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

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

#161

Post by alistairSH » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

Weird, in reader mode (Safari on MacOS), this is the text (other than the title, nothing at all about McDonalds cashiers, other than a letter about collecting receipts)...

How I Get By: A Week in the Life of a McDonald’s Cashier Cierra Brown is trying to do all she can on her own, but it rarely feels like she’s doing enough. By Maxwell Strachan Dec 5 2019, 11:11amShareTweetSnap

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Eric:

My dear 80-something year old dad is normal in every respect. Except, he collects McDonald's receipts. Yes, that McDonald's.

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

#162

Post by Ancalagon » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

larnmar wrote: post #31

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.

Honestly I think the solution is emigration. There are places in the world where you can make a living without any particular skill set, but I don’t think the US, or any other first-world country, should really be among them. The US needs immigration reform to bring more high-skilled people into the country, but it also needs emigration reform to find new homes for people who can’t necessarily make a reasonable livin…

Wow this is incredibly dystopian to think about. Just imagine, you're born into a country that by no will of your own becomes more and more expensive. You're given an inadequate education to function in this country, so you're forced to work menial jobs to make ends meet, and hope that by some lottery stroke of luck you will somehow develop the time or the money or the skills to have a good life. BUT if you don't get this stroke of luck, you are asked to emigrate away from your friends and family?

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

#163

Post by kube-system » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

larrywright wrote: post #43

jdkee wrote: post #9

Unions, unions, unions.

There’s a compelling argument that unions, combined with the fight for $15 minimum wage, will do nothing but make the situation worse. Nobody is going to pay $20 for a burger and fries. McDonald’s would either have to go almost entirely automated or cease to exist as a company.

I pay $20 for a burger and fries all the time. Just not at McD's.

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

#164

Post by lurquer » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

thinkloop wrote: post #136

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…

There is no bigger lie than hard work = prosperity. It is literally the exact opposite. Think of the hardest shittiest jobs and they are almost always the least paying. The richer you get the less hard work is, until you're able to reach the pinnacle of doing absolutely nothing but managing your money and taking advantage of discounted cap gains taxes. I grew up rich with every opportunity and never had one of these…

>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 the previous fast-food-type jobs they held that led them to more 'prosperous' positions (at least, affording enough prosperity to spend time posting messages to the internet instead of digging ditches or flipping burgers.)

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

#165

Post by kingkawn » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:23 PM UTC

derg wrote: post #144

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…

>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. Not that it's a realistic idea but damn if everyone had experiencing working in the demanding, underpaid, crappy jobs in the service industry, we might be more empathetic and better off as a whole.

Why is it not realistic?

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

#166

Post by maxaf » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:24 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #137

maxaf wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 wi…

It’s the government: They’ll just move everyone over to the new Department of UBI, with an Administrator of UBI, a Deputy Administrator of UBI, an Assistant To The Deputy Administrator, a team of consultants, inspectors, auditors, inspectors of the auditors, auditors of the inspectors of the auditors, and so on. Nobody will actually lose their job.

Your comment is insightful, but left me no instructions as to whether I should be laughing or crying. So, I'll do both.

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

#167

Post by MultusSalus » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:24 PM UTC

codedokode wrote: post #106

Frondo wrote: post #29

These questions like "why doesn't she simply x or y" make me sad. The person in the article is poor, not dumb. She likely can't move. It's expensive to move, no matter who you are, and since she has two jobs, it seems like she's going to spend a lot of time on the bus no matter what. She definitely can't demand McDonald's pay for a taxi, or she can ask, be turned down, and have her hours cut for next week. They'll cu…

But if she and her boyfriend work full time even for $9.50/hr, they still earn 9.50 x 320 = $3040/month and that's not a little sum. With such income, do they really have to live in some rural area with poor public transit and job choice? Something doesn't add up here.

That’s assuming they both get to work full time. The article mentions $215 as a McDonalds paycheck. Assuming that’s typical, and they’re both working two jobs, you get $1720/month.

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

#168

Post by dv_dt » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:24 PM UTC

maxaf wrote: post #115

tj-teej wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wi…

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, and still needs to be covered as benefits.

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

#169

Post by ambicapter » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:26 PM UTC

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…

I have the cushy upper middle class programming job and I'm still tired every day. I must be doing something wrong.

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

#170

Post by kingkawn » Thu, Dec 05, 2019, 9:26 PM UTC

cmcd wrote: post #117

tj-teej wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

people are still gonna end up broke and need food, but now there won’t be food stamps specifically set aside for food, or Medicaid funding specifically set aside for healthcare? Terrible choice. People need $1,000 a month on top of what they have, not a check and slashing all their present support.