8 ms·

McDonald's to close all UK restaurants

72 points by MikusR 7y ago

CORBLIMEY-19 7y ago
Sound
jakear 7y ago
If this comes to the US my disaster preparedness plans will be seriously compromised... In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), and some way to serve the food while keeping the window closed (a shelf extending out from the window and a policy that they won’t open their window until you close yours?), drive through could be a real solution to pandemic food supply. Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier.
- martinald 7y ago
  The problem isn't that, it's making the food itself in mcdonalds is too risky in terms of infection. You have loads of people in a small space. Nearly all restaurant kitchens of all types are like this; so I really can't see how any takeout services can operate safely. Maybe very low volume ones with one chef and one person giving out the food. But not sure how possible that is, I assume many require someone preparing food as well as cooking it.
  - robjan 7y ago
    Doesn't this risk exist with all types of food factory?
    - martinald 7y ago
      I think less so. Most other food production is done in production lines with from what I've seen more separation between people. It's also highly automated where it can be, and in huge warehouses in industrial areas, not tiny cramped kitchens with poor ventilation in cities.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      What about fresh produce sitting on store shelves, where people can touch and breath on it? (I say this while eating a hotdog I just got from 7-11)
      - finaliteration 7y ago
        We’re still buying fresh produce because there’s plenty of it and we don’t have a ton of space to store frozen/canned food. I’ve been washing produce with soap and water for 20 seconds and then rinsing it before eating it. We also roast most of our vegetables so the risk seems small, to me.
        o-__-o 7y ago
        I am debating Ordering a pizza right now and I was thinking of putting it in the oven for 2-3minvwhen it got here then store it in a container I have at the house and discard the box as usual. I see no flaws in this plan.
        DoreenMichele 7y ago
        From what I have been seeing, it appears to live longer on cardboard than other surfaces. In my experience as an immunocompromised person, the cardboard box is the biggest problem. Dispose of the box carefully and wash your hands afterwards. The pizza is probably fine, though it's fine to cook it a bit longer for good measure too. You can (potentially) order from a service with contactless delivery to reduce your risk. For example, Little Caesar's will let you leave instructions to leave it on the porch or whatever.
  - dbbk 7y ago
    Is it possible to reconfigure the space, perhaps take over some of the dining area?
    - martinald 7y ago
      I doubt it. You need gas supply, water supply, etc. It's not a quick job to reconfigure, plus I doubt many builders/plumbers will be available to physically do the work. I think most operators are just throwing in the towel; probably the numbers don't make sense if you have a dining area that is empty, and I imagine takeaway/drive through orders are down sharply as govt is saying only absolutely essential trips are allowed. Delivery orders were probably up sharply though I imagine. Also many takeaway places don't have a dining room to reconfigure into.
  - jakear 7y ago
    I don’t think it’s a matter of finding something 0-risk as much as it is reducing risk as much as possible. And I think drive through with 0 contact between patrons and employees helps with that. I’ve been in crowds just two times in the past couple weeks, both were at grocery stores.
- pengaru 7y ago
  Everyone should have at least one large sack of rice and beans in dry storage. Expecting an operation like McDonalds to maintain enough spare capacity to provide everyone's emergency sack of rice and beans in the event of a disaster is completely idiotic.
  - jakear 7y ago
    I was being a bit facetious. The fact of the matter is there exist people who have not prepped, and grocery stores are a complete mess. Drive through solves both these problems, as letting those that behaved “completely idiotically” either die or come join in the crowds at grocery stores isn’t a great option.
    - pengaru 7y ago
      Exposing yourself to the people handling the food at fast food restaurants for a single meal is not what I'd call a remotely wise trade-off vs. a single grocery trip bringing home literally a month of calories in rice and beans. Consider the likelihood that whoever prepared your fast-food took public transportation and lives in cramped, shared housing, and is so desperate for income they're working at a fast-food joint. You can't even reasonably disinfect what you receive from the drive-thru before consuming it.
      - jakear 7y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22660365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22660365
    - makomk 7y ago
      Also, there's a lot of people in London who don't really have the space to keep large stockpiles of food in, or necessarily much in the way of decent cooking facilities.
      - arcticbull 7y ago
        You can store months of dry rice and canned food under your bed alone. You're talking about survival planning, not glamping. Most adult humans can survive upwards of 2 months without any food whatsoever if you've got adequate access to water.
- notatoad 7y ago
  >Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier. going to macdonalds twice a day is definitely riskier than getting groceries at the supermarket once a week. most of the food is packaged, and the stuff that isn't can be thoroughly washed before eating it. even for the stuff that isn't packaged and can't be washed, coronavirus isn't known to last longer than three days, so you can just buy it and let it sit. contrast that to the multiple different staff preparing your food, which you then immediately stick in your mouth.
  - jakear 7y ago
    That’s true. Really, the ideal solution would be repurposing existing drive through setups for grocery purchases. Best of both worlds.
  - makomk 7y ago
    The trouble is that realistically, it's not possible to get by with a single weekly shop in the UK right now. A lot of supermarket shelves are empty due to everyone buying more than they usually would, and even when they're not there are purchase quantity restrictions that make it hard to get a full week's shopping in.
    - jimmaswell 7y ago
      And Europe as a whole tends to buy groceries every other day, so I'd suspect stores aren't prepared to provide for any degree of bulk buying. Maybe it'll catch on more after this debacle - grocery stores are generally running fine in the US besides toilet paper and the odd other thing being sold out sometimes.
      - toyg 7y ago
        It’s not the stores, imho. From my experience of UK supermarkets in the last week, they’ve basically caught up with most stuff they are directly responsible for or that is produced very close to their needs. Bread is now there, vegetables are there, milk is there. What is dramatically lacking is processed food. I expect that’s because those items have much lower elasticity in their production: if you know you’ll sell X cans of tuna per year, you’ll build a plant that makes X * 1.3 or thereabout; when demand suddenly spikes to 3X or more, there is no time to build another plant (and even if there were, you might not want to invest into something that is probably temporary). Same for meat: you cannot grow extra cows in a couple of weeks. There is a lot of pressure on supermarkets at the moment which should probably be directed at the larger food industry.
- nimchimpsky 7y ago
  if ?
- tzs 7y ago
  > In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), I don’t know if they support this in the UK, but for the US McDonald’s has an excellent mobile app. You can order and pay using the app. You can pick up by going through the drive through and giving the 4 character order code from the app, or by parking in a spot reserved for mobile order pickup and then entering the spot number in the app and they bring the food to your car. If you do the latter, and roll down the backseat window while keeping the driver window closed, and ask the person to place the food on the backseat, that should be pretty safe as far as person to person transmission goes.
  - klipt 7y ago
    > ask the person to place the food on the backseat, that should be pretty safe Certainly sir achoo oh excuse me I sneezed in your car, so sorry, good you thing you have a partition between the front and back seats, oh wait you don't?
  - matthewheath 7y ago
    Yes, we have this too — well, the order pickup from the mobile app. I assume you have to park up to get the order, but I've never tried it myself.
- rootusrootus 7y ago
  > Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier Fred Meyer, at least, allows you to buy a whole list of groceries and they will bag it all up and meet you outside in the parking lot. Not a bad way to limit exposure. Not everyone has FM, obviously, but I'm sure there are equivalents across the country. I'd start by checking any Kroger or Kroger subsidiaries.
- seniorcardigan 7y ago
  I recall many a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Popeyes in less than great areas having a mechanical container the worker placed food in instead of opening the window. They were for safety, I havent seen them in almost 15 years but im sure some is still using them
aaron695 7y ago
This is a big deal and something governments should have in their extensive plans they created years ago. Using McDonalds as distribution points has been talked about because they have the process and infrastructure. People also feel safe there. But I suspect like everything, it's just what some government officials think today that matters. So they will react on the fly.
aazaa 7y ago
> McDonald's UK boss, Paul Pomroy, said: "Over the last 24 hours, it has become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult and therefore we have taken the decision to close every restaurant in the UK and Ireland by 7pm on Monday 23 March. A lot of Americans are relying on this method of food distribution. It seems inevitable that closures of drive-thrus will begin happening in the US as well. Food shortages at grocery stores are not uncommon today in many cities. It only takes one positive test to shut down a food distribution center. I doubt many have considered just how precarious food delivery is at the moment.
- nathanaldensr 7y ago
  What's amazing to consider is that the United States produces so much food we have to throw much of it away... and yet, there may be no way to purchase it! Insanity.
- Zhyl 7y ago
  We need innovation and quick thinking. Proper pivoting. One example is UK Restaurant Chain Leon pivoting to retail [1]. Another is restaurants becoming or setting up satellite Ghost Kitchens [2], perhaps moving to cheaper or more evenly spread locations in the mean time. For HN, we now have a whole new set of problems. We are no longer supporting, enabling or competing with existing institutions and structures - we're building systems that will save them and in the process define new ways of getting food to plate and co-ordinating the people and payments involved. We have food. We have people. We have new constraints. Solve for X :o) [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51996773 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51996773 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen
- davidwihl 7y ago
  I’m deeply worried about the US food supply in 4-6 weeks time, not because of availability but because of a lack of healthy people to process, transport and distribute the food. Given the sorry state of migrant farm workers in the US [0], it won’t take much for infections to spread. [0] http://www.ncfh.org/uploads/3/8/6/8/38685499/fs-migrant_demographics.pdf http://www.ncfh.org/uploads/3/8/6/8/38685499/fs-migrant_demo...
closeparen 7y ago
It’s not Waffle House, so it’s not time to panic yet. https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-closed-its-time-to-panic/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/if...
- chrisco255 7y ago
  God help us all if the Waffle Houses ever fold.
- rootusrootus 7y ago
  Pretty sure some Waffle Houses are closed, so panic time may have finally arrived. Apparently FEMA no longer uses the Waffle House Index, in any case.
- tomcatfish 7y ago
  Here is the link that the amp link points to: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-closed-its-time-to-panic/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-clos...
- ThePowerOfFuet 7y ago
  Please don't perpetuate the web cancer which is AMP.
  - closeparen 7y ago
    I’m not editing the URL with my thumbs. Is there a convenient way to avoid it on mobile? Maybe HN should just automatically rewrite AMP links to avoid these inevitable comments.
Jedd 7y ago
Arguably this could improve people's health prospects on two fronts simultaneously. I note that the CEO here basically stepped up because the UK government hadn't -- it's doubtless not easy, but the best thing about this story is that he's said 'we'll match our casual worker's shift pay up until early April' (when the UK relief package for casual workers is meant to be implemented). I fear a lot of my risk has, and will continue to, come from casual workers who simply can't afford to pay rent or eat if they don't head into work. So far I've heard the UK's the only place so far that's come out with a financial plan to mitigate this risk.
- smallgovt 7y ago
  The US is currently passing its own stimulus plan that will ship at least $500B to the bottom half of earners. It seems like the ETA for passing the bill is mid-week.
  - mywittyname 7y ago
    > to the bottom half of earners. Last I heard it was really for middle-income earners, as there was a phase-in income floor at around $50k/yr and a phase-out at around $75k/yr. Has this changed?
    - smallgovt 7y ago
      The last article I read was this FT article published two days ago: https://www.ft.com/content/1f8e5a3a-6a58-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3 https://www.ft.com/content/1f8e5a3a-6a58-11ea-800d-da70cff6e... The article says the Republicans are proposing $1,200 per individual who earns below a certain income and $500 per child, while the Democrats are proposing $2000 per month to all individuals and $1000 per month to all children. They're apparently stuck on how the corporate bailouts will work.
      - nojvek 7y ago
        Seems like scope creep. Just do the corporate bailouts in a different bill. Ship that $$$ for the working class immediately. And seriously fuck Boeing. They did this to themselves. No bailouts, only loans. $50 billion bailout when they spent billions buying back stocks to enrich their top investors and execs. Should have saved for a rainy month. I’m sure without a bailout they’ll learn a lesson and figure shit out. It’s not the first time. AirBus is hit just as hard. Basically we should ensure people have enough to live by and get through this period. Everything else will take care of itself.
sys_64738 7y ago
This is good, right?
- dingaling 7y ago
  Not for shift workers in healthcare / transport / retail who were using fast-food outlets when normal shops were closed.

72 points by MikusR 7y ago

Sound

If this comes to the US my disaster preparedness plans will be seriously compromised... In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), and some way to serve the food while keeping the window closed (a shelf extending out from the window and a policy that they won’t open their window until you close yours?), drive through could be a real solution to pandemic food supply. Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier.

martinald 7y ago
The problem isn't that, it's making the food itself in mcdonalds is too risky in terms of infection. You have loads of people in a small space. Nearly all restaurant kitchens of all types are like this; so I really can't see how any takeout services can operate safely. Maybe very low volume ones with one chef and one person giving out the food. But not sure how possible that is, I assume many require someone preparing food as well as cooking it.
- robjan 7y ago
  Doesn't this risk exist with all types of food factory?
  - martinald 7y ago
    I think less so. Most other food production is done in production lines with from what I've seen more separation between people. It's also highly automated where it can be, and in huge warehouses in industrial areas, not tiny cramped kitchens with poor ventilation in cities.
  - catalogia 7y ago
    What about fresh produce sitting on store shelves, where people can touch and breath on it? (I say this while eating a hotdog I just got from 7-11)
    - finaliteration 7y ago
      We’re still buying fresh produce because there’s plenty of it and we don’t have a ton of space to store frozen/canned food. I’ve been washing produce with soap and water for 20 seconds and then rinsing it before eating it. We also roast most of our vegetables so the risk seems small, to me.
      - o-__-o 7y ago
        I am debating Ordering a pizza right now and I was thinking of putting it in the oven for 2-3minvwhen it got here then store it in a container I have at the house and discard the box as usual. I see no flaws in this plan.
        DoreenMichele 7y ago
        From what I have been seeing, it appears to live longer on cardboard than other surfaces. In my experience as an immunocompromised person, the cardboard box is the biggest problem. Dispose of the box carefully and wash your hands afterwards. The pizza is probably fine, though it's fine to cook it a bit longer for good measure too. You can (potentially) order from a service with contactless delivery to reduce your risk. For example, Little Caesar's will let you leave instructions to leave it on the porch or whatever.
- dbbk 7y ago
  Is it possible to reconfigure the space, perhaps take over some of the dining area?
  - martinald 7y ago
    I doubt it. You need gas supply, water supply, etc. It's not a quick job to reconfigure, plus I doubt many builders/plumbers will be available to physically do the work. I think most operators are just throwing in the towel; probably the numbers don't make sense if you have a dining area that is empty, and I imagine takeaway/drive through orders are down sharply as govt is saying only absolutely essential trips are allowed. Delivery orders were probably up sharply though I imagine. Also many takeaway places don't have a dining room to reconfigure into.
- jakear 7y ago
  I don’t think it’s a matter of finding something 0-risk as much as it is reducing risk as much as possible. And I think drive through with 0 contact between patrons and employees helps with that. I’ve been in crowds just two times in the past couple weeks, both were at grocery stores.
pengaru 7y ago
Everyone should have at least one large sack of rice and beans in dry storage. Expecting an operation like McDonalds to maintain enough spare capacity to provide everyone's emergency sack of rice and beans in the event of a disaster is completely idiotic.
- jakear 7y ago
  I was being a bit facetious. The fact of the matter is there exist people who have not prepped, and grocery stores are a complete mess. Drive through solves both these problems, as letting those that behaved “completely idiotically” either die or come join in the crowds at grocery stores isn’t a great option.
  - pengaru 7y ago
    Exposing yourself to the people handling the food at fast food restaurants for a single meal is not what I'd call a remotely wise trade-off vs. a single grocery trip bringing home literally a month of calories in rice and beans. Consider the likelihood that whoever prepared your fast-food took public transportation and lives in cramped, shared housing, and is so desperate for income they're working at a fast-food joint. You can't even reasonably disinfect what you receive from the drive-thru before consuming it.
    - jakear 7y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22660365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22660365
  - makomk 7y ago
    Also, there's a lot of people in London who don't really have the space to keep large stockpiles of food in, or necessarily much in the way of decent cooking facilities.
    - arcticbull 7y ago
      You can store months of dry rice and canned food under your bed alone. You're talking about survival planning, not glamping. Most adult humans can survive upwards of 2 months without any food whatsoever if you've got adequate access to water.
notatoad 7y ago
>Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier. going to macdonalds twice a day is definitely riskier than getting groceries at the supermarket once a week. most of the food is packaged, and the stuff that isn't can be thoroughly washed before eating it. even for the stuff that isn't packaged and can't be washed, coronavirus isn't known to last longer than three days, so you can just buy it and let it sit. contrast that to the multiple different staff preparing your food, which you then immediately stick in your mouth.
- jakear 7y ago
  That’s true. Really, the ideal solution would be repurposing existing drive through setups for grocery purchases. Best of both worlds.
- makomk 7y ago
  The trouble is that realistically, it's not possible to get by with a single weekly shop in the UK right now. A lot of supermarket shelves are empty due to everyone buying more than they usually would, and even when they're not there are purchase quantity restrictions that make it hard to get a full week's shopping in.
  - jimmaswell 7y ago
    And Europe as a whole tends to buy groceries every other day, so I'd suspect stores aren't prepared to provide for any degree of bulk buying. Maybe it'll catch on more after this debacle - grocery stores are generally running fine in the US besides toilet paper and the odd other thing being sold out sometimes.
    - toyg 7y ago
      It’s not the stores, imho. From my experience of UK supermarkets in the last week, they’ve basically caught up with most stuff they are directly responsible for or that is produced very close to their needs. Bread is now there, vegetables are there, milk is there. What is dramatically lacking is processed food. I expect that’s because those items have much lower elasticity in their production: if you know you’ll sell X cans of tuna per year, you’ll build a plant that makes X * 1.3 or thereabout; when demand suddenly spikes to 3X or more, there is no time to build another plant (and even if there were, you might not want to invest into something that is probably temporary). Same for meat: you cannot grow extra cows in a couple of weeks. There is a lot of pressure on supermarkets at the moment which should probably be directed at the larger food industry.
nimchimpsky 7y ago
if ?
tzs 7y ago
> In theory drive through should be the best possible food mechanism in terms of risk to the workers (and patrons). If they could arrange for contactless payment (already possible, just affix a tap reader to the side of the drive through window), I don’t know if they support this in the UK, but for the US McDonald’s has an excellent mobile app. You can order and pay using the app. You can pick up by going through the drive through and giving the 4 character order code from the app, or by parking in a spot reserved for mobile order pickup and then entering the spot number in the app and they bring the food to your car. If you do the latter, and roll down the backseat window while keeping the driver window closed, and ask the person to place the food on the backseat, that should be pretty safe as far as person to person transmission goes.
- klipt 7y ago
  > ask the person to place the food on the backseat, that should be pretty safe Certainly sir achoo oh excuse me I sneezed in your car, so sorry, good you thing you have a partition between the front and back seats, oh wait you don't?
- matthewheath 7y ago
  Yes, we have this too — well, the order pickup from the mobile app. I assume you have to park up to get the order, but I've never tried it myself.
rootusrootus 7y ago
> Sure as hell beats a bunch of people in the same supermarket breathing all over the produce and right on the cashier Fred Meyer, at least, allows you to buy a whole list of groceries and they will bag it all up and meet you outside in the parking lot. Not a bad way to limit exposure. Not everyone has FM, obviously, but I'm sure there are equivalents across the country. I'd start by checking any Kroger or Kroger subsidiaries.
seniorcardigan 7y ago
I recall many a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Popeyes in less than great areas having a mechanical container the worker placed food in instead of opening the window. They were for safety, I havent seen them in almost 15 years but im sure some is still using them

aaron695 7y ago

This is a big deal and something governments should have in their extensive plans they created years ago. Using McDonalds as distribution points has been talked about because they have the process and infrastructure. People also feel safe there. But I suspect like everything, it's just what some government officials think today that matters. So they will react on the fly.

aazaa 7y ago

> McDonald's UK boss, Paul Pomroy, said: "Over the last 24 hours, it has become clear that maintaining safe social distancing whilst operating busy takeaway and Drive Thru restaurants is increasingly difficult and therefore we have taken the decision to close every restaurant in the UK and Ireland by 7pm on Monday 23 March. A lot of Americans are relying on this method of food distribution. It seems inevitable that closures of drive-thrus will begin happening in the US as well. Food shortages at grocery stores are not uncommon today in many cities. It only takes one positive test to shut down a food distribution center. I doubt many have considered just how precarious food delivery is at the moment.

nathanaldensr 7y ago
What's amazing to consider is that the United States produces so much food we have to throw much of it away... and yet, there may be no way to purchase it! Insanity.
Zhyl 7y ago
We need innovation and quick thinking. Proper pivoting. One example is UK Restaurant Chain Leon pivoting to retail [1]. Another is restaurants becoming or setting up satellite Ghost Kitchens [2], perhaps moving to cheaper or more evenly spread locations in the mean time. For HN, we now have a whole new set of problems. We are no longer supporting, enabling or competing with existing institutions and structures - we're building systems that will save them and in the process define new ways of getting food to plate and co-ordinating the people and payments involved. We have food. We have people. We have new constraints. Solve for X :o) [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51996773 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51996773 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen
davidwihl 7y ago
I’m deeply worried about the US food supply in 4-6 weeks time, not because of availability but because of a lack of healthy people to process, transport and distribute the food. Given the sorry state of migrant farm workers in the US [0], it won’t take much for infections to spread. [0] http://www.ncfh.org/uploads/3/8/6/8/38685499/fs-migrant_demographics.pdf http://www.ncfh.org/uploads/3/8/6/8/38685499/fs-migrant_demo...

closeparen 7y ago

It’s not Waffle House, so it’s not time to panic yet. https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-closed-its-time-to-panic/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirtyeight.com/features/if...

chrisco255 7y ago
God help us all if the Waffle Houses ever fold.
rootusrootus 7y ago
Pretty sure some Waffle Houses are closed, so panic time may have finally arrived. Apparently FEMA no longer uses the Waffle House Index, in any case.
tomcatfish 7y ago
Here is the link that the amp link points to: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-closed-its-time-to-panic/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-clos...
ThePowerOfFuet 7y ago
Please don't perpetuate the web cancer which is AMP.
- closeparen 7y ago
  I’m not editing the URL with my thumbs. Is there a convenient way to avoid it on mobile? Maybe HN should just automatically rewrite AMP links to avoid these inevitable comments.

Jedd 7y ago

Arguably this could improve people's health prospects on two fronts simultaneously. I note that the CEO here basically stepped up because the UK government hadn't -- it's doubtless not easy, but the best thing about this story is that he's said 'we'll match our casual worker's shift pay up until early April' (when the UK relief package for casual workers is meant to be implemented). I fear a lot of my risk has, and will continue to, come from casual workers who simply can't afford to pay rent or eat if they don't head into work. So far I've heard the UK's the only place so far that's come out with a financial plan to mitigate this risk.

smallgovt 7y ago
The US is currently passing its own stimulus plan that will ship at least $500B to the bottom half of earners. It seems like the ETA for passing the bill is mid-week.
- mywittyname 7y ago
  > to the bottom half of earners. Last I heard it was really for middle-income earners, as there was a phase-in income floor at around $50k/yr and a phase-out at around $75k/yr. Has this changed?
  - smallgovt 7y ago
    The last article I read was this FT article published two days ago: https://www.ft.com/content/1f8e5a3a-6a58-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3 https://www.ft.com/content/1f8e5a3a-6a58-11ea-800d-da70cff6e... The article says the Republicans are proposing $1,200 per individual who earns below a certain income and $500 per child, while the Democrats are proposing $2000 per month to all individuals and $1000 per month to all children. They're apparently stuck on how the corporate bailouts will work.
    - nojvek 7y ago
      Seems like scope creep. Just do the corporate bailouts in a different bill. Ship that $$$ for the working class immediately. And seriously fuck Boeing. They did this to themselves. No bailouts, only loans. $50 billion bailout when they spent billions buying back stocks to enrich their top investors and execs. Should have saved for a rainy month. I’m sure without a bailout they’ll learn a lesson and figure shit out. It’s not the first time. AirBus is hit just as hard. Basically we should ensure people have enough to live by and get through this period. Everything else will take care of itself.

sys_64738 7y ago

This is good, right?

dingaling 7y ago
Not for shift workers in healthcare / transport / retail who were using fast-food outlets when normal shops were closed.