This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
McDonalds Advice To Employees: "Quit Complaining" And "Sing A Song"
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Back in July, we highlighted a ridiculous and insulting campaign that McDonalds ran with Visa in which the company tried to help its impoverished employees plan a budget. The only thing the campaign did was embarrass the company by proving that you can’t survive working there.
Well the company is right back at it in time for the holidays, with several pieces of advice for its legions of serf employees through its ”McResource” website. Three of the more insulting pieces of wisdom include:
“Sing away stress: Singing along to your favorite songs can lower your blood pressure.”
“Break it up: Breaking food into pieces often results in eating less and still feeling full.”
I saved the best for last…
“Quit complaining: Stress hormone levels rise by 15% after ten minutes of complaining.”
Are you “lovin’ it” yet? Video below:
»
- 26665 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Swing low, sweet chariot....
I heard a pair of old leather boots make a tasty soup too !!!
I might actually feel sorry for them if the gubmint weren't filling the wage gap with our tax dollars.
But the budget thingy was very tacky.
Lie down with Mcdogs, rise up with McObamacare.
You load sixteen tons and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
St Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
#AskRonald
when did mickey ds become a career...it is a lay over for young people as they move thru life....wtf...if running the drive thru is ur dream, go back to sleep and dream better....however with that being said...ytf is mickey ds and wal mart and all other min. wage payers allowed to subsidize their profits thru food stamps etc....if one of their dog burgers needs to cost 3 fucking dollars to make a profit...than make a burger worth 3 fucking dollars...we are so fucked....and of course i want it supersized...
I agree with you 100%.
When I was a kid in High School, I worked for a Landscaping Company, which is to say I cut grass at the rich people's house. I was paid with a payroll check, with taxes and SS stuff deducted, just like the regular professional people. This was a temporary job that paid me enough to save a few dollars, and maybe take Jill out on Friday night.
This notion that every job should be able to support a family of with 2 1/2 kids is absurd. If anything, working at Mc-Ds should be incentive to get a HS diploma and, as a stretch goal, maybe a college degree in a field that actually hires people.
p.s. Working on the floor at Wal*Mart is NOT a job that can support a family with 2 1/2 kids either!!!
I don't disagree, but for many people McD's and Wally Mart or similar are the only places they can get a job. Flipping burgers doesn't really give you the tools to advance much and some people try as they might, never are qualified to do much more. They use to do the jobs that machines now do, but now they simply aren't needed. That is why these jobs now need to support a family with 2 kids.
Even if all these low wage employees studied hard there still still wouldn't be the availability of those upward mobility jobs that you infer. If anything it would simply cause those jobs that are a step up to lose much of that step as qualified people fight over them.
These min wage people get paid either way. If the employers don't bring them to a livable wage then your taxes will. Which would you rather see happen? Employers forced to pay a livable wage or your taxes going up so they can be paid supplementally through welfare?
I for one think the employers should be responsible for paying any welfare benefits their employees recieve. That would fix this rather quickly and allow the economy to actually start expanding again. You can no longer get rich off the people when the people have no money.
What a marvellous irony if whites have to start singing like the black slaves picking cotton. The US is will have come full circle. The end is palpable.
I don't get it. Is any of this advice incorrect, is that it? There are legitimately people who don't know this shit, and they probably work at McDonalds. That's where people who are older than 25 and still don't know anything work. If they're pissed off about it at that point, that's their fault.
Max Keiser does a great rendition.
"... for many people McD's and Wally Mart or similar are the only places they can get a job. "
I remember feeling that way somewhere back in the '70s coming out of High School with skills that probably were on par with those of a college degree today. I remember thinking, as I went to night school to get my MBA, that I could fall back on these sorts of jobs to pay the bills if I had to. I remember taking a temp job with an MBA in the Bush1 recession and busting my A to turn it into a full time job.
These things are self-sorting ... I remember working with a lot of people who decided to use their spare time to party, and I imagine they are among the millions applying for minimum wage jobs. I also remember working with a lot of people who put in some extra effort, but for whatever reason (too much TV?) landed somewhere in the middle. I also know more than a few who, despite limited skills, ended up with very good jobs just because they kept plugging at it ... I may be one of them.
Point is, very few people get more than they aim for. Nevertheless, I will not argue that the widespread availbility of government assitance to low wage workers has only served to line the pockets of crony capitalists by allowing them to pay less than a real market wage ... so what do we do here?
"when did micky ds become a career...."
I'll tell you when....seeing as how you haven't been paying attention. We....that's me and YOU and ALL the sheeple let that happen when we let these fucking psychopaths in the halls of acedemia, politics and finance tell us to not worry about it.....we've got a plan and it's all under control. Besides....you wouldn't understand why we have to debase the currency, ship industry to the lands of slave labor and let illegal immigrant serfs pick up the slack here at home.
We just want you to fucking shut up and consume. And WHAT a time to do that......after all....it's THANKSGIVING....and you should be THANKING us for running this big ol' complicated world for you.
There.....there.....here's your Prozac and....look here.....we've turned the channel to American Idol just for you.
So, if McD's is the new normal......then FUCK YOU McD's.......PAY 'EM A LIVING WAGE.....AND LET:S STOP LYING ABOUT THE TRUE COST OF THE McSHIT BURGER !!!!
Because nothing will get the Sheeple Lumpin' Prols to the streets faster than a $ 5 single hanmburger with no fucking cheese because that's $ 2 extra.
i aint gonna work on maggies farm no more
Your posts are practically unreadable. In real life I'm sure you're insufferable.
.
That's pretty funny coming from a net.kook who still lives in fear of soviet world domination and whose brushes with 'real' life are tangential at best.
To HL Shank me
I try my best to be as insufferable as I can to motherfuckers just like you.
Go have a McShit burger and a coke and shut the fuck up, serf owner.
Maybe...just maybe...the world does not owe anyone a living.
Maybe...just maybe...McDonalds does not pay low level staff a "living wage" because it was never meant to.
You can be pissed off that a given rock isn't a bigger rock all day if you want, and you can try to change it, but you will fail and the rock does not care, it is what it is.
If you try to force McDonalds to pay a living wage, the price of McDonalds will go up, rent will go up in response to landlords notice more people are willing to pay more money for the same apartment, and the people working jobs that society does not value highly enough to pay a "living wage" to those who do them will be right back to square one, the only difference will be that inflation has been slightly incremented. You can try to forcibly change the value society ascribes to something, but you will always fail. Society will just readjust something somewhere else to compensate and the world continue as before.
LOL, you think SOCIETY is setting prices instead of the Federal Reserve?
For wages, rent, bonds, taxation, EVERYTHING? You crack me up.
The market's RIGGED, remember? ALL of them.
The Hamburglar
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2090074_2...
"i'm Lovin it!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbbvRef1VDM
Take this job and shove it,
I ain't workin' here no more...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPrSVkTRb24
McShitInYouMouth Drive Thru
soon, it will no longer be a dream.....
Quit complaining and eat your employee discounted Happy Meal.
All the Walmarts around here have a McDonalds inside them.
Fucking sick ass joke on the employees.
Captain Bernanke Here.
Your cry for MOAR stimulus has been heard.
I am confused, tho ... just yesterday ZH had an item from the Mudwig von Lises institute about how the minimum wage was a bad thing. Everyone seemed to agree (at least in that thread; and whoever didn't got buried in down votes.) Shouldn't these McDrudges be earning even less?
Its called riding two horses at the same time...its a great party trick.
Sung to the 'two all beef patties' mcdonald's jingle:
Two non-paid layoffs
Special SNAP, pay freeze, McPickles, unions
forced up your spread buns.
That explains the special sauce...
I am alergic to Sesame seeds, what a pain in the ass, help!
Amazing and tragically sad that so many African Americans got their "freedom" post Civil War then "equality" after the civil rights movement only to be re-enslaved by the corporatocracy and/or .gov.
They are simply on a new plantation; one without dogs and fences, unless you count the Po-Po's and the border.
We are all now on the plantation with them.
Swing low indeed.
What do people expect with an organization that is run by a clown? Or from a country...
Clown, which one?
Slavery never ended, it was just repackaged. It was concluded that there was greater return on investment if the slaves did not know they were slaves. Hence this gigantic virtual reality we live in where everything is inverted. Now the ignoratti (us to unfortunately) are in the noose tightening stage that comes just before extermination.
Yea! So looking forward to it!
Also, the prison industrial complex (war on drugs).
True, and so many other aspects as well. Define a crime, there MUST be a victim...
Don't forget the NFL too!
That post is idiotic in so many ways it's hard to count. When did ZH become outlandish-conspiracy-tard central?
Free men own their labor. Slavery comes in many forms, as better minds than most of ours have noted. "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
As for a great die off, you need only look at what happens to bacteria when it reaches the edges of a Petri dish and has consumed all the agar to see what lies in our future.
The more I examine and reflect on the perverted, sick, corrupt world in which we live, the more I come to see that slavery was not only never abolished, but merely transformed and in fact broadened to include almost everyone, with the brute force of the lash and the gun having been replaced with the more subtle financial bondage of debt and fiat currency and the neo-serfdom of crony capitalism.
You are a slave. Accept that fact.
....but so many take their erroneous opinion as Fact, it comes naturally to those who always believe they are the best...just cuz, they can say it over and over
At least historically one knew one was a slave. Today we are in a concentration camp replete with walls, armed guards, and barb wire but it is not visually apparent. It is insidious, lurking in shadows. It moves quietly but deliberately like a fungus burrowing it's mycelium in its host, strangling it slowly while it's victim moves about unaware until it is too late. I must commend our jailers that their plan was brilliantly thought out to capture the weak minded, dumbed down average person. They hope the few who have escaped are powerless and marginalized to avert their plans.
Miffed;-)
Miffed & akak: Mother Nature can also be a jailer. You can wander around her compound in very remote areas to the degree that your abilitity and skills will allow you... but she will stop most of us from our own stupidity. Mom allows you some work-arounds if you're able to see them. Mom never wants her kids to be slaves to her will. Mother Nature's jail is not a prison. It's a blanket of protection until she can see you are able to wander around on your own without tripping over the couch and knocking over the kerosene lamp.
Fuck, I've got Robert Frost on the run with that epic spewing!
After all that unbearable melodrama you ice the cake by signing your post.
Ignore HL Shancken the troll. I can't wait til he/she posts a photo of their libtard hero-hos in the nude so I can whack off at the office while pretending to do some wank... er... work as my Managerial Job and the SEC requires I masturbate often. It's in my contract.
And HL, I'm not just an ordinary wanker. I extend my pinky for proper wanking in front of the Queen. Or is that the QEeeN? Yellen and Elizabeth look so alike. Both couldn't figure out how to get a dead cat out of the room.
Good luck with your next min-wage troll gig, HL.
HL is a genuine net.kook who, a quarter century after their collapse, still lives in fear of the soviets and a world dominated by the USSR.
Of course. Once they realized the dumb sheep are the majority and exploited that deliberately instead of other weaknesses that were merely a by-product of being dumb, they had won.
We can defeat any number of evil plans but to defeat this one means defeating the majority of Stupids(tm), by making sure they are never again a majority being stupid.
Just looking at how many people follow delusional religions & enter into delusional wars very clearly putting their children to death to kill other people's children for no reason at all but the whim of their masters... ya.
We lose.
Economic slavery AKAK, same as it ever was, is and always will be for the masses.
Go ahead, count, and include why.
The whole premise is just retarded.
I'm certainly willing to call out the evils and injustices of the world, but it is worth keeping a semblance of perspective. Your oh-so god-awful existence that you bewail as slavery is superior to the existence of 99.99% of humans that have ever walked the Earth, as you can eat, travel, fuck, and play with little to no fear of murder, theft or other violation. Yeah taxes suck, there is fraud and theft, and a host of other shittiness that one can worthily demonize, as long as one remembers that those crimes have existed throughout human history, except it has usually been about 1000x what it is now.
And for the record, if/when the revolution everyone fantasizes about ever happens, history suggests the end result of that kind of turmoil would almost certainly be a dictator, and the crimes of the present would be mere footnotes to the atrocities that would occur.
Idiot. AND sheep.
Specious and fallacious comparisons.
Yes, and the lives of most of those in the USSR were, at least on a purely physical level, "superior" to the lives of most of the peasants who lived in the 10th century in the same place as well --- no thanks to the statist thugs of the 20th century, however. But so fucking what? What you should be comparing are the lives of those living today to the lives that we COULD and SHOULD be living instead, free of the insidious bondage of sociopaths and statists (but I repeat myself).
Lives of most in the USSR were not so bad. Accidently...
I remember it.
And most of people today are quite disinfomed.
It was difficult. But peple had dignity. Even in USSR.
Sorry to spoiling the party
Especially when the Trotskyites were leaving to USA and Iz in 60s and 70s.
Now its your turn.
....gotta love the "but it's a good kinda bondage" meme, Ho Lee Fuk would be proud, the purity of ignorance displayed is beyond vexing.
Thanks.
"What is 'prains reply for $1000' Alex?"
Alex, I'll take 'correct'....for a bottle of Dalmore King Alexander
http://www.whiskycritic.com/dalmore-king-alexander-iii
Does everyone on this site think they're writing scenes for a Fight Club sequel?
nope, pretty much the problem with this poverty is that people can NOT eat, fuck, travel, only sit in a box called an "apartment" and "eat" garbage that passes for food but slowly kills you with toxins, additives or gene-spliced insanity.
There is PLENTY of fear of rape, robbery & murder since the desperation of poverty pushes people to that and since there's no safety due to the others who are desperate AND the police-state showing that rapist / murderer cops get a hero-parade & vacation-pay for putting a bullet in a random civilian's head - provided they're of the poor class.
The so-called poor of Cuba or Argentina are far, FAR better off than the poor of America. For one, they eat healthier. For another, they're smarter. And on top of that: they have less to worry about by murder from police.
Are you in debt? The more indebted one is, the more enslaved that person is.
And because of the Federal Reserve system, we are all in debt. The national debt belongs to all its citizens. The question is, when will the bank call its debts in?
depends: with or without secured collateral?
If I not obligated to repay a debt... who's the slave now?
.
You have no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes.
http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/118/37e0b37a1faa4c77b3b41d39...
Yes master.
Kind of you to care so deeply. But isn't the main reason right-wingers hate the post office with such venom is that it gives middle class jobs with bennies to African Americans? How many people on this board get a good feeling when they see an African American in a good job pulling a middle class salary? Honest question.
Ain't no non-crackers at any of the PO's in 2 hundred miles of my home Nice try racist hitch.
No. It's because they get paid above average wages and benefits to be lazy, rude, insolent and inefficient. I hold them in the same disregard that I hold unionized auto workers.
There are plenty of blacks working for UPS and Fedex. Funny how all of us "racists" have no problem with them. Nobody here ever bitches about black UPS workers.
Sorry, but your race card bullshit is full of fail.
MeatTrapper: As you know, I can send letters, parcels from my location to Hong Kong in 7 days. How long did it take for your package to arrive going through the USPS system and I sent it by Registered Letter? I can tell you. I sent it Oct. 13. You received it Nov. 16. Over a month, and I was getting ready to take my receipt to my local PO and get them started on tracking what happened to it.
Sure .gov postal services are cheaper than private couriers for special services. Don't waste your time folks. Any mail going in or out of the USofAID in the hands of USPS is likely held and anal-yzed for whatever scary trrrst screening they do these days.
Use FedEx or whoever if you actually want your packages to make it in or out of the USofAID in the time frame of the service you paid for.
It is annoying to me when people write .gov. You are not clever or hip. You are not leading a brand new wave. It will never catch on because it's so blatantly an attempt to be cool. It's like putting on an accent. It won't work. It will just annoy people. Please stop it.
I can't wait to annoy you further with more .gov discoveries!
Fucking idiot, I could care less what pissies off pussies like you. I'm older than dirt and will be digging your grave when you have a fatal attack of pussycockchoking if they ever figure out which way you bat.
Now, if you care to take another idiotic swing, I await your girly pitch.
HL Shancken is a .gov-supporting net.kook who still votes for Reagan because he knows that Leonid Brezhnev is still alive and actively plotting a soviet attack against the good ol' USA.
Yep. Angus is telling the truth. I can vouch that the dates he posts are indeed correct.
I believe the package you sent was held and "inspected". I am actually suprised that I ever got it to be honest. I had written it off as stolen.
PS: I'm taking next week off and will be uploading a lot of new trapping footage to my YouTube channel. I'm also shooting a lot of footage for my 'from trap to plate' series that will be released later.
What've you been smoking??
The reason I dislike the Post Office is because it is so ridiculously inefficient that it cannot turn a profit no matter what it does. Well, that and because nowadays they mostly deliver junk mail that wastes trees.
I really don't care what anyone, black or otherwise, does for a living as long as they're not robbing me.
I do not hate the post office or my carrier, in fact I think it is a good deal, go ahead live in California and deliver a gift or a card to your mom for current postal rates or drive it there yourself to Florida.
MickeyD's is a place high school kids work to get a lesson about why you don't want to work at MickeyD's for the rest of your life.
This is the HOPE and CHANGE Obama was talking about! HOPE the guy behind the counter can speak English and count CHANGE!
This made me snort laughing.
I didn't crack a smile, though I do think it was a worthwhile observation. You, however, practically guffawed. On top of that you told others how funny you thought it was. What kind of person are you?
Don't lie, HL, you laughed hard enough to lay an egg in your Depends® undergarments.
McDonalds = Illinois Company = Obama Company
Let them eat cake or a MCD hot apple pie.
Ray Kroc didn't build that.
One of the best work songs evuh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7QF32mxftE
Ba Da BA BA BA...
They're loving it!
If you like your McJob, you can keep your McJob (if you quit complaining).
Any fries that hit the floor....are yours. Also any griddle scrapings.
The key is to work your way up to trash detail. Thats how to feed a family on McD's pay.
Is there no such a thing as a menial job anymore?
Great question...used to be considered a launching point into the real economy, not a career!
Yes, well, the "real economy" ain't what is used to be. We are now a service society not a manufacturing society. Case in point illustrated below:
McDonald’s help-wanted ad: Cashier position available; college degree required
In a stunning indicator of how the job market is faring, a McDonald's franchise in Winchedon, Mass., has just posted a job opening for a full-time cashier — but insists only college graduates need apply.
Also, only those with one to two years of experience working with a register are encouraged to apply.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/4/mcdonalds-help-wanted-ad-...
Around here, they post jobs for engineers but only ask for foreigners to apply.......and when we catch them (IBM $100B revenues annualy) we fine them BIG....$44,000!!!
That's teach em!
http://news.dice.com/2013/09/27/justice-department-hits-ibm-h-1b-hiring-...
and how/why they did it..
http://cis.org/miano/ibm-cost-difference-too-great-business-not-look-h-1...
And most would leave McDonald's to work at a mill, factory or warehouse and earn a livable wage with nice benefits. It was still menial labor and the job sucked, but at least they could feed a family and retire with dignity. Now, not much! Thank to Premier Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 and Obama for ending the American Dream for 90% of people. Job well done.
Yup, Ross Perot's "I told you so" echoing forever through the sound of collapsing America.
Min wage was supposed to be the clearing price for labour DEMAND, not a gaurantee full salary. Ie. cashier or clerking/stock staff were entry level payroll positions designed for new-entrants or transatory labour force. The only problem is that since there is nothing to transition INTO, and no applicable skills in INFOTECH/APPLIED SCIENCE that transfer from home equity and reality sales, their is a stupidly large dead-weight employment that can not work its way out of the system.
No new trigger industry means no new trigger jobs. But since trigger industries need a large labour pool, the only thing left to do is cater (or crater) to that service based economy skill set.
The alternative is a new-deal type deal of US retooling. But that would mean telling alot of EBT and legions of best buy associates the future means a whole lot less instagram 400x P/Revenue paper dreams and a whole lot more pipe fitters and production/mechanical engineers.
Hey employees, grab your ankles 'cuz here comes Ronnie.
I calculated the ratio of minimum wage to college affordability in 1970 to 2013.
You'd need 7 full time minimum wage jobs per year to have the same college affordability in 2013 as someone in 1970.
I need six more wives but they cannot eat, drive, incurr any expenses or generate any trouble just to be considered a poor college student! Wow, cool! I really like this repackaged slavery!
/sarc off/ in case someone missed that...
I was in LA in '78-79 and a full 3 credit course at LA Community College was $6. I was a full time, non-union delivery driver @ $300/wk.
I have to agree with the "Quit Complaining" advice.
You're right, accurate information that happens to be very negative might be bad for morale and make it harder to keep them in harness if the knew they are voluntary slaves!
Edit: in another context, you are correct!
I'll tell you the problem I have with this "quit complaining" advice.....
/irony
Customers can designate left-overs for the staff in special Holiday window.
That might work for some but my leftovers are often left in the form of vomit.
Perhaps eating customers' vomit could be #4.
just be sure to break the vomit into pieces first for the feel fuller effect. 8) brings the food budget down to zero too if there's enough of it.
That down-vote must have been an accident.
Anyway, the McRib is fricking awesome.
i highly doubt any of the fatasses that go to mcdonalds has any leftovers. seriously, have you ever seen uneaten food go into the garbage at McD's? someone at the table always has a little room to polish it off.
Ho, ho, ho!
I suspect their next brilliant PR move will be to pair up with e-trade and encourage McDonalds employees to open a trading account and BTFATH.
I bet they even hired a specialist firm to come to this conclusion too.
people are so fucking clueless.
The video is disgustingly amusing, but paying those worker bees more than they're worth for having no skills sure isn't the answer.
Break it up there folks...no really, I mean break it up
"Sell your christmas gifts on ebay or cragslist for some extra cash"
just...fucking...brilliant...
SHUT UP AND COLOR !!!
I prefer horsemeat anyway. It's healthier.
Which losers still eat at McDonalds? Wake up sheeple, it's not even good food! It's trash for trashy people.
Really, it isn't even food! Period.
It's even worse than that: it's poison for socially poisonous people.
McDiabetes, McHeartDisease, McObesity, McCancer: I'm lovin' it.
And at fast-food prices these days, you could get a pretty kick-ass meal for the same price -- and much more nourishing -- at a mom & pop joint.
Of course, that says nothing about simply buying the ingredients yourself & making it at home...
You and Bloomberg should really move in together.
you should shove a big mac down your throat and ease it down with a bottle of McCola.
History may not repeat, but it sure rhymes.
http://youtu.be/wFSlw8LlIw0
http://youtu.be/0qihABs5sQk
i dont see "pay back student loans" on the list of things employees have to pay for.
McBanker McShitbags are ruining this fucking country. When the revolution comes they should torch McCorporate right along with the alphabet soup agencies of the McFeds...
No problem. McBankers and McCriminals will board their private jets and leave McthirdWorld USSA for the next country to extract wealth from.
Hmmm...Did Disney buy MCD up when I wasn't lookin'?
Had a good beat. Easy to dance to. I'd give it a 72.
Disgusting, unrepentant and unhelpful advice. SMART MOUTH MF's. HOW about advice on HOW TO EAT DEAD FOOD and be a FAST FOOD SLAVE/ EMPLOYEE ?
anyone who has to make actual living working at mcd ... probably need these advices ... recall that it used to high school or college kids working part time for their drug money or retirees and house-wives looking for few extra bucks to blow at their bingo table ...
Do it in BlackFACE, I dare ya, with Obamacare.
Barry should take this advice. All I ever hear him do is complain that it's someone else's fault.
Oh, well, at least he's got the singing part going for him. Mochelle says her husband is "in the bathroom all the time just singing." http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/michelle-obama-my-husband-has-got-swag_767940.html
And I thought he was busy working on fixing healthcare.gov. Now I have to wonder what he's singing and why (and what else) he's doing it in the bathroom.
.
Actually, I thought Number 2 was the "best".
Unashamedly, Fuckin' Brutal.
Why should McDonalds pay them a "living wage"? It never has been. Most of the actual work is automated, all the workers have to do is put it together. Here is an idea: Put that joint down, get off of your ass and get down to the local trade school and learn something that will make you valuable to a employer. But unfortunately, too many of them are marginal, and will never amount to much. What to do with these people? The ones that are legal to vote, will vote for more of your money {democrat}.
Almost has a "the beatings will continue until morale improves" ring to it.
Permit me to put this in perspective. Here in Argentina, $7.25 at the blue exchange rate is 70 pesos or 560 pesos for an 8 hour day... 2800 per week... 11,200 per month. That is what a skilled engineer or physician can reasonably expect to make here. At the official exchange rate, it is about 7500 pesos per month, or what a skilled laborer can reasonably expect to make (a machinist, lathe operator, etc...). People who earn these amounts lead rather good lives here; they own cars, rather nice homes (often including a hot-water heater, which is a rare commodity here). Why is that? How is that possible?
Rent, in areas outside the ridiculously expensive Buenos Aires, can be had for as low as 1100 pesos por month. Why is it so cheap? Property taxes are very low, which drives down the price of everything. There is a public healthcare system (slow, one can wait a week or so to see a doctor, and often lacking in some basic supplies- they had a shortage of x-ray film where I live for several months and were only x-raying the most severely ill or injured patients), but it functions. (There is also a private system.. which can cost 100 or 200 pesos for a routine doctor visit... still much cheaper than the U.S.). Food is very cheap here... why? Because of import and export tariffs, which everyone hates, but work very well to keep the cost of food down in a nation that produces more than it needs. The Chinese still buy Argentine soy, even with the export tariff. Import and export tariffs... they do indeed make life better for everyone here.
The Argentines use as little electricity as possible and as little natural gas as possible in their homes. Most, outside of patagonia, do not heat their homes in winter and just wear extra clothes, allowing temperatures to drop into the 40 and 50s inside their homes. Few homes have air conditioning, even in La Salta, where temperatures can reach 115 F in the summer. Most of the vehicles run, except trucks and motorcycles, run on natural gas, which is about one third the price of gasoline. Cheap land, cheap shelter, cheap food, and the most efficient use of energy.
The problem is not McDonald´s. The problem is the tax structure of the U.S. and the gross inefficiencies in U.S. energy use, healthcare, etc... .
. +1. Thanks for that informative post.
The largest item taken out of my paycheck: TAXES!
SSN: 6.54%
Fed Income Tax: 33%
CA State Income Tax: 9.3
Medicare Tax: 3.8%
TOTAL: 54.64%
Property Tax: $18K/yr
CA Sales Tax: 9.3%
CA Disability Tax: 1%
Unemployment: Dunno, but not free
Gas tax: $.41.5/gallon
Sewer tax: $35/month
Recycling tax: $25/month
etc., etc., etc.
TOTAL: 70%+ of my income goes to taxes on marginal dollars
To generate extra income and save money:
My parents in law live with me
My recently graduated daugher lives with me (I paid her 4 years of tuition)
I rent out rooms in my house to students
My wife tutors students
We drive 20 year old 2nd hand cars
And my "disabled" sister and lazy relatives tell me that I need to pay more! I'm "greedy" and "selfish". How is it that they who take the earnings of others are not greedy or selfish?
And next year, I lose my health care!
Taking from the productive at gunpoint and giving to the unproductive for their votes is NOT the American way of life.
We don't have any money left: not in savings, retirement or equity.
ENOUGH ALREADY!
Much the same here. In Cali, making 6 figures. Shook my employer down for a raise early this year - my take home pay from the raise came out to .55/$1 - I'm at 45% tax on marginal dollars, I guess. Besides the general FSA, there's .gov employees, those SSI cases, and shit like retired CA firefighters in huge new SUVs and $800k homes.
I guess the point of making 6 figures is that you can go around feeling like a badass and superior to others? (not that I do that...) My actual take home is just $15k or so more than those making half as much.
Exactly. I make six figures as a NOSQL DBA - here in Alabama that works pretty well.
My boss recently gave me the "If you want to give yourself a raise ..." speech. I cut him off in mid sentence.
"Why the hell do I want a raise? Obama will take half of it and flush it down the toilet. The wife will take the other half and flush it down the toilet. I'll be left owing your ass and having to do twice as much work, deal with twice as much shit - and I'll have nothing to show for it while you go to Scotland to play golf. Why the fuck do I want to do that? How about you keep paying me to do my job and stay off my fucking back about being a shiny shoe man."
lol
Motherfucker was speechless.
"I never knew you wanted to live like the Unabomber" was his response. Guess they didn't practice rejoinders to reality in MBA school.
Yeah, I'll bet you said that...
Psst...between friends....if you are paying $18K/year in property taxes in a prop 13 state ( puts your house at $1.3~$1.6M range) and having to rent out rooms, you might have a issue with buying too much house.
I didn't buy it.
We bought the worst house in the best neighborhood, and employed the California retirement plan: tear it down, build the largest house you can, sell it to some dot-com instaMillionaire, move to a trailer in Oklahoma and buy a laundamat/storage place/7-11/apartment building/etc.
After saving for 10 years and waiting for the dot-bomb to hit, we built a 500 sq. ft. "pool house". We (mom, dad, 2 kids, 1 dog, 7 fish and 2 love birds) lived in that place for 30 months while we had a house built - cooking on an outdoor kitchen (refridgerator outside, microwave under a trash bag) dragging all the laundry to a laundramat - the whole time.
Getting a home approved and built in California is not a simple thing. We spent 5 months gathering 100 neighbor's signatures that they like the plan, 13 letters and 5 neighbors speaking directly to the planning commission. I had my kids carry the model in front of the "planning" commission so they wouldn't tell us the design lacked feng shui or some other nonsense.
When the contractor didn't show up for weeks because it was raining, I climbed on the superstructure and pulled a tarp over it. When the city shut down the project because we moved a door 2 feet, my wife went to the city for a week with coffee & pastries, etc. 2 & 1/2 years of this kind of crap.
Meanwhile, we still had to get the kids to school and tutors, take care of an adult w/Altzheimers, etc. Life goes on, right?
We just have normal jobs and make normal money for CA, so this is what one needs to do to have money here-unless you want to become some mid-level manager kiss-up.
I'm just saying, my family and I sacrificed for what we have and it belongs to us - not Obama.
A 1 week wait to see a doctor is "slow" ha ha ha ha ha here in Canada if I make an appointment to see my doctor it will be 3 weeks. I am lucky to have a doctor, thousands of people don't have one. And, there are no private doctors. It is illegal for doctors or patients to opt out of the system or work outside it.
Don't you wish Obamacare worked as well as the Canadian system?
appointment for what? If it's an emergency, you can go to the ER no problem, be seen within a few minutes in most places.
Since I was a young child onward I never even HAD a doctor to make an appointment with. Doesn't bother me at all. Haven't had the need.
"If you soak your daily bread ration into water prior to eating, it will make you feel fuller..."
AND remember.....Arbeit Macht Frei!
I think Obama want to replace "In God We Trust" with that slogan instead.
Is there some expertise about blood presure and serotonine levels of employees after some decent lynching of manager ?
We here in Massachusetts just approved raising the minimum wage to $11 from $8 today by 2016. So accordingly, I would expect the Quarter Pounder meal which already is closing in on $8 to be over $10...pretty hard to sell that to wage declining population being told they are too fat anyway...
Tax-assachusetts is a state to escape from.
Time for people, except if you live off the government tit, to leave these states. They will just keep raising taxes.
Those living off the government can just consume themselves and go bankrupt.
You did! That's such a novel, cutting edge solution, I'm sure it will do wonders for the economy!
/so
Two all beef pattys , Special sauce, Lettuce, Cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.
- Mcdonalds commercial.. 1975
McD employees could learn a few lessons from the cows they grill; the skill of regurgitating their food, rechewing it and giving it a second or third pass. Easier digestion. Makes you feel fuller.
And to cut down on sick days and make them more productive shoot them up with some kind of human rbST. Heck, try actual rbST out on a few test subjects.