Board 8 > $15 an hour for working in fast food or $10 an hour for not working?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Either way, you'll be paid for a total of 2000 hours per year.

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This is a weird poll

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I'm surprised it's this much of a landslide. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough - if you accept the $10/hour for not working, you have to not work. Like, you can't take another job.

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$20-25 would be a better comparison

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Presumably we couldn't get another job either if we took the fast food one, so in a way it comes down to working a soul-crushing job for $5 an hour (the difference between doing nothing). I'd rather have the 2000 hours free

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Depends on my expense situation. If I am in a situation where I can get away with it, heck yeah I'll take the free money. Most likely it'll be back to the salt mines for me though.

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I mean, it's simple math. Assuming you work full time, $15 x 2,080 hours is $31,200. Meanwhile, if you get $10 an hour for not working, you get way more hours of not working. During a non-leap year, you're looking at 8,760 hours, so $87,600 for doing nothing.

I'm sure this wasn't the spirit of your question, but your actual question has a single correct answer: $10 an hour for not working.
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red sox 777 posted...

I'm surprised it's this much of a landslide. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough - if you accept the $10/hour for not working, you have to not work. Like, you can't take another job.

It was clear. The thing you maybe didn't consider is the fact that most fast food workers take the job because the alternative is $0. Very few people like jobs of that nature and wouldn't do them if they felt they had a reasonable alternative.

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I'd still have picked not working even if it were $5 an hour instead. Friends of mine who have worked fast food have convinced me it's the kind of thing you only go toward if you have no other choice.

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Aw, I was going to say I could not work for 24 hours a day if I was getting paid to not work.

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I mean, if those are the only two choices I don't see how the $15 option gets any votes.

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Depends on whether I feel I can afford housing and food, entertainment, healthcare in my location on the $10 an hour budget, and whether $15 would make it so that I could or not. If I'm not able to afford those things anyway, I would take the ten until I can find a better deal.

I already make ten dollars an hour working in fast food so easy choice for me

red sox 777 posted...

I'm surprised it's this much of a landslide. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough - if you accept the $10/hour for not working, you have to not work. Like, you can't take another job.

Can I volunteer/work on personal projects/enroll in college?

if so I would do it for even 5 dollars an hour.

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MawiIe posted...

Can I volunteer/work on personal projects/enroll in college?

if so I would do it for even 5 dollars an hour.

Yes, you can volunteer or work on personal projects. As for enrolling in college, sure, but you would have to find a way to pay for it.

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I assume I can still apply for scholarships?

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30G seems a lot nicer than 20G. I work comical overtime so it's skewed, but is that game of CS worth $60? Those 3 games of rocket worth $30? Maybe I just don't value my free time enough, but I'd always get that sweet OT and trade my life at x1.5 or x2 ratios with no qualms.

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Spending 40 hours a week getting fat while being treated like garbage by angry, unpleasant people is not worth $10k. I'd choose not working even if the subsistence was $5 an hour.

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Fast food isn't even that bad. I miss the days of working at Pizza Hut where I didn't have to think and could just mindlessly work. I was a delivery driver, though, and actually making okay money for a student with no degree.

That being said, the difference here is hardly anything for a 40 hour increase.

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I've never worked fast food, so maybe I'm naive for picking the first option, but.... not working sucks, so I chose the first option.

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red sox 777 posted...

I'm surprised it's this much of a landslide. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough - if you accept the $10/hour for not working, you have to not work. Like, you can't take another job.

You're surprised people would take free money over working a shit job for not significantly more money?

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I think it depends on your life situation. If you have literally no support network and need the money, you have no choice. Capitalism wins

But anyone with any cushion whatsoever would be much better off getting those 2000 hours back

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However, if you're allowed to mix things up and split your hours as you choose, i bet a lot of people would work a decent chunk of hours for some extra spending money

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Take the UBI and work on life improvement, and maybe even take a hobby that you may be able to monetize eventually.

(this is totally not unrelated to how my 2020 has gone. not at all)

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Take the fast food job. I couldn't imagine staying at home being a useless POS all day

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my bills simply would not be covered by the 2nd option. or the 1st but maybe i'd get some free food in the deal?

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jcgamer107 posted...

You're surprised people would take free money over working a shit job for not significantly more money?

50% more money is not insignificant. it's $800 a month roughly - 1600 vs 2400. those numbers fall either side of my expenses so, it's literally not even a choice - i'd die on the 10

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also where does the idea that working fast food is significantly worse than other work come from? i would prefer it to a great deal of other jobs. especially if it paid $15 an hour

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I just left a fast food job so I could have my weekends back. I dont like either option.

MajinZidane posted...

Fast food isn't even that bad.

strong disagree

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In this hypothetical, do you get overtime for however much over 40 hours you work each week, or does it just average out to 15$ a week including overtime.
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that's a good point, i would do a lot more overtime in the $10 scenario

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If these were the only two options, I would rather not work. Fast food work is torture.

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He said in the first post you only get 2000 paid hours a year so I'm guessing that means no overtime.

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I'd try for the $10. I think I would end up spending less than 8 hours a day trying to figure out how to manage it and it's a higher quality of life than 8 hours of fast food work.

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As someone who worked in fast food for 5 years straight, no thank you.

For most of it I was making 9-12 dollars an hour while living on my own. So yeah I'll happily take the 10 + plus no work

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Take the fast food job. I couldn't imagine staying at home being a useless POS all day

So then volunteer/spend time on productive hobbies

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the question here is health care. do you get health care in either option?

living at 20,000/year is extremely easy, as someone who did it for years as a graduate student. i mean you can't have a kid ever, but 30,000 isn't much better in that case.

colliding posted...

the question here is health care. do you get health care in either option?

living at 20,000/year is extremely easy, as someone who did it for years as a graduate student. i mean you can't have a kid ever, but 30,000 isn't much better in that case.

The job qualifies you for health insurance. The UBI payment doesn't, but you may qualify for free/discounted health insurance based on your low income.

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I worked in fast food for $8/hr and yeah, no. The monetary difference isn't worth the soul suck and mental health costs

Tom Bombadil posted...

strong disagree

@Tom_Bombadil I worked at Pizza Hut for 3ish years, maybe pizza is different from typical fast food?

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$10 for nothing.

Have to factor in travel expenses for the job, which dips it below $15/hr. And that's not even counting the frustration of the job and the impact it has on mental health, sleep, etc.

Besides, $10 for nothing allows you to pursue other goals, like freelancing, YouTube, writing novels, etc.

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MajinZidane posted...

@Tom_Bombadil I worked at Pizza Hut for 3ish years, maybe pizza is different from typical fast food?

Maybe, or maybe it's driving vs working in the store?
I did like five years of wendy's and it was a dark time

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