“Guy who works in food service admits that he went to work sick and likely spread it to hundreds of people because it’s the only way he could make ends meet, and now he can afford a house but not because of his hard work, but because it went viral on the internet.”
What a heart warming story.
It kind of mirrors the story of Typhoid Mary in a way, where it’s thought that one of the reasons why she kept going back to work as a cook, spreading Typhoid fever, was because she was homeless and on the verge of poverty.
Presumably, if she had been offered an out that wasn’t being institutionalised, and locked up on an island for indefinite quarantine, or risky surgery, she might have taken it, and the story would have never panned out.
You’re not “on the verge of poverty” if you’re homeless. You’re living in poverty.
I don’t think that’s exactly true depending on the time period.
I don’t know if I like this interpretation, I mean it’s true and i don’t like it, but it puts blame on him for the fucked up system… With the shitty pay and hours of fast food we don’t know if missing even one day of work means he couldn’t pay bills.
Even in an ideal fully automated luxury gay space communist society, nothing is ever truly completely automated, you’ll need some people you can count on to be there to push the buttons every day. This is one of those people, our society just wastes him.
I’m not trying to put the blame on him. I’m more trying to say that maybe he should be paid enough to afford housing and his job should provide sick days and maybe even Healthcare. This guy was grinding himself to death while putting others at risk just so he could get by. That’s not his fault. He was doing what he needed to do to get by. It’s messed up that he had to do that.
Despite what I said, I got that.
IDK, it was tone policing I should have phrased it better.
Another reason why everyone should stay clear of places that exploit workers, it could be you who orders food when someone had to come work sick.
-Work 27 years without a day off, following every advice to “stop being lazy and work”
-Still not being able to afford housing without generous donations
That Burger King should be ashamed of himself. He such a benevolent king.
You to can work all your life and almost buy a house.
Worst part is he’s probably better off than most people working at Burger King since his restaurant is unionized.
If you behave like a mule, you will be treated as one. 27 years of work is way over the line of “he didnt have any chance to move on or get promoted”.
“He originally began working at this job as a single father when he gained custody of me and my older sister 27 years ago," his daughter Seryna wrote in a message on the fundraising page. “Then as our family grew and he remarried, he continued to work there because of the amazing health insurance that was provided through this employer because it was unionized. This got all four of his daughters through high school and college with full healthcare coverage.”
“My dad continues to work there, because though he does look young, he is coming up on retirement age and leaving would cost him his retirement," she added.
Absolutely shameful behavior to call someone supporting their children a mule.
Man we as a society should all pool our resources together so that things like this can be done on a much larger scale wouldn’t that be cool
Instead of “gofundme” we should call it “taxes”
Ah, but what about
the economyrich peoples yacht moneyBbbbbbbut but but but taxes could go to people other than me and gasp even other races!
No that’s stupid. If we used the natural wealth of the planet to ensure a comfortable life for everyone, how would a small proportion of people live extravagantly without actually contributing anything? Don’t you understand economics?
I like that idea. We build a community social system of shared resources - maybe even owned by the people working the jobs. Why has no one ever thought of it? I’m sure everyone in the world would get on board.
I never missed a healthy day of work in the past 22 years, i have called in sick a handful of times to prevent others from getting sick.
I worked 84h weeks, but mainly 40/45h weeks.
If i hadn’t had my savings taken away at 17 i could have bought a house at 18, nowadays my labour isn’t valuable enough to afford me a house.
So if anyone has a spare 500k laying around so i can buy a small house…i’d gladly receive it.
We could wait the extra 5 years but i’m afraid a small home will cost closer to a million then.
Gotta love this economy and all these fancy modern things we get to enjoy…if we can afford them.
Despite having health insurance I’ve lost my life savings three times now to medically necessary surgery that my insurance only covered a portion of. Insurance that cost a quarter of my income.
When I was in my twenties, I got a hernia. 16k out of pocket.
A bit later, a chair at work collapsed and I broke my wrist, workers comp paid for everything treatment wise including physical therapy, my wrist is still messed up, but workers comp showed me that actual medical care IS possible.
In my thirties, I broke both my ankles when I was knocked down some stairs on the way to catch a bus to work. I went to work, worked 6 hours on broken ankles and then took a bus to the hospital that decided my insurance would only cover one, and the other one was going to be mostly out of pocket. 12k out of pocket.
and then had a polyp on my vocal cord. Health insurance covered about 2000 of that leaving me with an 8k bill. My supplemental Aflac insurance covered the cost of a taxi (up to 40 dollars one way!) to the doctor for follow up appointments.
Now I can’t walk right, can’t lift shit, and can barely afford insurance, I need a follow up surgery for my hernia and I’m better off losing my job and going on medicaid than trying to keep a job and pay for it myself.
I’ll be renting forever
What would have happened if you didn’t have the cash for the treatment?
I didn’t.
Crippling medical debt that builds interests rapidly and can’t be discharged through bankruptcy. It helped fill out my plate alongside the student loan debt that builds interest rapidly and can’t be discharged through bankruptcy.
That’s basically debt slavery isn’t it?! Sounds like a benefit gig for bankers if you ask me. Here in the UK our free health care system is a national treasure. It’s not perfect but it works.
Can you elaborate about the savings taken away at 17?
Lots of shitty parents out there. It’s so bad that before you get your first paycheck in boot camp, they march the entire division over to the Navy Federal Credit Union, and whatever Bank was on base, and made you open an account with one of them, your choice. I went with the Credit Union.
Getting the soldiers to open an account seems like a smart move. Much better to get direct deposit and a debit card/checks than to have them cash a check somewhere.
Sailors in my case. I assume they do something similar in the Army and Air Force, as it was a policy the Navy adopted sometime in the Vietnam War era, because too many parents opened bank accounts for their kids with the parents name as well, and cleaned out their pay.
It’s a parents thing, same happened to my sister.
Damn that’s a ball ache. I didn’t get any savings when I left home, but at least I didn’t expect any. Just imagining the feeling of having that pulled away… ouch.
Did have parents spot my rent a couple of time; don’t make me out to be ungrateful.
House prices have been falling for the last year now. Maybe… Nah. But maybe…
In your market maybe
Nationwide. They’re not plummeting or anything, but they’ve been steadily decreasing.
Edit: looks like they started going back up again a couple months ago. You can move the sliders to narrow down the chart.
I can’t find my market there. Must be because the world is bigger than the US ;)
“In our magnanimity, we let this worker drone pretend to belong to the real people who get to own stuff. Isn’t it cute? Look at its widdle smile.”
I wouldn’t say the orphan crushing machine was stopped so much as one person was pulled off the conveyor.
Pushed back a few yards on the conveyor, you mean?
If he bought it outright, he might be ok. Once you own, you get to ride the wave of housing inflation instead of watch it carry the ability to own farther and farther away.
Though if it only gave him a down payment, then he’s still just as much a wage slave dependent on not having a manager that dislikes him, though if he is able to make the payments, the above will still apply. I hope the housing crisis isn’t going to be as bad on the inflation side, but if it continues previous trends, even with a mortgage, he’ll be gaining equity faster than his payments.
Retirement is another story, though.
I’ve opened the link thinking I would read an onion article.
How is the Onion supposed to survive when reality give us things like that ?
I cannot wait for the sweet release of death to overtake me
He got $440,000 from the GoFundMe.
And approximately $407,000 from working at Burger King for 27 years, if he worked at an average of the current minimum wage.
Remember. Lots of people in this country look at this and say he doesn’t deserve a house because his job isn’t good enough.
But they are happy to eat at Burger King. The food is good enough for them, but the people making the food aren’t.
So how many of those days did he prepare food sick? This orphan crushing machine isn’t even hygenic.
Nothing new in “Land of the Free”
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Don’t seen any of the white breads who control the company giving him a goddamn raise either, do you
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TF kind of comment is this?
Can’t be “stressed enough” that this is a union shop?
Just come on out and post a couple links to anti-union propaganda while you’re at it.
Typical because one union isn’t great they all suck comment or something? How is the title misleading if this is actually what happened: “guy misses no work and gets a house thanks to donations”
What is misleading about that?
Wanna know what the real thing that should be stressed is? The part where he calls it the “American Dream”. What is the dream exactly…? Slave your ass away and hope someone buys you a house?
Edit: I looked through 7 different articles. Not one mentioned that this was a union shop. Post proof of him being a union member for the duration of his employment, post proof of when the union was voted in.
From the OP article
“Then as our family grew and he remarried, he continued to work there because of the amazing health insurance that was provided through this employer because it was unionized. This got all four of his daughters through high school and college with full healthcare coverage.”
Yeah and because it was unionized he has access to fantastic health insurance for him and his family. What’s your point
