Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
kane, why do people keep saying that McDonalds workers are all on welfare?
Go to McDonalds. Ask the guy behind the counter if he has a cellphone. Ask him if he owns a car. Ask him if he has a girlfriend or wife that he lives with that also has a job.
Are there some people working jobs at McDonalds who might be gaming the system to get govt. checks? I'm sure of it.
Do they really need it?
Well...I've traveled a LOT in the U.S. since the late 1970's. Hell, I toured 7 nights a week in different towns with my bands all over the country up until the mid 1990's.
I've seen McDonald's restaurants in every town from Key West to Flint Michigan to Jackson Mississippi to Los Angeles and everywhere in between.
Most times the people working at McDonalds had more money at the end of the week than we did in our traveling band after expenses.
If I had $200 a week it was a GOOD week.
And I have NEVER taken a govt. check.
How did we do that? And now it can't be done?
This is bullshit.
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Just because a person has a cell phone doesn't mean they aren't on some kind of welfare. These days having a cellphone is like having a regular phone 20 years ago. Everyone has one. The same with a car. It may not be a nice car, but many people have cars. I live about a mile away from a McDonald's (and actually a row of fast food places that include Taco Bell and Dairy Queen) and I drive by them on a pretty regular basis. Just about every time I drive by I see people in uniforms for these places walking from the nearby bus stop to work (or from work to the the bus stop).
I personally have not stepped foot inside a McDonald's in years, but the few times in the last handful of years I have gone through the drive through it seems like it is a mix of older people and younger people.
Here are some numbers:
According to
Forbes last year alone the employees of Walmart cost the tax payers $6.2 billion in various social aid programs like food stamps and medicaid. That same article goes on to say that McDonald's cost the taxpayers $1.2 billion and the fast food industry as a whole cost $7 billion. When you look at the full US budget that goes to these kinds of programs Walmart and fast food employees make up about 3.5% of the total payouts. It may seem small, but it is still a pretty big number.
The poverty line in the US is $11,670 and it is $15,730 if you have a dependent. So if you make minimum wage and you work an average of 30 hours per week (many of these places don't allow people to work full time because they don't want to give them health insurance) you make an average of $10,875 per year. You are under the poverty line and likely qualify for food stamps, medicaid, and if you have a kid potentially free daycare, housing assistance and more.
Are the 17-19 year old kids that are working at these places on welfare? Most of them are likely not. For many of them this is a first job or a part time job while they are in school and they will be moving on. But for others it is where they are right now. Can they move up? Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that low wages are costing the tax payers roughly $14 billion per year in assistance programs.
Just because someone has a cell phone in their pocket and a car in the parking lot does not also mean that they don't have a food stamp card in their wallet right next to their free medicaid card. Everyday millions of people work these jobs and work hard at them while bettering themselves then they eventually move on to bigger and better things. Part of the difference is that when we were kids there was a stigma about being on welfare. It was bad and you wanted to avoid it and work hard to not be on it. Now, that is not the case and companies are even encouraging their employees to get on it.