this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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Burger economy

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Dragonborn3810 2 points 9 hours ago

I like that it implies landlords aren't people

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

The biggest indicator of American decline is actually how many hours of work it takes to earn one ounce of gold. In 1950- 46 hours 1956-35 hours 1968-22 hours Today- it is between 289 and 79 hours factoring in time and a half overtime. Minimum wage in America has lost between 84-93% of its value using this metric.

[–] Gustephan 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Heh, look at this dumb sattire. There's no way it would take simplifying the economy down to a single food item before our superior American intellect realized that our government was actually our enemy. Anyway...

Trump take egg

/s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

The BigMac Index was actually a really good metric. It's sold nearly everywhere in the world, was a low margin product, and depends on a complex global supply chain that's a good stand-in for other supply chains. It was used as a way to cut-through governments reporting innacurate numbers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I have a feeling that the burgers were way less shitty in the 60's, but were they as big? Theres a myth here that every normal US meal is enough food to feed someone for several days, so I wonder if size has been factored in?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

Also a big Mac costs £6.09 in england, minimum wage soon will be £12.21 = 2 big macs per hour of your labour.

I will mention that they have an app which can make it a lot cheaper and gives freebies and so on.

[–] Itdidnttrickledown 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Burgers used to be smaller. A quarter pounder was a big burger.

[–] Meron35 1 points 17 hours ago

explaining purchasing power collapse to an american: ~~imagine~~ experience no burger

FTFY

[–] vane 1 points 19 hours ago

After reading this I am both poor and hungry.

[–] pyre 63 points 2 days ago (6 children)

how does minimum wage only double when products go 16x? jesus the education system really is shit in the US. there would be constant riots in the streets if only people knew arithmetic

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

Look at how much corporate profits have gone up though

[–] Maggoty 7 points 19 hours ago

Inflation is purposely misexplained as something specific to a time period. So people aren't aware that it's a measure of velocity, how fast prices are rising. Our political system also gives the illusion of a reset every four years.

[–] Zulu 46 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I believe the common strawman is "if min wage goes up, prices go up" which..... You know just admits the system is there to abuse. "If you make more money then we'll take more money from you".

[–] pyre 11 points 19 hours ago

the idea is that wages are part of expenses which contribute to prices, which is why you need more regulation about this sort of thing. the best part is that when the min wage doesn't go up, the prices still go up.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There's a LOT of people that don't understand inflation at all. They think something along the lines of, "I worked myself through college making $5/hr and it was hard and I didn't get to buy all the things I wanted but it was fine. These lazy entitled people want several times that much for the same work?!"

So it's not just basic math but basic economics and a basic understanding of reality that are sorely lacking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

There’s a LOT of people that don’t understand inflation at all.

Why don't we just tariff inflation so China has to pay it? This seems bigly smart.

[–] jacksilver 10 points 2 days ago

Because minimum wage is defined by laws and has been purposefully kept below inflation. It hasn't substantially increased (or maybe not at all) in my lifetime.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

They obfuscate the data from people and they don't try to find it. Obviously they know that 16 is bigger than 2..

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

BMs per hour

"I just can't stop pooping!"

[–] 1995ToyotaCorolla 3 points 1 day ago

A big mac is sure to give you multiple BM's per hour

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (2 children)

In Germany the minimum wage is 12.82€/hour. The price for a Big Mac is 4.19€

BM/Hour: 3,07

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

In Germany, they call a Big Mac a Doppelrindfleischkäsebrötchen mit Spezialsoße

[–] accideath 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Where do you get a 4,19€ Big Mac? From what I can tell, a Big Mac here is currently 6,29€, which would place the BM/hour score at 2.04.

If you exclude sales tax (which is usually included in Germany but excluded in the US) for a fairer comparison, the Big Mac would be 5,29€ and the BM/hour score 2.42.

But also, a single Big Mac in the US seems to cost around $5.99. The $8 is for a Menu (which would put the BM/h score at 1.24 instead of 0.91).

A BM Menu in Germany is currently 11,49€ (or 9,66€ without sales tax), which would put our BM/h score at 1.11 (or 1.33 respectively).

So, the chart oop posted might be a bit misleading, since I doubt the $0.50 in 1980 was a Big Mac menu but rather a single Big Mac (although I‘m to lazy to look that up now). And also, we’re not that substantially better off in here Germany rn and a single Big Mac seems to be a comparatively better value than a menu, when compared to the US.

I’d also find comparison numbers from Germany in 1980 quite interesting but I’m also too lazy to look that up. Maybe someone else is bored enough…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

I actually dont have a clue about McDonalds prices since i never eat there.

Ive just googled the big mac prices, may i got a wrong result.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The last time this showed up people pointed out that big Mac’s cost more like $1.50 in 1980. Still multiple BMs per hour but not as drastic.

[–] YarHarSuperstar 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

multiple BMs per hour

This sounds drastic no matter what the number is.

I'm sorry, I had to.

[–] toynbee 6 points 2 days ago

Plausible with that many big macs, though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

I wasn't alive then but 50 cents seemed low for a big mac, even for the '80s

[–] shalafi 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And a Big Mac isn't $8 around here and no one is paid federal min wage. It's $13 in Florida and $15 IRL. Using the app to save, it's probably 2.5 burgers.

[–] danc4498 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Big Mac is 5.19 in the app for me.

And I don’t know if this is a good indicator of actual minimum wage, but fast food salary on average is way more than $13 an hour. Funny that Florida is right at the bottom of that list. You’d be better off in West Virginia (brand new sentence).

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-FAST-FOOD-Worker-Salary-by-State

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Unexpected, that's much higher than I expected for Tennessee. The manager positions at the fast food places here are on 17, yet the average fast food worker is over 17 for the state according to that

[–] danc4498 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I’m sure it varies where you live and what the restaurant is. I live near Nashville and saw some fast food places paying $19 an hour starting.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice 1 points 19 hours ago

Yeah I'm an hour south in Columbia. 50 miles each way to find a decent job

[–] PugJesus 45 points 2 days ago

NO BURGER????

For real though, can't even buy a 20 piece nugget anymore on an hour's work, shit's fucked

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

I still think it is wild that we don't include house prices in inflation, cause it was removed to use rent to match the "average American experience" which just means they no longer expect average people to ever buy a house.

So no houses and no burgers.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

And it's been used enough that Argentina artificially set the price of Big Macs for a few years to hide their rampant inflation.

[–] SpaceNoodle 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

BMs per hour means something else in this house

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Oh no, here's where you are wrong. See, it's a decline for the proletariat only. The bourgeoisie is doing just great.

[–] danc4498 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A Big Mac is $5.19 in my McDonald’s app. Where is this $8 Big Mac?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Probably California but the minimum wage here for a McDonald's employee is $20 per hour. That's still more than 2 big Mac's per hour

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

These big mac prices aren't accurate

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Brazilian minimum wage: 1,528BRL per month, or roughly 6.30 reais per hour.

Big Mac price: 24 reais, or 4 hours of minimum wage work.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Meanwhile in Denmark.

Minimum wage for McDonalds employees: 20$+supplements. Big Mac $7

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[–] solomon42069 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Now imagine servers on tips...

IMO some of them are just going to work for the shift meal and pinch whatever they can from the place - leftover food, toilet paper, utentils, etc.

All you can do when you're basically a slave..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago
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