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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

#111

Post by tj-teej »

throwaway07Ju19 wrote: post #59
sebringj wrote: post #32

Before I had a programmer job when i was younger, i completely 100% empathize with her in having those types of thankless jobs and constantly being tired. I can't imagine being trapped in that going forward. I bootstrapped my situation but I had a nice parents, a middle-class upbringing and a decent school to start everything, and a knack for programming... but I know/met so many who do not have this leg up in whatev…

In the U.S. there is one presidential candidate championing a UBI of $1000/mo. It would be paid for by a VAT tax. Typically VAT tax is unpopular because it is regressive. But the UBI more than compensates for the extra tax burden.

It is not a UBI as it is not U.

The McDonalds cashier is likely getting subsidized housing and food stamp benefits.

Yang's plan would require that the cashier has to choose between the "UBI" or her existing benefits.

I asked his campaign why they designed it this way and they did not have an answer, I was told to ask the candidate directly, which was disappointing.

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

#112

Post by duxup »

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 time in the fancy break room with all the perks. Many I suspect have no clue.

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

#113

Post by owlninja »

jammygit wrote: post #19

I worked as a cashier once and it wasn’t the same as it is for my friends who still do. These days, they all have employment contracts, non-competes, and self checkouts taking their jobs. Back in my day, you could just leave any retail job like that and go across the street

>employment contracts, non-competes

What retail stores have this in place for cashiers?

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

#114

Post by TurkishPoptart »

This is why I get annoyed when people praise the successes of the economy (aka artificially manipulated stock market) and our low unemployment rate. $9, $10, $11 may be a _survivable_ wage in Durham, SC, but prices and costs of living keep going up, and wages remain stagnant. In real wages this woman is probably bringing home only $6-$7 an hour, effectively making _less_ than she would have in, say, 2005 or 2010. I don't have any charts or tables to back this up, but I sure pay a lot of attention to prices at the grocery store.

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

#115

Post by maxaf »

tj-teej wrote: post #111
throwaway07Ju19 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S. there is one presidential candidate championing a UBI of $1000/mo. It would be paid for by a VAT tax. Typically VAT tax is unpopular because it is regressive. But the UBI more than compensates for the extra tax burden.

It is not a UBI as it is not U. The McDonalds cashier is likely getting subsidized housing and food stamp benefits. Yang's plan would require that the cashier has to choose between the "UBI" or her existing benefits. I asked his campaign why they designed it this way and they did not have an answer, I was told to ask the candidate directly, which was disappointing.

> Yang's plan would require that the cashier has to choose between the "UBI" or her existing benefits.

I'm neutral on Yang's campaign, but I like the idea of a UBI because administering it will be much cheaper than running existing benefits. Means-testing has a real and very sizeable cost.

What will happen to all the guvment workers who will get laid off once existing benefits have been supplanted by the UBI? They will go home to merrily enjoy their new UBI checks.

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

#116

Post by wufufufu »

allovernow wrote: post #95
davidcelis wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> McDonald's offers a 401k plan with up to 7% match. Even if you took the 10% early withdrawal penalty this is money in your pocket. This woman is literally living paycheck to paycheck, and your suggestion is to... put money into a 401k? That simply isn't an option for people living in poverty like this. > Gain knowledge, skills, and have a good work ethic and it is not that hard to get ahead in America. This is a re…

>This is a really out-of-touch perspective. One's ability to gain knowledge and skills is determined by the amount of free time they have when not working She spends something like 4 hours a day on most days on the bus. That's plenty of time to read. >Lifting oneself out of poverty is not easy to do here My family came from poverty. It's easy to do if you come from a culture which values self improvement. I know it's…

> I know it's unpopular to say, but most poor people are poor for reasons related to their genes, personality and upbringing, not because of the system.

Some kind of implied false dichotomy here. Is upbringing unrelated to the system?

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

#117

Post by cmcd »

tj-teej wrote: post #111
throwaway07Ju19 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S. there is one presidential candidate championing a UBI of $1000/mo. It would be paid for by a VAT tax. Typically VAT tax is unpopular because it is regressive. But the UBI more than compensates for the extra tax burden.

It is not a UBI as it is not U. The McDonalds cashier is likely getting subsidized housing and food stamp benefits. Yang's plan would require that the cashier has to choose between the "UBI" or her existing benefits. I asked his campaign why they designed it this way and they did not have an answer, I was told to ask the candidate directly, which was disappointing.

Yang talks about this on JRE, the idea is that individuals know what they need better than the boards designing "one size fits all" benefits. The Freedom Dividend is meant to help replace complicated benefits for those receiving less than the $1k with a more flexible fund.

Cutting back existing benefit programs saves money in bureaucracy and empowers individuals to spend in ways that most benefit them.

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

#118

Post by Aloha »

Slartie wrote: post #54
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.

It's not like they can replace human personnel that easy. Ordering kiosks are the low-hanging fruit, and then comes a long, long stretch of nothing, because it turns out that developing McDonalds-compatible robots capable of preparing burgers and packing up meals is about as easy as developing actually-working autonomous vehicles. And about as expensive. It's probably easier to automate the managers away. Meaning the…

I think people without any real background in the difficulties of automating purely human tasks (particularly manual ones), consistently underestimate the cost, difficulty and expense of maintenance for said automation.

I used to work in a kitchen, so maintaining food service grade of cleanliness on robots, sounds frighteningly expensive to me.

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

#119

Post by allovernow »

wufufufu wrote: post #116
allovernow wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is a really out-of-touch perspective. One's ability to gain knowledge and skills is determined by the amount of free time they have when not working She spends something like 4 hours a day on most days on the bus. That's plenty of time to read. >Lifting oneself out of poverty is not easy to do here My family came from poverty. It's easy to do if you come from a culture which values self improvement. I know it's…

> I know it's unpopular to say, but most poor people are poor for reasons related to their genes, personality and upbringing, not because of the system. Some kind of implied false dichotomy here. Is upbringing unrelated to the system?

I won't say it's entirely decoupled but yes, it's mostly separate, I'm talking about the values that you learn from your parents and social peers as a child/teenager.

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

#120

Post by TurkishPoptart »

Phenix88be wrote: post #39
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.

> is the answer to go back to school Without money ? My girlfriend was a cashier. Now she's studying law because my job can provide for us and we have free healtcare in belgium. Otherwise it would be impossible ! > apply to more jobs That basically mean more slavery since she will apply for job that pay like McDonalds. It wont solve any problem. > and/or go into a trade I don't understand what your mean here.

"Going into a trade" here means to start a training/apprenticeship program to be a carpenter, plumber, electrician, welder, etc. Probably not a viable option for the woman ITA.
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