitting labor cartels is counter productive.

Why are labor cartels bad but capital cartels fine? Why must an employee bargain individually but a megacorp be allowed to bargain against them collectively?

Who here said any form of cartel is fine? If we need to regulate financial markets to prevent collusion, we should do that.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#257

Post by billylindeman » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

betwixthewires wrote: post #246

aplummer wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can’t say the former is what we have, but with unions or tight labor market regulation, the later tends to be closer to what you get. This is a big claim without any evidence. Given the minimum wages in other western countries are proportionally much higher with no negative consequences AFAIK, do you have any evidence that the richest average income country could not have a higher minimum wage?

>no negative consequences Meanwhile politicians tell us that double digit unemployment is the new normal. There are people that are not skilled enough to warrant certain minimum wage. There are jobs that are not feasible at certain wage levels. When you put a floor on what people can agree between themselves that their work is worth, you price people and jobs out of the market. It is self evident when you look at it.…

Agreed that it is self evident when examined in the right light.

Minimum wage doesn't increase the wages of the lowest tier of productivity.. It outlaws it.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#258

Post by anchpop » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

tjr225 wrote: post #235

anchpop wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could survive just fine off a full-time minimum wage job in my state of Michigan. That's 9.45/hour or about $1500/month. I rent a pretty nice place in a college town for $550/month (across the street from campus, middle of downtown, utilities included). I eat mostly pasta and canned soup, but that's just because it's easy and cheap, and I do go out to eat with my girlfriend once or twice a week. let's say another $…

Dude, I’m from Michigan. It’s getting expensive there fast. If you think you’re immune to what is happening everywhere else you are in for a rude awakening. Before my wife and I left in 2014 or so we looked at a decent bungalow in Kalamazoo for roughly 40,000. Now you can’t find a house in that neighborhood for under 150k- and it will be a dump. I bought a house there around a year ago before deciding it wasn’t a goo…

I expect that the solution to that problem is to directly address it via zoning or price controls, not indirectly by raising the minimum wage

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

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Post by yibg » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

carlmr wrote: post #151

yibg wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't they though? I mean sure the CEOs of large, well known companies are paid many millions, but they are the highest paid CEOs. Seeing CEOs getting paid 100 million a year gets headlines, but most aren't paid that much. I wouldn't be surprised if the median CEO total compensation is less than 500k a year.

You seem to be in fact correct. Most CEOs actually earn less than that. Which makes the 2.2 million average even crazier. >The average private company CEO total compensation package for 2017 was $2,213,679, but the median was a more modest $350,622. https://chiefexecutive.net/ceo-and-senior-executive-compensa...

If that's accurate, also crazy is 90th percentile and mean are almost the same at 2.216 million vs 2.214 million. So the top 10% is completely dominating the total compensation for CEOs.

Re: How a janitor at Frito-Lay invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos (2017)

#260

Post by mempko » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #167

mempko wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before capitalism you had Cinderella stories. It's no miracle that inequality is as bad now as then.

The percent of the world's population living in absolute poverty has fallen from 94% in 1820 to less than 10% today.[1] That's the greatest miracle in human history. [1] https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1086662632587907072

Yeah, but we discovered oil. Humanity suddenly had unbounded energy to do what it needed to drive machines. Both capitalist and non capitalist systems brought over a billion people out of poverty. USA and Europe on one hand and USSR and China on the other. Behind it all is abundance of energy. It would be a mistake to attribute it to a system like capitalism which never really existed in anything close to a "pure" form anywhere ever.