DRIPPING SPRINGS — Some people have a spa day. I do McDonald's breaks, a few moments of quiet in an otherwise overscheduled day. My routine is simple. I park the car, go inside and order a few things off the Dollar Menu. Some days I splurge and get one of the $3 combos. And I always, always finish with a $1 caramel ice cream sundae.

If I can, that is.

Lately I can't. Have no fear — the Dollar Menu is still going strong. But the ice cream machine is broken. It was today. Just as it was broken last week. And a few times before that.

It makes me think that the wheels, finally, are coming off our economy. Honk if you believe, as I do, that everything can't happen at once forever.

That's what it's like here in Hays County, one of the big growth counties in Texas. We moved to Johnson City, in quiet Blanco County, last month. I tell some people we did it to avoid traffic jams in the once-peaceful Dripping Springs countryside more than 20 miles outside Austin. Now we're nearly 40 miles outside Austin.

But I still go into "Drip," the local nickname for Dripping Springs, to get my McDonald's caramel ice cream sundae fix.

Sadly, a broken, unfixed ice cream machine isn't the only evidence of wheels coming off.

McDonald's new electronic ordering kiosks have failed to disguise chronic understaffing. In my most recent visit, at midday, the counter registers were abandoned. At odd moments, a perplexed and very young worker would come out and take an order, then disappear to do what he was really supposed to be doing.

The kiosks, installed last year, haven't replaced the counter cashiers for customers, but the place is staffed as though all orders and payments happen through the Magic of Systems Engineering, not people.

When my order came, the french fries were cold. Cold enough that I sent them back.

I mean, aren't there rules about that?

The long soda and condiments bar wasn't stocked. A smaller assortment of condiments was at the pickup counter, on the verge of empty.

The kids — and that's what they were — showed signs of confusion. They were trying to keep the place going but having a rough time. I couldn't help wonder how many workers the restaurant was short for its midday rush. This is not what you expect from the culinary equivalent of a panzer division overwhelming hamburger hunger on planet Earth.

'America's Best First Job'

The paper place mat on my tray says that McDonald's is "committed to being America's Best First Job." Indeed, it is so committed that it trademarked the phrase. The place mat also says that "McDonald's works for me — so I can work on my education."

But good intentions aren't enough. Nor is offering a starting wage of $10 an hour in a state that holds to the federal minimum wage law of $7.25 an hour.

It's another sign that we're tapped out for workers, even workers who need a good first job and help with their education.

At an unemployment rate of 3.6%, the U.S. job market hasn't been so tight since the hottest years of the Vietnam War more than a half century ago. Back then, it hit 3.4% for a few months in 1968 and 1969. You can't squeeze blood from a stone — or workers from an empty labor pool.

Bigger picture

Another way to look at this is equally troubling. It's the number of hours a new McDonald's worker has to work to pay enough employment taxes to cover the average Social Security retiree's monthly check.

Back in 1990, when the employment tax hit the current 15.3% rate, it took 937 worker hours at the $3.90 minimum wage to put together that much cash. The average monthly retirement benefit was $559.30 at the time. Today it takes 1,232 worker hours at $7.75 to cover the average retiree check of $1,461. But at the actual starting wage of $10 an hour, it takes 955 hours, about the same hours as 1990.

Think of it as a measure of what wages need to be just to keep the economy almost staffed and staggering.

Me, I'm going to worry until the ice cream machine is working.

Scott Burns is the creator of Couch Potato investing and a longtime personal finance columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Visit his site at couchpotatoinvesting.com. Twitter: @scottburnsSAL.