The ridiculous cost of fast food now

[Knobgoblin]

As I mentioned the lines are still long at the fast food joints I see around here. Maybe some buyers have traded down from sit down food to fast food. The regular fast food eaters are still eating there. Once customers quit patronizing the ff joints they may consider lowering prices. Charging what the market will bear is good business.

You just pointing and laughing over a Styrofoam cup of Ramen is the example most of us should follow.

 

[Knobgoblin]

The cost of a burger as some ratio of the average hourly wage may remain the same, and may be similar from market to market, but that is not the same thing as the price of a burger in dollars remaining constant over time. A Whopper did not cost $8.99 last year. That's what we are talking about.

Artificially depressing the price of your flagship sandwich can't last forever.
When the rubber band snaps, it tends to manifest dramatically.

 

[arakboss]

You just pointing and laughing over a Styrofoam cup of Ramen is the example most of us should follow.

Ramen in the Styrofoam cup is priced way too high. Just get the stuff in plastic and use a bowl.

 

[lucusloc]

A lot of "living wage" rhetoric is powered by Socialist ideas. The demand that someone's labor which produces very little value to society at a fast food joint or at a Hot Topic store should by necessity equal trade value for everyone else's labor, products, and technology, is ludicrous.

On of the tings I hate most about minimum wage laws is the idea that every job should be able to "support a family". It kills the idea that dependents like teens should work and be useful to society as well. There are tons of jobs that should be done by low skill entry level people who are not trying to "make a living" but rather are trying to just contribute to a household as a dependent.

When I was young I use to do "shop sweep" jobs for one of my dad's friends. It was literally just that; cleaning his shop by pushing a broom, washing windows and hosing off the sidewalk. I did this for an hour or two after school, and was paid far below the minimum wage at the time (we did it all in cash under the table). It was a good deal for both of us, as I got spending cash for relatively minimal effort and he got to redirect more skilled employees to other tasks like inventory management. He no longer had to pay them their hourly wages to clean for however long that would take.

I don't think people realize that a minimum wage actually depresses the average wage, because you do have to take into account the cost in time all this low value work takes you employees and you have to factor that into their over-all productivity. The more low skill stuff they have to do the less it is worth to pay them above whatever that minimum is. This is how you get jobs that require degrees for minimum wage. You still need them to do some amount of high skill labor to justify whatever preposterous minimum the government sets, and that requires they have the knowledge and ability to do it, but then for 50, 60 or 70% of the rest of the time they are pushing a broom or raking gravel, which obviously does not require all that much skill or ability. But you cannot hire a guy to do 100% low skill work because the value proposition just is not there, bundling all those tasks into one position would not justify the prevailing minimum wage.

So instead of hiring one accountant at well above minimum and one high-school kid at below you higher two accountants at minimum and split their job duties at 50% skilled and 50% unskilled labor. And it just sucks to be those two professionals because they get to waste their skill on menial labor for half the time, with the corresponding paycut to reflect the lost value. And all that lost value is not just a problem for the people working such hybrid jobs, it is lost efficiency in the economy too, which hurts everyone.

We really need to readjust our perception and realize there should be jobs for people who are not trying to make a living, and make the decision to reemploy our teen and young adult workforce back where they can be most useful. It would do a whole lot of good for our culture and civilization as a whole.

 

[Certaindeaf]

As I mentioned the lines are still long at the fast food joints I see around here. Maybe some buyers have traded down from sit down food to fast food. The regular fast food eaters are still eating there. Once customers quit patronizing the ff joints they may consider lowering prices. Charging what the market will bear is good business.

I'm pretty sure it's because the children you see there think credit cards are their birthright and they have zero intention of ever paying their debts.

 

[lucusloc]

The cost of a burger as some ratio of the average hourly wage may remain the same, and may be similar from market to market, but that is not the same thing as the price of a burger in dollars remaining constant over time. A Whopper did not cost $8.99 last year. That's what we are talking about.

Inflation is a bubblegum, but the laws of economics are ironclad. Things cost what they cost, and that stays pretty consistent through history if you just find the right metric to measure by. If it changes by one metric you are not looking at the metric by which their value is judged.

 

[arakboss]

Speaking of cheapskate. Have you checked the vacuum bins at the car wash lately? It's like dusty gold mines in those bins.

View: https://youtu.be/kH0oWL7vMmw?feature=shared

 

[Certaindeaf]

Speaking of cheapskate. Have you checked the vacuum bins at the car wash lately? It's like dusty gold mines in those bins.

View: https://youtu.be/kH0oWL7vMmw?feature=shared

Life expectancy zero.. fentanyl. So nah.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Speaking of cheapskate. Have you checked the vacuum bins at the car wash lately? It's like dusty gold mines in those bins.

View: https://youtu.be/kH0oWL7vMmw?feature=shared

 

[po18guy]

Many people say that fast food is not healthy. But my doctor says that, at my age I need all the preservatives I can get.

 

[nammac]

The cost of a burger as some ratio of the average hourly wage may remain the same, and may be similar from market to market, but that is not the same thing as the price of a burger in dollars remaining constant over time. A Whopper did not cost $8.99 last year. That's what we are talking about.

But do keep in mind that we were talking that the cost of the burger or meal, was more closely tied to the value of unskilled labor. Which today, at the federal level is 7.25/hr

 

[lucusloc]

But do keep in mind that we were talking that the cost of the burger or meal, was more closely tied to the value of u skilled labor. Which today, at the federal level is 7.25/hr

And if you are in California that would be <checks notes>. . . $50. Well, proposed minimum anyway. Can you say "stress testing the economic theory of inflation?"

 

[nammac]

And if you are in California that would be <checks notes>. . . $50. Well, proposed minimum anyway. Can you say "stress testing the economic theory of inflation?"

Understood, but California is the asylum that been run by the patients for decades. And the main reason for the exodus they're experiencing. There's no hope there, except for maybe the San Andreas fault…

 

[Alexx1401]

That's what happens when minimum wages are quickly climbing in excess of $20/hour…

Between that, the wild printing of money to flush down the crapper, and now the locals raising tax on anything they can find. All of it has to be paid for.

 

[nammac]

Between that, the wild printing of money to flush down the crapper, and now the locals raising tax on anything they can find. All of it has to be paid for.

 

[nammac]

Think about this for a moment, California law says minimum wage is $16/hr as of 01/012024. Unless you work in a fast food restaurant, where they must pay you at least $20/hr.

Didn't know it took specialized skill to flip a burger or make fries at a burger joint…



California deserves what California gets, people need to smarten up and stop electing self serving democrats.

 

[lucusloc]

Understood, but California is the asylum that been run by the patients for decades. And the main reason for the exodus they're experiencing. There's no hope there, except for maybe the San Andreas fault…

Well the rest of the state legislature did shoot down the proposal. This means that on some level they know how stupid a high minimum is. Yet they still set a statewide minimum of 16, jumping to 20 for various industries. Ant the end of the day it is still pandering; "we are going to vote you more money if you vote for us!" and then conveniently ignore how the value of that "more money" is completely destroyed by the very policies that awarded it to you in the first place. Some people cannot get past the idea that "bigger numbers are better right?!"

 

[Cavedweller]

Inflation is a bubblegum, but the laws of economics are ironclad. Things cost what they cost, and that stays pretty consistent through history if you just find the right metric to measure by. If it changes by one metric you are not looking at the metric by which their value is judged.

How an economist judges "value" may have little relevance to the consumer. When the price of commodities in the common medium of exchange (dollars in our case) increases faster than one's earning power or income in that same medium, inflation is a very real thing. You can get as obtuse as you want with your discussion of metrics, but it is irrelevant to the average person's pocketbook.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2f-MZ2HRHQ

 

[CamoDeafie]

Well the rest of the state legislature did shoot down the proposal. This means that on some level they know how stupid a high minimum is. Yet they still set a statewide minimum of 16, jumping to 20 for various industries. Ant the end of the day it is still pandering; "we are going to vote you more money if you vote for us!" and then conveniently ignore how the value of that "more money" is completely destroyed by the very policies that awarded it to you in the first place. Some people cannot get past the idea that "bigger numbers are better right?!"

Arent these mostly the same people who swears that a 1/4 pounder is bigger than a 1/3 pounder because "duh, 4 is bigger than 3!"

 

[lucusloc]

How an economist judges "value" may have little relevance to the consumer. When the price of commodities in the common medium of exchange (dollars in our case) increases faster than one's earning power or income in that same medium, inflation is a very real thing. You can get as obtuse as you want with your discussion of metrics, but it is irrelevant to the average person's pocketbook.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2f-MZ2HRHQ

It's not obtuse, it is just simple economics. The government can mandate a bump in your pay, but that will be offset by an increase in the price of goods that will be equal to your bump. Simple as that.

And when the bump is smaller than the price of goods (like we see now as purchasing power decreases)? Well you need look no further than our increased debt load as shared by individuals. National debt is part of the equation and we all "own" more now because of that spending, so while the cost of most things stays the same when compared to non-monetary metrics our personal share of the monetary pie is shrinking, which means it looks like a larger proportion when that is the only metric you see (see above about inflation being a bubblegum).