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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMcDonald’s Advice To Underpaid Employees: Sell Your Christmas Presents For Cash
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/11/19/2970651/mcdonalds-advice-underpaid-employees-sell-christmas-presents-cash/Tis the season for holiday spirit: Yule logs, egg nog, festive lights and exchanging gifts with loved ones. If you work for McDonalds, though, be sure to save those receipts.
McDonalds McResource Line, a dedicated website run by the worlds largest fast-food chain to provide its 1.8 million employees with financial and health-related tips, offers a full page of advice for Digging Out From Holiday Debt. Among their helpful holiday tips: Selling some of your unwanted possessions on eBay or Craigslist could bring in some quick cash.
Elsewhere on the site, McDonalds encourages its employees to break apart food when they eat meals, as breaking food into pieces often results in eating less and still feeling full. And if they are struggling to stock their shelves with food in the first place, the company offers assistance for workers applying for food stamps.
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I swear to all the Gods in the world if I hear another person say America is the Greatest country in the world I will slam them!
We have basically devolved into a Dickens novel!
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)avoiding holiday debt by selling organs before Thanksgiving.
hatrack
(59,587 posts)You probably can find ways for them to sell plasma!
phantom power
(25,966 posts)I actually did that kind of thing back in the day when I wasn't making much money and had no health benefits. I started doing it because I have terrible allergies and couldn't afford allergy drugs. Sometimes it was quite lucrative AND I got free drugs. Fast forward 14 years and I still am able to get free samples from the allergist because I was one of their best and most frequent guinea pigs.
Sometimes you do what you gotta do.
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)Buy my new book, "Your Body Cavities And You"
yurbud
(39,405 posts)McDonald's would give them Employee of the Month
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Do I really need the smilie?
yurbud
(39,405 posts)except they wouldn't mean it sarcastically.
Tanuki
(14,918 posts)phantom power
(25,966 posts)Anybody who's ever actually sold shit on craigslist or ebay, etc, is deeply familiar with the fact that unless you won the antiques roadshow lottery, you get pennies on the dollar.
So, suppose you sell your stuff. You pick up a few bucks. That's spent in a couple weeks, at the very most. What do you do next month?
librechik
(30,674 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)This is how it always is. That's what poverty MEANS. Every month, month after month, forever, you are in frantic game of whack a mole with the little bastards coming faster and faster. Next month is next month, you'll figure something out then or lose the game. And eventually you know you WILL lose, your luck will run out and it will be a catastrophe. The rubberless-tire on the car will finally blow, you fall down and shattered a tooth, your daughter breaks her glasses and now she's going to school with a giant crack across one lense and the rich kids who can afford luxuries like glasses are laughing at her, that check engine light that's been on for the last six months really did matter after all, your work just cut a few more hours...
ANYTHING is enough. There are tens of millions of us living just like this, right at the edge of oblivion. People for whom ten bucks can be the difference between eating and not.
And winter is coming.
Always there's the guilt, because always there's some motherfucker out there offering advice and questioning your choices. And you know, of course you know, that every choice isn't the best for long term prosperity. But you gave up on that idea long ago. You just want to make it through this week, and if that means walking to the store and buying a can of Colt, or smoking some shitty cigarettes, or posting online at a site like this one (where self-righteous pricks can drop backhanded bootstraps suggestions), what of it? For millions of us, that shitty cigarette is all we have.
That's what some of us have been TRYING to tell people about Obamacare. Poor people don't have any extra money. A subsidy doesn't mean shit when you're poor. Not when you're playing whack a hole at crackhead speed. But that's just one more thing, and clearly no one here cares about THAT. They're more concerned that McDonalds is offering holiday suggestions, or that Walmart has a donation bucket so some poor employees can help each other if they can. I say, that's more than many Foie Gras pinkie in the air liberals have done.
Anyway, hope this helps.
/rant
djean111
(14,255 posts)I have gone through, and am going through, a lot of the same things.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)grantcart
(53,061 posts)Regarding Obamacare, you may be getting some bad information.
In states where the states agreed to increase Medicaid (the Supreme Court made it optional) millions of people are being added to Medicaid. In fact almost 2/3 of those that are getting covered under Obamacare are under expanded Medicaid coverage.
http://obamacaresignups.net/
For the working poor subsidies cover most if not all of the costs. I met with a single mom who is recently unemployed and even though she made a good income in 2011, because she is now unemployed, got Obamacare coverage for $ 1 per month for her and her two children.
Stay strong and keep fighting.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Saviolo
(3,282 posts)I made some similar comments in my journal. And the toughest thing to grasp is that things like community, network, and even bootstrapping are strictly reserved for the wealthy.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023843128
The frustration is building. If the structure becomes too onerous, something has to give. It'll get worse before it gets better, but then some things may actually change.
Edit: Also, I agree with yurburd that this should be its own OP.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)NPR did some sort of series about poor people. I think the reporter simply followed a couple of people around who lived at or (most likely) below the poverty line. What has stayed with me all these years was that the reporter said that the main problem these people had was that they didn't have enough money. It gave them absolutely no cushion for anything. They rarely had reliable transportation because they couldn't afford a car that wouldn't break down all the time. Of course, if you live in a metropolitan area with good public transportation it's a little easier, but still, if you're poor you don't have enough money.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)For example, if you are well off and your kitchen faucet breaks you call your landlord and he replaces it immediately with a nice one, or if you are buying the home yourself, you motor on down to home depot and you buy a nice new one. You buy a GOOD one, like a Moen or something. But when you're poor and it breaks it's nto an inconvenience, it's a fucking disaster. Your landlord isn't replacing a damn thing, you have to buy it whether you are buying the house or not.
And you don't have the money for a fancy faucet like a Moen for a hundred bucks. Not even close. You have to buy one of those plasti-metal pieces of crap at Walmart or the corner hardware store. It's still fifty bucks you do not have, and you know when you buy it that it will be doing good to last a year and you are throwing that money away, but what else can you do? You have to buy it. And buy it again, and again, and again. The rich guy with his hundred dollar faucet is still going strong.
And this applies to everything. Your car, your lighting, your plumbing, your health, your job, everything. It's all poised to detonate like an engine screaming at redline. Something is always flying apart, and every time it does something else has to give because there's no slack, no extra room or money or credit.
So the poor guy stumbles from crisis to crisis, reeling, all to the chorus of helpers on the sidelines questioning the path and choices and offering suggestions. "So why don't you just buy a better faucet? It's only fifty dollars more, if you just quit smoking if you cancelled your interet if you just got another job or a few more hours maybe ask your boss or friends and you must have a few extra dollars tucked away..." And the poor guy just shakes his head, because explaining poverty to people who don't live there is like explaining color to the blind. And it's made worse in that same way... people think they understand poverty because they've been broke themselves at one point in time or another.
They don't understand the difference. Being broke is just being broke, it's nothing, it offers the same 'understanding" of POVERTY as closing your eyes does for the guy who can see. Being broke is being a tourist in a third-workd country, you're there, you look around, meet a few natives, pretend to share their experience, and then you're gone with an amazing adventure to recount to your friends. Poverty doesn't even begin until you hear the cell door slam shut behind you starting your life sentence.
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)She was talking to everyone at the food pantry about local resources and getting on Wisconsin Foodshare program. I got a new list of food pantries ( there are several new ones, 22 in all. Yeah Rock county). I then asked her why my family of four, making $1500.00 below the qualifying amount for Foodshare, is alloted only $47.00 a month?
It turns out that the state has developed a "budget" for the average family and the generous stipend of $47.00 adjusts us to meet the calculated amount that should be spent on food. I do wish they would provide the address of the grocery store with the 1985 prices though.
I asked about the anticipated difficulties with the massive cuts already imposed and the possible loss of even more funding. She responded that her supervisors hinted that things wouldn't be "too bad". Which gave me a warm fuzzy black hole in the pit of my stomach.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)about being broke actually works, but you've got to add that it's like being broke ALL THE FUCKING TIME! Some folks are short one or two weeks for whatever reason (maybe buying that $100 faucet you talked about instead of the $50 one) and they eat bologna sandwiches instead of going to the fast food place for lunch or juggle some bills around until another check comes in and they're back on track. With a lot of folks even when that other check comes in they're NOT back on track and they NEVER get back on track. THAT'S what poverty is like.
CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)Thanks for your thoughts and for so cogently describing how hard it is to replace or buy items when you are poor.
I believe that Walmart (and stores like it, that sell cheap crap) help to perpetuate the cycle of poverty--because the quality of items is so inferior--that people must replace them so quickly.
I look at the clothes at Walmart. They look similar to what you might buy at the mall, or even at more expensive stores. Black pants or a navy sweater are similar across stores, right? Not really. If I buy a sweater or workout pants at Walmart--these items literally fall apart and are no good within a year. The clothes don't wash well. They stretch, fade and look horrible after one year. I remember my grandfather wearing quality flannel shirts that looked great--and were more than 30 year old!
Ten years ago, we purchased a coffee pot from a department store. It was $130. I had coupons and a great discount because I purchased it on Black Friday. I've seen this coffee pot regular priced for around $199.00. It still works well. I purchased a coffee pot from Walmart and it lasted six months. What happens, as you very well know--is that a person buying a $30 coffee pot at Walmart, has to buy a new one every year. In ten years, they've spent $300 on coffee pots. It's not fair.
Most of what you get at Walmart--from bath towels and comforters, to microwaves and shower curtains--it all goes to hell very quickly. Then, you're back at Walmart again, replacing it.
Yes, there are other stores that sell cheap crap, but Walmart is the worst. They force people to spend more disposable income just replacing things.
eridani
(51,907 posts)Middle class people save buttloads of money buying 6 months worth of TP at Costco, cooking meals in batches and freezing them (if you are actually poor, you don't have a freezer), restaurant sized cans of tomato sauce to be frozen in portions, etc.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)plus member fee upfront
Demit
(11,238 posts)I guess you could say my post is off-topic, but I just wanted to tell you that.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)diabeticman
(3,121 posts)4 t 4
(2,407 posts)looked at as a serious matter!
cali
(114,904 posts)with gratitude,
cali
Response to cali (Reply #54)
Post removed
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)Not that it is any of our business.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)The feeling of entitlement that many 'middle class' families exude is depressing.
I'll admit that I am a member of this class, but I am also very aware due to my underprivileged upbringing that my status is an eye blink away from not having a roof over my head.
That's why the last time I gave a woman $10 in the target parking lot for gas, I didn't question her sincerity.
While it took all of my budgeted spending money, she needed it worse than I did.
And frankly, what she ended up spending it on was none of my business.
Having panhandled in my youth, I understand that one doesn't beg for food or money for fun. It is because you need the help.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)into your world. My heart breaks for you, and the millions of others in the same position.
This post, and the following addition, are so incredible, they should be an OP.
Thanks for sharing this/ranting. It does need to be said.
polichick
(37,152 posts)I could see you doing a collection of essays - or short stories if you're inclined to do fiction - and publishing them on Amazon.
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Of course your state would have accepted the Fed Medicaid grants ..
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)first: this is an excellent post that should be its own op.
second: if I'm in a bad frame of mind, it's easy to suppose that the help I really need to hear is not necessarily the help I want to hear.
Getting health care to poor people is vitally important to their long term success, even if their state of mind places the value of the next "shitty cigarette" as a better short term investment. Obamacare, even if your income makes it something other than free, is still a good value and a good choice.
I don't want to "be a self-righteous prick", but sometimes friends tell friends what they don't want to hear. I'm happy to help, but I want to actually help.
In my day job at a small nonprofit, I hired a woman from a welfare to work program a couple of months ago. She's working hard to improve her family's standard of living, but it's become apparent that she needs to improve her standard of thinking. I sat down with her last week to coach her on what "professional office attire" in our employee manual means, and it was (unsurprisingly) a really difficult conversation. I'm sure what she heard was "gtfo, pov" but aside from the importance of the organization's image as a professional place, I'm hoping that the act of investing in herself will change her state of mind.
librechik
(30,674 posts)you know, like Scrooge MacDuck, diving into his pile of gold coins.
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)I hold out little hope for McDonalds or its clown mascot!
Revanchist
(1,375 posts)Advising the selling of organs, really?
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)Revanchist
(1,375 posts)I need to finish what I'm working on and turn in.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Chipper Chat
(9,678 posts)can I ... have some ..MORE FRENCH FRIES?
hatrack
(59,587 posts)Chipper Chat
(9,678 posts)McNancy is my new girlfriend.
malthaussen
(17,195 posts)"Biggest asshole company of the year." It's a tight race.
-- Mal
Brainstormy
(2,380 posts)Actually, on the Ed Show yesterday he asked if Walmart was the greediest company in the US and to twitter if you had other contenders.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Meanwhile, you have no idea what the other 99% live like, do you? Not to mention, what a typical Christmas present (if you even do xmas) might be worth when you are lacking basic food security!!!
4 t 4
(2,407 posts)some years no gifts at all
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Ace Acme
(1,464 posts)like everybody else?
leftyladyfrommo
(18,868 posts)Maybe the McDonalds people could go to Walmart and get some cans out of their charity boxes.
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)We thought he was putting them back on the shelf, but maybe it was their Christmas bonus plan.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,868 posts)Every Xmas.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)Cold hearted bastards don't get any money from me.
erpowers
(9,350 posts)There is a part of me that both thinks and hopes that it will be proven someday that the supposed McDonald's help website is really just a parody website. I cannot believe and do not want to believe that the leaders of McDonald's could be so cold and uncaring about the restaurant's workers. That website just cannot be real.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)and not just the people handing you the burger -but workers who get it to the place - so it can be sold cheap cheap
Then it talks about what the food is...crap& cruel...and how they make future CD lovers from kid marketing too.
" do not want to believe that the leaders of McDonald's could be so cold and uncaring about the restaurant's workers"
it is about the $$profit and caring about profit before workers that is all
one of my favorite lines I remember went something like this > guy is talking to a rancher if I remember and the rancher says
"They would slit your throat for an extra nickel but it has nothing to do with you personally- it is all about wanting the extra nickel"
yes the workers are just an unfortunate casualty to them
sick
Solly Mack
(90,767 posts)Cruel, callous, condescending, clueless, delusional sick fucks.
ZRT2209
(1,357 posts)Arcanetrance
(2,670 posts)issue they decide the best course is to keep digging. McDonalds managed to make my no way in hell list of places to eat
Vashta Nerada
(3,922 posts)I don't see anywhere in the article where they mention selling Christmas presents for cash.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)#t=0
https://mcdonalds.mynurturlife.com/
Vashta Nerada
(3,922 posts)I see it now.
Thank you for pointing it out.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)It shows up in a site search as an article, but the link is dead.
Assholes!
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)I highly suspect that the "resources" there are not just targeted at McDonalds and franchise employees. I think I've seen some of the stuff that the video shows in their website screenshots elsewhere... but yep, companies will contract with companies like Nuturlife Inc. and a health & wellness portal will be generated.
Of course with the bad external public press, any links will have changed around and such by now...
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)The various pages are probably used on a large number of clients' resource sites.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)And they pay them a decent wage and give them the time off.
Corporations are convinced that Americans are STUPID and that we have bought into the Republican "Times are tough" nonsense.
Oh,...and in Germany the McDonalds serve beer.
Which, of course, makes this funny:
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Pretzel_Warrior
(8,361 posts)Blue Owl
(50,373 posts)n/t
polichick
(37,152 posts)And they're getting a huge laugh out of the whole thing.
4 t 4
(2,407 posts)it is one big game and they're like " how much will these fools do for us "
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Or wait till it's really busy and walk out with the rest of your coworkers.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Ilsa
(61,695 posts)to put food on the table. Or grandma's antiques.
How low will McDonalds and WalMart go?
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)gopiscrap
(23,760 posts)4 t 4
(2,407 posts)raise prices and not give the workers even a tiny raise.( and they are making record profits!) This is all part of what is going on . It is the opposite world we now live in and they're getting away with it , but I don't know what the hell to do to make it better?
ruffburr
(1,190 posts)TO VENT - These assholes and their cohorts have done america a service by stating their true self and what they think of average americans who are so foolish as purchase their GMO enhanced delights, I haven't bought anything from the Mac Donald's other than coffee in a pinch and some one else paid,So First I have too say DO NOT PATRONIZE ANY OF THE CHAINS PERIOD. Patronize local biz, And as for McD Corp and their latest i would like to say FUCK YOU YOU LOW LIFE SCUM SUCKING PIECES OF SHIT!!!!
That is all,
Thank you for your time
blackspade
(10,056 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)4 t 4
(2,407 posts)Initech
(100,075 posts)I mean it's becoming almost comical how fucking evil they've become in the last few years.
valerief
(53,235 posts)onto the road.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)"How many of Mickey Dee's employees, none of whom make enough money to have credit or buy Christmas presents in the first place, will HAVE holiday debt?"
My paper does a "Christmas for All" fundraising drive. Fast food employees figure prominently among the applicants.
muntrv
(14,505 posts)devils chaplain
(602 posts)adirondacker
(2,921 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,161 posts)Dickens characters had pure natural food.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Except for peanut brittle, MAYbe.
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)show us all that sociopaths run your company. Sociopaths are dumb, because they have this undying emotional urge to force everyone with empatHy to be like them, or just die.
Good luck freaks.
Alkene
(752 posts)Tigress DEM
(7,887 posts)Keeps jacking my brother in law between 40 hours and 32 hours so they don't have to fill out the form to let him get on food stamps and so they don't have to keep him at 40 hours either.
progree
(10,907 posts)for McDonalds anyway
Oh, maybe take the kiddos and the spouse to Christmas Eve dinner at McDonalds. That's enough of a present to last the whole year!
reformist2
(9,841 posts)their own workers!
treestar
(82,383 posts)greymattermom
(5,754 posts)and have charity workers stand outside walmart to collect toys, canned items, etc. for walmart associates. Let the customers experience that before coming into the store.
AngryOldDem
(14,061 posts)...and how wealth really is concentrated at the very top.
These types of jobs were never meant to support a family, much less be a sole means of support for anyone. They used to be for the kid who was bored and/or needed some walking-around money -- in other words, a time-filler, an introduction to the working world, something productive to do with one's time. Now, these jobs have become just as competitive and coveted as any office job, because any more, THIS IS ALL THERE IS.
We in the middle to lower-middle classes have now officially become the slave class. This is what we have fallen into, through NO fault of our own. Which is exactly how the top 1% want it -- more for them.
God bless the U.S.A.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)poverty because are there really antiques and extra Ipads laying around??
even then you are taking time on Craigslist?
Even if you have a few items selling /pawn maybe the first couple of times... then what???
Just avoid holidays and any pressure from people who want to get presents from you or make you spend .
Sad to say but debt will be around the corner if you don't have it IMO
Attend a community dinner/food hand out or a church gift giving for kids if you are not working @ McD that day
but mostly avoid all the hype and do not get involved
""OH but that is not the spirit "" The spirit of spending money ????
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)I've got news for you. TPTB have far worse planned for us.
This is why we should not accept Democratic candidates for national office that do not have the right priorities. Those priorities must include higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy and a substantial increase in the minimum wage. Either our candidates express the urgency of these issues or they should not be "our candidates".
This is a crisis.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom