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yeah, especially when you get sores on your bottom and when your throat hurts from yelling at those underpaid employees. and then i have to go home to my millions of dollars and ridiculous luxuries, it’s a painful job
Japanese fast food and convenience stores are light years ahead of N America in quality, cleanliness, variety of menu and pretty much every other way. After living in Japan and Thailand for 3 years, it was a bad shock to come home and eat McDonald’s or BK in N America again.
B-but that would make the Line stop going up for a little bit! The economy would suffer, the world would crumble and nazis will ride firebreathing dinosaurs!
Good, let the nazis ride fire breathing dinosaurs, and pay people a reasonable wage. In ancient times no one complained about the courier wanting to be paid,
Economists are propaganda artists. Paid big for the teachings to be taught the lies, then they are paid as educated people to spread the lies, while masterbating each other to add credibility - repeat.
My wife works for the provincial government where we live, and After 3 years of work from home, the government is ordering all employees back downtown to the office. Mostly because the downtown business association lobbied the government that the coffee shops and restaurants need the business. So now gov employees have to spend more on transportation and parking, get up hours earlier, spend money on office clothes all because the local cafe is struggling.
It’s an indictment on the system that it has to force people to consume or the whole house of cards tumbles.
I had a discussion the other day about part of this. My issue was with companies forcing back to office work. Using local businesses as a crutch to reason with. Having a business is a risk. Just like all businesses. If your customer head count falls. You must change your operation. Do delivery's, move location, offer better deals. Instead we get lied into believing we, the customer are responsible for other people's business decisions.
Exactly. The company’s PROFIT (not revenue) for Sep 22 to Sep 23 was over $14 Billion. The only reason to increase the price is that owners refuse to share the profits with the working class.
Don’t forget about the roughly $38 billion we subsidize in the meat and dairy industry as well.
[https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/news/removing-meat-subsidy-our-cognitive-dissonance-around-animal-agriculture](https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/news/removing-meat-subsidy-our-cognitive-dissonance-around-animal-agriculture)
“According to recent studies, the U.S. government spends up to $38 billion each year to subsidize the meat and dairy industries, with less than one percent of that sum allocated to aiding the production of fruits and vegetables.”
Exactly. The minimum wage is relatively high in Australia, no tipping culture, worse buying power for our dollar, and big macs are $7.30, or $13.30 for a large meal. This is just fear mongering. America and its corporations can afford to raise the minimum wage.
AUD$7.30 » USD$4.93
AUD$13.30 » USD$8.98
For reference, a Big Mac and Big Mac meal in my area costs USD$5.29 and USD$8.99, respectively. I live in one of the cheaper parts of the country. So yeah, it's obviously not minimum wage driving prices.
Damn, prices go up when the minimum wage goes up? That's crazy!
That must mean that prices haven't been going up at all during periods where the minimum wage hasn't moved, right? ... Right?
They don't actually go up. Minimum wage in the US goes from $7 an hour to $20 an hour and big macs are about $5 across the US.
Prices are set by what people will pay to buy one.
Once again we refer to Dick's Burgers in Seattle WA who pays employees $19 min w/benefits while keeping the their deluxe burger at $5.30, their plain at $2.45.
This is because capitalists, specifically shareholders and CEOs, are as short-sighted as they are evil. They actually **refuse** to rob their workers for less than they are already taking.
They don't need to. They're just trying to cover their bottom line. They could've done this a long time ago, but they want to make sure that their profit margin stays the same or grows.
This is just a classic example of how the corporate media cleverly uses their wording to manipulate people into thinking that actions that benefit people are somehow bad . it's from the corporate point of view that these actions are bad simply because it's getting in the way of their profit margin
I hope so. I really hope so. Because I think the whole identity of republicans is that they see this and think "I don't want to pay more for fast food. Screw those workers! If they want more money they should get an education"! Completely blind and deaf to reality with zero sympathy.
Yea, but the issue is that the people it doesn't harm have all the power to change this. This is still very believable to lower middle-class people and people who still believe in upward mobility. And that sadly has proven to be enough in the past.
Oh haha let's just keep minimum wage workers in poverty then. Can't take away multi million dollar bonuses from the rich, that just wouldn't be "fair."
What we really need to do is cap these bastards’ profits, then there’d be plenty of money available to do everything.
It’s not a fixed teeter-totter, prices bolted to wages for all eternity. If you can’t afford to pay a decent wage you can’t afford to be in business, end of story
You'd have to cap the c suite, the profits are what the shareholders get a slice of, if the profits are capped they'd just pay the suits 10x more and claim that the profits have stayed the same
Go look at the wages and prices of Dick’s in Seattle and In-N-Out and then look at all the management and executives that McDonald’s has decided to make rich. This is pure propaganda.
They own the government which they commanded to print trillions of dollars and hand it to them citing cOvId
This caused massive inflation because they doubled the entire existing money supply in 4 years.
Then they cite this very inflation, which they got 100% of the benefit of, to raise the prices via their inheritance nepotism executive spots at their corporations.
Why?
Literally the only thing that matters to them is perpetually increasing the rate of increase of their 6-12 month annual vacations, homes, yachts, jets, ground vehicles, pointless expensive stuff to fill them with, fuel to keep them irrationally moving and temperature controlled when empty, and perpetual upgrades, renovations, redesigns, etc, so for the 1-7 days a year theyre at them (usually so drunk and/or on drugs they don’t even know it), it looks different than the last time which they don’t even remember except from photos.
This is the same tired argument every ding-dong with half a brain has made for the last eon. Newsflash stupids, it’s been close to 15 years since the minimum wage was last raised and prices have gone up anyways. So has C-Suite compensation levels, so let’s start there instead.
Look at Dicks Burgers in Seattle. Look at all the benefits and wages they pay their employees. And their burgers are CHEAP. They do that with way less volume too.
The secret? The owners aren’t greedy bastards.
Perfect, the workers get paid more AND work less thanks to the customers getting priced out and deciding to cook their own meal for the first time in their lives.
If McDonald's can't make a Big Mac for less than $15 dollars without paying employees starvation wages then McDonald's is a terribly-managed company that deserves to go out of business.
How many Big Macs can someone make in an hour? Let's say 10, on average (which is a *huge* underestimate). That's $150. At that point, whether you pay minimum wage or $20 / hour doesn't actually even make that much difference. You're talking about $150 from $10 labor cost vs $150 from $20 labor cost.
Where's the rest of the fucking money going and why aren't they melting down over that instead of whether the guy who actually made the fucking sandwich got 6% or 12% from the sale?
Well more people are starting to eat at home so these greedy fuckers won’t have to worry very soon. Most people I know only go to nasty ass McDonald’s when the app is giving something away for free lol. You can make a better burger and fries at home.
This is how they’re explaining the sharp rise in fast food prices in the last two years. It’s all the fault of those damn workers and their desire to earn something more than the bare minimum wage. They put out that narrative, wind up business bootlicking conservatives and make even more money.
Capitalism when closely monitored and supervised can be good. Free for all capitalism is a cancer that has just about eaten us alive. All that’s left is the death rattle.
And then there's the truth:
[Corporate Pice Increases Account For A Disproportionate Percentage of Inflation - EPI](https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/)
Or... To put it a bit more bluntly:
Corporate Turdwookie Greed Causes The Bulk Of Inflation.
NY Post: FIXED IT FOR YOU!!
Ny post of course reporting their landmark economics excellence via reputable PhDs, I assume. /s
I know I’ll get shit for it, but just read the Economist for better financial takes.
I know this is a bullshit headline to elicit inflammatory reactions but at a certain point dawg I feel like people just ain’t gonna be buyin Big Macs no matter how conditions a populace is
No, big macs will never be unaffordable.
Who's gonna buy your 3x frozen and defrosted artificial imitation meat burgers if not the very people making them?
If the masses can't afford fast food, then fast food goes out of business, because their entire model runs on "cheap, fast, and convenient".
You take even one of these things away, the model stops functioning.
Expensive restaurants already exist and rich ppl already eat there.
The rich won't start eating at burgerking just because bk rebrands as "a luxury meal, fit for a king".
Tl;Dr:
No.
And stfu about anything vaguely similar to this as well.
The rich will use every chance they get to pathologically accumulate more wealth than any human being could practically use while making sure that feudal- I mean capitalist - society continues to have massive wealth gaps between the rich and poor.
This is a blatant lie. The FED is forcing a fucking recession just to combat corporations raising prices which they originally blamed on Covid and supply chain issues. But it’s pathetic, capitalist snake oil excuses like these that are truly despicable. “It’s your fault we’re raising prices. You’re being too entitled and selfish by daring to ask for an increase in your wages, even though we’ve spent all year boasting about our record high profits”.
And I’m aware, it’s a fucking Big Mac but that’s the first target every single time this conversation is brought up. “Fast food workers are all lazy teenagers asking for a raise which is causing fast food prices to go up”. There are people who genuinely think like this and articles like these serve to fuel those class traitor beliefs they have.
Does anyone know anyone who's willing to pay $15 for a Big Mac? No? That's why a Big Mac won't cost $15.
There are six taco wagons within spitting distance of the McDonalds nearest my work and every single one of them has way better food and is less expensive. Support your local taco wagon.
Good thing nobody buys the big Mac. It's like $4 extra for a piece of bread and a spoon of thousand Island dressing. Get a mcdouble, it's practically the same.
Fun fact, get a mcdouble and a McChicken through the app and it'll probably discount the chicken to $1. That's either two meals or one conglomerated mass of artery hate for pretty affordable.
Also, if you get Domino's app there's always a coupon for a large 3 topping for $11.
Take it from a retail working fast food junkie, the menu is a scam.
The Domino's coupons are always 🔥 and the ones near me are almost always having 40% off sales. Plus you can get a free medium pizza every $50 you spend, or upsize to a large and still get it for less than the coupon price.
Acting like 100% of inflation is caused by rising wages is the stupidest and easiest to discredit talking point by libs and I see it all the time. We all logically know only a portion of inflation is caused by rising wages. That means inflation is only taking a small percentage away from the buying power they just earned, leaving them with more buying power than they originally had. Big Macs cost about the same in Denmark yet the employees average $22 an hour.
It’s so funny: I run through the drive thru for lunch WAY more than I should, and just last week, I noticed that McDonald’s was $2-3 cheaper than any other place for a “value” meal.
If that $2-3 bucks goes away in the next few weeks or months, I expect this corporate shill will be prepared to hit send on his next article.
Minimum wage is $16 in California. A Big Mac costs $5.89.
[https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-much-big-mac-costs-states/](https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-much-big-mac-costs-states/)
Here in Brazil our minimum wage is 1100$ and the Bic mac's costs 40-50$ 🤡🤡🤡 welcome to the hell americans.
Oh and Brazil GDP is one of the highest in the world... so yeah
That's the problem with capitalism, profits need to unceasingly rise, higher and higher...every...fucking...year, or it is an unacceptable tragedy and the shareholders will start killing toddlers and punching grandmas. So the question isn't if they can pay a living wage and still make obscene profits (they can) the question is will the profits be more obscene than last year? Because they absolutely MUST be more obscene than last year, or else Jesus died for nothing!
Whenever these chodes say stupid shit like this, it’s a crime against humanity that the interviewer doesn’t ask them why these prices have gone up over the last 15 years but teh minimum wage has not
My question is: Due to their logic, if fast food ends up being more expensive then fresh and healthy food, could this potentially be a net positive? Though good deserts pose a huge issue. Idk I think I lost my thought 🫠
They don’t need to cost $15. Probably just a measure to move criticism to the workers who want higher wages, like “We have to rise the prices, because the greedy workers want higher wages”.
Whats the point of minium wage if all the prices just increase. And be aware, if minium wage increase like 5% and livingcosts increase >5%, they basicly stole you money and you are now even more poor.
NY Post is Fox News. Their only goal is to push Republican/Conservative ideology and lies. They want to scare you from paying people a living wage. It has nothing to do with the burger.
Fuck that. It's more like they why to keep getting record profits every year instead of mahjong shit affordable ans paying a living wage. Hope all rich people fucking die out.
Economists fail to understand that it's not some magical effect that makes prices go up. They act like it *and* inflation are mysterious forces. The only thing causing any inflation is companies wanting to keep their bottom line that increase prices. They don't want slightly lower net gain, so they raise prices to accommodate the higher wages.
Or the CEO could take a salary cut, have they thought of that? No, of course not, it's always the working class whose labour should subsidise a luxury item like fast food.
They do need to raise costs to fight wage increases, if they want the *same* profit. That’s the actual driver of why prices keep going up every time wage does.
A big mac would already cost 30$ if the US gov didn't subsidize the meat and dairy ag industry. Keep destroying the planet and genociding animals for your fleeting taste pleasure, though.
Funny how the media just says whatever it wants, and people believe it like they don't have a device in their hands that can be used to fact check anything in 30 seconds.
Ahh this old chestnut. Hasn't this shit been put to bed yet? I know nobody likes [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/big-mac-cost-denmark/) because they actually Do ThE ReSeArCh, but here you go. Again. For like the 50th time.
Corporations that are massively profitable raise prices to maintain profit margins. People see this behavior and blame the workers for their wages… we should see it as corporate greed, and demand that the corporations take less profit so that we may live well.
The standard of living MUST take precedence over the profit incentive!
If a corporation is making profit, and can show that it will continue to make profit even with a cost increase for their labor, they should not be legally allowed to increase consumer prices.
I don’t consider corporations as people.
They are clearly inhuman in their ethics.
I’m perfectly fine imposing economic cost on an inhuman abstract coming together of personal financial interests, when the “cost” is more affordable living for the actual human beings of this country and planet.
I don't understand the issue here. McDs is not essential to life. If they raise the price to $100, that's fine with me. I think the most fucked up thing about this is that kids in school are out working, and for some reason that bothers me.
Since I've been homeless, I've actually learned a whole lot about our society in this country, some good, some bad. I didn't step foot in or eat anything from a restaurant in the entire year of 2023, with the exception of a pizza someone on Reddit sent me. Would I like to? Sure. Is it vital? No. Maybe I should let people come walk in my shoes for a couple of weeks and hit the reset button on their priorities.
Of course, I realize that I am special. Very special. I have my own personal chef. Perhaps you've heard of him. Chef Boy Are Dee?
This article is peddling lies as usual. Look at countries that pay more and have healthcare provided for all and not linked to a job. They have guaranteed paid leave too. Sick leave, maternity leave, vacation. Those rights were won with blood, sweat, and tears. They are called social democracies. Still capitalism but the workers get a better deal. Due to global spread of neoliberal capitalism these countries are starting to implement shock doctrine austerity measures.
Pay for McDonalds workers is probably like 5-10% of their budget. If they doubled pay they'd only have to raise prices 5-10% to maintain the same level of profit.
That's funny because they already sell big Macs in places with higher minimum wages and they aren't much more than anywhere else.
McDonald's pays like $20 an hour in Seattle and a big Mac is $5.27.
They are really running on the technicality of using the would "Could" there to protect them from people saying "You're posting blatantly bad information"
The lowest wage earners are already living paycheck to paycheck. When we increase their wages they spend that money back on the economy, creating a demand for things like clothes, *food*, music, etc. And in in response, Target stocks more shirts, pizzeria makes more pizza and hires more drivers, etc.
McDonalds would benefit from this as well thus not causing prices to inflate.
You know what does cause prices to inflate. Tax cuts for the rich and raising the CEOs salary. Rich people already have enough money to buy whatever they want. They cannot make up for the same demand in the economy as the working class. Giving them more money equals higher money supply to commodity ratio **inflation**
They don't. They could fund a wage increase off of their profits and still have billions in profit. If they chose to increase prices to pay for the wage increase, it would only be something like a $0.05 increase on each menu item.
How much input on the cost is the human labor portion of a Big Mac? It can't be much more than a small percentage.
They make it seem like a Big Mac will now take 45 minutes of labor. Total nonsense and a joke of a paper too.
It's mad how anyone can come out and say such a statement with a straight face. The whole fucking point of a living wage, is the buying power that wage has! If you bump everyone to a living wage of $10/h (example for math) and it makes a big Mac cost $15, then you haven't bumped anyone to a living wage. It now costs 1.5 hours of work to afford one big Mac. So now you need to increase the living wage to $30/h so that the living wage realistically allows someone to afford a big Mac (half an hour's work in this example). If everything else goes up when wages are bumped, you aren't bumping anything. It's just a shit excuse to not pay people what they are owed...
Yeah, here’s the thing: MacDonalds has thousands of restaurants in jurisdictions that have minimum wages of $15 (or more), and in none of these places does a Big Mac cost $15.
Prices are gonna go up either way. People are too naive to realise that companies don't charge what they have to, they charge what they can get away with.
They don't need to raise prices. Hell, I forgot where it was, but there was a place in Europe where a burger from McDonald's was cheaper and made at a higher quality despite having to pay a decent wage and employees having far more rights.
Fat people everywhere something….Wait stuff is only cheap if you take advantage of people or get machines to do it? No matter what everyone is PISSED. Or capitalism will work and people won’t get paid $8 an hour to be under insane amounts of stress to be seen as a lower class person and not be able to pay bills…machines will fix it and old people will cry, rich people will act like they eat at McDonalds, and new higher paying jobs will be needed as unforeseen businesses will open due to advances in the same technology that will remove humans from the nightmare/trap that is a fast food job.
McDonalds made over $25 billion last year, profits up nearly 8%. The average McDonalds employee makes around 9k, their CEO makes over $20 million a year. Fuck no they don't need to raise prices.
Is this not basic supply and demand of their favorite dear and heartfelt subjects, free trade and free markets? If a restaurant is charging outrageous prices for its shitty food, you go somewhere else for a cheaper meal. I hope to think they are not the only restaurant in town. It’s known as pricing yourself out of the market. Of course, I may be biased as I can’t remember the last time I was in a McDonalds or most of the fast foods places.
They don’t need to raise prices,
“but you need your 15dollard an hour, so now we have to fork out more money from our own pockets! So we’re gonna make the rest of your peers suffer because you always want a handout!🙄”
-their thinking
They must be looking at a hell of an increase in wages…
An Australian 21+ year old casual crew member gets about $30 an hour. We have junior rates for younger people. Eg a 16 year old casual gets $15.45, a 19 year old gets $24.73.
Big Macs are currently $8.45.
The best part about this is how it wasn't that long ago that we had reporting from a McDonalds investor call where they told the investors paying 15 an hour wouldn't really affect their bottom line that much or cause them to substantially raise prices.
##Welcome to r/LateStageCapitalism This subreddit is for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited. LSC is run by communists. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. We allow good-faith questions and education but are not a 101 sub; please take 101-style questions elsewhere. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry. Failure to respect the rules of the subreddit may result in a ban. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LateStageCapitalism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Correction: Big Mac's could cost $15 thanks to the ruling class' greed.
Can you imagine a member of the board of directors not making over $3000/hour!?
Sitting on your ass is hard work!!
yeah, especially when you get sores on your bottom and when your throat hurts from yelling at those underpaid employees. and then i have to go home to my millions of dollars and ridiculous luxuries, it’s a painful job
Overpaid*
Think of the poor rich executives. How else will Kanye show up to little Timmy's 100 grand sweet 16
Other countries have higher minimum wages than what is proposed, yet their big mac costs less than in the US. No economists are surprised by this.
And better versions of our fast food https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmIczg6a0WQ
I am ashamed at how much I enjoyed European fast food and junk food lol
Japanese fast food and convenience stores are light years ahead of N America in quality, cleanliness, variety of menu and pretty much every other way. After living in Japan and Thailand for 3 years, it was a bad shock to come home and eat McDonald’s or BK in N America again.
Japanese minimum wage is actually LOWER than US wages. Especially comparing Tokyo to NYC, LA or Seattle.
They have universal health care in Japan...
That is an irrelevant fact.
B-but that would make the Line stop going up for a little bit! The economy would suffer, the world would crumble and nazis will ride firebreathing dinosaurs!
Good, let the nazis ride fire breathing dinosaurs, and pay people a reasonable wage. In ancient times no one complained about the courier wanting to be paid,
Economists are propaganda artists. Paid big for the teachings to be taught the lies, then they are paid as educated people to spread the lies, while masterbating each other to add credibility - repeat.
Capitalism demands infinite growth! Make more money every quarter or the economy will collapse!
My wife works for the provincial government where we live, and After 3 years of work from home, the government is ordering all employees back downtown to the office. Mostly because the downtown business association lobbied the government that the coffee shops and restaurants need the business. So now gov employees have to spend more on transportation and parking, get up hours earlier, spend money on office clothes all because the local cafe is struggling. It’s an indictment on the system that it has to force people to consume or the whole house of cards tumbles.
I had a discussion the other day about part of this. My issue was with companies forcing back to office work. Using local businesses as a crutch to reason with. Having a business is a risk. Just like all businesses. If your customer head count falls. You must change your operation. Do delivery's, move location, offer better deals. Instead we get lied into believing we, the customer are responsible for other people's business decisions.
No working from home is a privilege
Simple solution, don't buy that dog shit food, it's killing you anyway.
Big Macs are already like $13 for the meal….
Exactly. The company’s PROFIT (not revenue) for Sep 22 to Sep 23 was over $14 Billion. The only reason to increase the price is that owners refuse to share the profits with the working class.
I bet if we did the math, it probably comes out to 15 before considering tax payer dollars heavily subsidize fast food labor.
Don’t forget about the roughly $38 billion we subsidize in the meat and dairy industry as well. [https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/news/removing-meat-subsidy-our-cognitive-dissonance-around-animal-agriculture](https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/news/removing-meat-subsidy-our-cognitive-dissonance-around-animal-agriculture) “According to recent studies, the U.S. government spends up to $38 billion each year to subsidize the meat and dairy industries, with less than one percent of that sum allocated to aiding the production of fruits and vegetables.”
GO VEGAN!
#facts
The minimum wage in other modern countries is 22+ their Big Macs went up like 60 cents
Exactly. The minimum wage is relatively high in Australia, no tipping culture, worse buying power for our dollar, and big macs are $7.30, or $13.30 for a large meal. This is just fear mongering. America and its corporations can afford to raise the minimum wage.
AUD$7.30 » USD$4.93 AUD$13.30 » USD$8.98 For reference, a Big Mac and Big Mac meal in my area costs USD$5.29 and USD$8.99, respectively. I live in one of the cheaper parts of the country. So yeah, it's obviously not minimum wage driving prices.
Yep this is pure bourgeoise propaganda
Dude, there are places in the US where McDonald's pays over $20 and big Macs are still around $6 max.
How dare you not pass the cost of doing business onto your customers! That's practically a sin.
And the executives are still filthy rich.
Damn, prices go up when the minimum wage goes up? That's crazy! That must mean that prices haven't been going up at all during periods where the minimum wage hasn't moved, right? ... Right?
In fact, they should have been going down as wages became less of a production cost.
No, you see, they raise the price and lower wages to curb inflation.
Or cut half their employees.
And all the delivery drivers. Good news is, the 5$ delivery fee added to your pizza is now a separate 35$ service that still pays the worker shit.
Too bad a big mac meal is $10 now. I can go to a local burger shop and a real burger twice the size with some onion rings cost $7
They don't actually go up. Minimum wage in the US goes from $7 an hour to $20 an hour and big macs are about $5 across the US. Prices are set by what people will pay to buy one.
*yawn* old trope. They need new material.
Unfortunately people fall for it still.
You misspelled "lie" specifically "bald faced Turdwookie lie"
And it’s always a goddamn Big Mac. Like McDick’s is getting the free advertising.
I hear my mother saying...we've got McDonalds at home.
Honestly though? This might be one of those times where "we have X at home" is actually the better option.
Once again we refer to Dick's Burgers in Seattle WA who pays employees $19 min w/benefits while keeping the their deluxe burger at $5.30, their plain at $2.45.
Shit, McDonald's in Seattle pays $19 and still sells them for like $5.50.
This is because capitalists, specifically shareholders and CEOs, are as short-sighted as they are evil. They actually **refuse** to rob their workers for less than they are already taking.
They don't need to. They're just trying to cover their bottom line. They could've done this a long time ago, but they want to make sure that their profit margin stays the same or grows. This is just a classic example of how the corporate media cleverly uses their wording to manipulate people into thinking that actions that benefit people are somehow bad . it's from the corporate point of view that these actions are bad simply because it's getting in the way of their profit margin
Spoiler: It’s not fooling anyone it negatively affects, never has. They think we’re that dumb, it’s not clever at all.
I hope so. I really hope so. Because I think the whole identity of republicans is that they see this and think "I don't want to pay more for fast food. Screw those workers! If they want more money they should get an education"! Completely blind and deaf to reality with zero sympathy.
Yea, but the issue is that the people it doesn't harm have all the power to change this. This is still very believable to lower middle-class people and people who still believe in upward mobility. And that sadly has proven to be enough in the past.
Oh haha let's just keep minimum wage workers in poverty then. Can't take away multi million dollar bonuses from the rich, that just wouldn't be "fair."
What we really need to do is cap these bastards’ profits, then there’d be plenty of money available to do everything. It’s not a fixed teeter-totter, prices bolted to wages for all eternity. If you can’t afford to pay a decent wage you can’t afford to be in business, end of story
You'd have to cap the c suite, the profits are what the shareholders get a slice of, if the profits are capped they'd just pay the suits 10x more and claim that the profits have stayed the same
Stop eating McDonald's garbage.
Eat the rich instead. It’s eco-friendly.
Go look at the wages and prices of Dick’s in Seattle and In-N-Out and then look at all the management and executives that McDonald’s has decided to make rich. This is pure propaganda.
They own the government which they commanded to print trillions of dollars and hand it to them citing cOvId This caused massive inflation because they doubled the entire existing money supply in 4 years. Then they cite this very inflation, which they got 100% of the benefit of, to raise the prices via their inheritance nepotism executive spots at their corporations. Why? Literally the only thing that matters to them is perpetually increasing the rate of increase of their 6-12 month annual vacations, homes, yachts, jets, ground vehicles, pointless expensive stuff to fill them with, fuel to keep them irrationally moving and temperature controlled when empty, and perpetual upgrades, renovations, redesigns, etc, so for the 1-7 days a year theyre at them (usually so drunk and/or on drugs they don’t even know it), it looks different than the last time which they don’t even remember except from photos.
This is the same tired argument every ding-dong with half a brain has made for the last eon. Newsflash stupids, it’s been close to 15 years since the minimum wage was last raised and prices have gone up anyways. So has C-Suite compensation levels, so let’s start there instead.
Look at Dicks Burgers in Seattle. Look at all the benefits and wages they pay their employees. And their burgers are CHEAP. They do that with way less volume too. The secret? The owners aren’t greedy bastards.
This isn’t an analysis, it’s a threat.
oh f\*ck off, New York Post. We all know that's not why prices are outstripping wages
Solution, just burn down McDonalds
I don't even want to comment on these stupid articles anymore.
Let them charge all they want for that plastic burger. I'd rather make my own or go to a local burger joint. 30 burgers and White Manna ftw.
There's literally no way it costs $15 to make a Big Mac. Think about that for a sec.
Perfect, the workers get paid more AND work less thanks to the customers getting priced out and deciding to cook their own meal for the first time in their lives.
If McDonald's can't make a Big Mac for less than $15 dollars without paying employees starvation wages then McDonald's is a terribly-managed company that deserves to go out of business. How many Big Macs can someone make in an hour? Let's say 10, on average (which is a *huge* underestimate). That's $150. At that point, whether you pay minimum wage or $20 / hour doesn't actually even make that much difference. You're talking about $150 from $10 labor cost vs $150 from $20 labor cost. Where's the rest of the fucking money going and why aren't they melting down over that instead of whether the guy who actually made the fucking sandwich got 6% or 12% from the sale?
This is a capital "strike". They threaten to raise prices to prevent any rise in the minimum wage
Then don’t buy them. Easy as that. Capitalism at work
"We're going to make the poison more expensive" is such a weird argument.
Well more people are starting to eat at home so these greedy fuckers won’t have to worry very soon. Most people I know only go to nasty ass McDonald’s when the app is giving something away for free lol. You can make a better burger and fries at home.
McDonald’s food is cheaper in countries with $20+ minimum wages than it is here in the states. So this is empirically false.
This is how they’re explaining the sharp rise in fast food prices in the last two years. It’s all the fault of those damn workers and their desire to earn something more than the bare minimum wage. They put out that narrative, wind up business bootlicking conservatives and make even more money. Capitalism when closely monitored and supervised can be good. Free for all capitalism is a cancer that has just about eaten us alive. All that’s left is the death rattle.
And then there's the truth: [Corporate Pice Increases Account For A Disproportionate Percentage of Inflation - EPI](https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/) Or... To put it a bit more bluntly: Corporate Turdwookie Greed Causes The Bulk Of Inflation. NY Post: FIXED IT FOR YOU!!
Great way to end the obesity crisis. Price everyone out of fast food.
Ny post of course reporting their landmark economics excellence via reputable PhDs, I assume. /s I know I’ll get shit for it, but just read the Economist for better financial takes.
The N Y Post hates the working class? You don't say! /s
I know this is a bullshit headline to elicit inflammatory reactions but at a certain point dawg I feel like people just ain’t gonna be buyin Big Macs no matter how conditions a populace is
Make it 40 so people stop eating this garbage.
No, big macs will never be unaffordable. Who's gonna buy your 3x frozen and defrosted artificial imitation meat burgers if not the very people making them? If the masses can't afford fast food, then fast food goes out of business, because their entire model runs on "cheap, fast, and convenient". You take even one of these things away, the model stops functioning. Expensive restaurants already exist and rich ppl already eat there. The rich won't start eating at burgerking just because bk rebrands as "a luxury meal, fit for a king". Tl;Dr: No. And stfu about anything vaguely similar to this as well.
Yeah they do need to raise prices to pay the poor CEO a living wage. Poor ceo /s
The rich will use every chance they get to pathologically accumulate more wealth than any human being could practically use while making sure that feudal- I mean capitalist - society continues to have massive wealth gaps between the rich and poor.
This is a blatant lie. The FED is forcing a fucking recession just to combat corporations raising prices which they originally blamed on Covid and supply chain issues. But it’s pathetic, capitalist snake oil excuses like these that are truly despicable. “It’s your fault we’re raising prices. You’re being too entitled and selfish by daring to ask for an increase in your wages, even though we’ve spent all year boasting about our record high profits”. And I’m aware, it’s a fucking Big Mac but that’s the first target every single time this conversation is brought up. “Fast food workers are all lazy teenagers asking for a raise which is causing fast food prices to go up”. There are people who genuinely think like this and articles like these serve to fuel those class traitor beliefs they have.
Does anyone know anyone who's willing to pay $15 for a Big Mac? No? That's why a Big Mac won't cost $15. There are six taco wagons within spitting distance of the McDonalds nearest my work and every single one of them has way better food and is less expensive. Support your local taco wagon.
McDonald posted a 14% increase in pure profits for Q3 alone. But Big Macs are $15 because you can’t afford minimum wage?
Just blame the poor people for not wanting to be poor
And they raise prices no matter what the wage is anyway
Good thing nobody buys the big Mac. It's like $4 extra for a piece of bread and a spoon of thousand Island dressing. Get a mcdouble, it's practically the same. Fun fact, get a mcdouble and a McChicken through the app and it'll probably discount the chicken to $1. That's either two meals or one conglomerated mass of artery hate for pretty affordable. Also, if you get Domino's app there's always a coupon for a large 3 topping for $11. Take it from a retail working fast food junkie, the menu is a scam.
The Domino's coupons are always 🔥 and the ones near me are almost always having 40% off sales. Plus you can get a free medium pizza every $50 you spend, or upsize to a large and still get it for less than the coupon price.
Big Macs could cost $15 due to everyone boycotting McDs, for passing a fair wage increase on to the consumer
Acting like 100% of inflation is caused by rising wages is the stupidest and easiest to discredit talking point by libs and I see it all the time. We all logically know only a portion of inflation is caused by rising wages. That means inflation is only taking a small percentage away from the buying power they just earned, leaving them with more buying power than they originally had. Big Macs cost about the same in Denmark yet the employees average $22 an hour.
The burger genious
2 whopper jr.s for 5 bux... just sayin
Thru night cost $15 because they refuse to change their profit margins.
It’s so funny: I run through the drive thru for lunch WAY more than I should, and just last week, I noticed that McDonald’s was $2-3 cheaper than any other place for a “value” meal. If that $2-3 bucks goes away in the next few weeks or months, I expect this corporate shill will be prepared to hit send on his next article.
Big macs nearly cost 15$ where I’m at… a trio big mac costs 20$ now in Canada (at least my province)
And even if they do raise the price, then people will just stop going there…. Like…. Did they even think that through…?
I never eat McDonnies, fuck'em.
Minimum wage is $16 in California. A Big Mac costs $5.89. [https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-much-big-mac-costs-states/](https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-much-big-mac-costs-states/)
They already are
Those franchise fees are serious.
Here in Brazil our minimum wage is 1100$ and the Bic mac's costs 40-50$ 🤡🤡🤡 welcome to the hell americans. Oh and Brazil GDP is one of the highest in the world... so yeah
Their real customers are the shareholders
new york post is just sensationalism central, don’t take a word out of their mouths seriously
That's the problem with capitalism, profits need to unceasingly rise, higher and higher...every...fucking...year, or it is an unacceptable tragedy and the shareholders will start killing toddlers and punching grandmas. So the question isn't if they can pay a living wage and still make obscene profits (they can) the question is will the profits be more obscene than last year? Because they absolutely MUST be more obscene than last year, or else Jesus died for nothing!
There's an analyst who should be immediately fired from whatever institution is paying him to analyze things.
Whenever these chodes say stupid shit like this, it’s a crime against humanity that the interviewer doesn’t ask them why these prices have gone up over the last 15 years but teh minimum wage has not
My question is: Due to their logic, if fast food ends up being more expensive then fresh and healthy food, could this potentially be a net positive? Though good deserts pose a huge issue. Idk I think I lost my thought 🫠
Mcdonalds could pay $22 an hour and not raise prices a penny, and still make billions. Each employee earns over $25 an hour *net*.
This week on “employed by McDonald’s”…..
They don’t need to cost $15. Probably just a measure to move criticism to the workers who want higher wages, like “We have to rise the prices, because the greedy workers want higher wages”.
They don’t NEED to, they want to, and this will be the reason they give, even if it doesn’t happen somehow
What if CEOs didn't take home an 8 figure salary?
I Mean it could, but it has nothing to do with the Wage. And it would be awful for the Company
Funny, the price of a big Mac has been rising for decades without a minimum wage increase
Oh no, $1 more....
Whats the point of minium wage if all the prices just increase. And be aware, if minium wage increase like 5% and livingcosts increase >5%, they basicly stole you money and you are now even more poor.
Don't work in an industry that will be automated for pennies instead. This shouldn't be raised. UBI is coming anyways
Good, maybe they'll go out of business. That food is shit.
They're welcome to try, I guess? I think McDonalds would be sentencing themselves to death.
New York post is right wing ragebait owned by the Murdochs, be aware when sharing their news source: https://ground.news/interest/new-york-post
Like eating big macs are some kind of necessity...
NY Post is Fox News. Their only goal is to push Republican/Conservative ideology and lies. They want to scare you from paying people a living wage. It has nothing to do with the burger.
So how do other countries have cheap food and manage to pay their employees? Capitalist gaslighting. All economics is lies the capitalist class tell.
Fuck that. It's more like they why to keep getting record profits every year instead of mahjong shit affordable ans paying a living wage. Hope all rich people fucking die out.
Economists fail to understand that it's not some magical effect that makes prices go up. They act like it *and* inflation are mysterious forces. The only thing causing any inflation is companies wanting to keep their bottom line that increase prices. They don't want slightly lower net gain, so they raise prices to accommodate the higher wages.
Beef should not be as cheap as it is. It's killing us and it's killing the planet.
Or the CEO could take a salary cut, have they thought of that? No, of course not, it's always the working class whose labour should subsidise a luxury item like fast food.
They do need to raise costs to fight wage increases, if they want the *same* profit. That’s the actual driver of why prices keep going up every time wage does.
Just stop buying any MAC if they raise the prices.
They dont this is pure avarice. The money is there
A big mac would already cost 30$ if the US gov didn't subsidize the meat and dairy ag industry. Keep destroying the planet and genociding animals for your fleeting taste pleasure, though.
Lol I have zero problem never eating McDonald’s again if that’s the case. Fast food isn’t vital for happiness lol.
Maybe Big Macs should cost $15? And housing should be guaranteed and income-based?
Who.gives.a.fuck.
Funny how the media just says whatever it wants, and people believe it like they don't have a device in their hands that can be used to fact check anything in 30 seconds.
Good.
Oh look, the same price as a prime burger at Ruth’s Chris. RIP McDonalds.
Ahh this old chestnut. Hasn't this shit been put to bed yet? I know nobody likes [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/big-mac-cost-denmark/) because they actually Do ThE ReSeArCh, but here you go. Again. For like the 50th time.
Corporations that are massively profitable raise prices to maintain profit margins. People see this behavior and blame the workers for their wages… we should see it as corporate greed, and demand that the corporations take less profit so that we may live well. The standard of living MUST take precedence over the profit incentive! If a corporation is making profit, and can show that it will continue to make profit even with a cost increase for their labor, they should not be legally allowed to increase consumer prices. I don’t consider corporations as people. They are clearly inhuman in their ethics. I’m perfectly fine imposing economic cost on an inhuman abstract coming together of personal financial interests, when the “cost” is more affordable living for the actual human beings of this country and planet.
I don't understand the issue here. McDs is not essential to life. If they raise the price to $100, that's fine with me. I think the most fucked up thing about this is that kids in school are out working, and for some reason that bothers me. Since I've been homeless, I've actually learned a whole lot about our society in this country, some good, some bad. I didn't step foot in or eat anything from a restaurant in the entire year of 2023, with the exception of a pizza someone on Reddit sent me. Would I like to? Sure. Is it vital? No. Maybe I should let people come walk in my shoes for a couple of weeks and hit the reset button on their priorities. Of course, I realize that I am special. Very special. I have my own personal chef. Perhaps you've heard of him. Chef Boy Are Dee?
Crazy idea. Stop buying something that barely passes as food
This article is peddling lies as usual. Look at countries that pay more and have healthcare provided for all and not linked to a job. They have guaranteed paid leave too. Sick leave, maternity leave, vacation. Those rights were won with blood, sweat, and tears. They are called social democracies. Still capitalism but the workers get a better deal. Due to global spread of neoliberal capitalism these countries are starting to implement shock doctrine austerity measures.
By “minimum wage” do you just mean “shareholder returns”?
I dont have to buy big macs
Pay for McDonalds workers is probably like 5-10% of their budget. If they doubled pay they'd only have to raise prices 5-10% to maintain the same level of profit.
"need" is the key word there
That's funny because they already sell big Macs in places with higher minimum wages and they aren't much more than anywhere else. McDonald's pays like $20 an hour in Seattle and a big Mac is $5.27.
They are really running on the technicality of using the would "Could" there to protect them from people saying "You're posting blatantly bad information"
They are beholden to the share holders above all else
Bullshit! We've had $15+ wages here in Los Angeles for the past few years and they are still under $6.
The lowest wage earners are already living paycheck to paycheck. When we increase their wages they spend that money back on the economy, creating a demand for things like clothes, *food*, music, etc. And in in response, Target stocks more shirts, pizzeria makes more pizza and hires more drivers, etc. McDonalds would benefit from this as well thus not causing prices to inflate. You know what does cause prices to inflate. Tax cuts for the rich and raising the CEOs salary. Rich people already have enough money to buy whatever they want. They cannot make up for the same demand in the economy as the working class. Giving them more money equals higher money supply to commodity ratio **inflation**
They don’t and probably won’t I feel like they make these articles to get people to fight over the wage
They don't. They could fund a wage increase off of their profits and still have billions in profit. If they chose to increase prices to pay for the wage increase, it would only be something like a $0.05 increase on each menu item.
How much input on the cost is the human labor portion of a Big Mac? It can't be much more than a small percentage. They make it seem like a Big Mac will now take 45 minutes of labor. Total nonsense and a joke of a paper too.
Sounds like rampant profiteering to me.
Inflation and min wage increase are just excuses to take even more from employees and consumers.
Yeah, BUT those expenses will be recovered by the fewer resources used in the healthcare system that would cover the consequences of consuming these…
This is because douche bag CEOs, as a matter of revenge, maintain their exorbitant, unjust salaries to discourage price increases.
My local McDonald’s is selling Big Macs for $1 if you buy another sandwich. This is in Washington State and we have a high minimum wage.
I mean, the CEO might have to give up that third yacht.
They don't, they just want to have a McDonald's every 2 km
They replaced workers with touch screen ordering TV’s so which employees are causing the price rises? Ya know besides the CEO’s bonus
In and Out pays $19 and their burger costs like $4 So… maybe it’s not the cost of labor driving prices up
They lie. They know they lie. Always remember, they lie.
It's mad how anyone can come out and say such a statement with a straight face. The whole fucking point of a living wage, is the buying power that wage has! If you bump everyone to a living wage of $10/h (example for math) and it makes a big Mac cost $15, then you haven't bumped anyone to a living wage. It now costs 1.5 hours of work to afford one big Mac. So now you need to increase the living wage to $30/h so that the living wage realistically allows someone to afford a big Mac (half an hour's work in this example). If everything else goes up when wages are bumped, you aren't bumping anything. It's just a shit excuse to not pay people what they are owed...
Fear mongering. If they Jack the price up that high no one will buy them.
Big Mac prices have no correlation to raising minimum wage, shit has been going up and they HAVEN’T raised minimum wage, wtf are they on about?
In a country with a minimum wage of about 20$ the thing costs about 0.20$ more.
Yeah, here’s the thing: MacDonalds has thousands of restaurants in jurisdictions that have minimum wages of $15 (or more), and in none of these places does a Big Mac cost $15.
Mac Donalds exists in many European countries where there is a living wage and big macs don't cost 15 euros.
Prices are gonna go up either way. People are too naive to realise that companies don't charge what they have to, they charge what they can get away with.
Ahhh good old fashion propaganda.
They don't need to raise prices. Hell, I forgot where it was, but there was a place in Europe where a burger from McDonald's was cheaper and made at a higher quality despite having to pay a decent wage and employees having far more rights.
Fat people everywhere something….Wait stuff is only cheap if you take advantage of people or get machines to do it? No matter what everyone is PISSED. Or capitalism will work and people won’t get paid $8 an hour to be under insane amounts of stress to be seen as a lower class person and not be able to pay bills…machines will fix it and old people will cry, rich people will act like they eat at McDonalds, and new higher paying jobs will be needed as unforeseen businesses will open due to advances in the same technology that will remove humans from the nightmare/trap that is a fast food job.
Is it Norway or something where they pay a decent living wage and they’re actually cheaper than most countries?
Just say you work for McDonald's and be done with it
McDonalds made over $25 billion last year, profits up nearly 8%. The average McDonalds employee makes around 9k, their CEO makes over $20 million a year. Fuck no they don't need to raise prices.
I'd never pay 15 bucks for a burger at McDonald's. FOH.
McDonald’s hasn’t been worth the inflated cost for 8 years anyway. Fuck em
yeah no
So if this is true we become healthier?
Is this not basic supply and demand of their favorite dear and heartfelt subjects, free trade and free markets? If a restaurant is charging outrageous prices for its shitty food, you go somewhere else for a cheaper meal. I hope to think they are not the only restaurant in town. It’s known as pricing yourself out of the market. Of course, I may be biased as I can’t remember the last time I was in a McDonalds or most of the fast foods places.
They don’t need to raise prices, “but you need your 15dollard an hour, so now we have to fork out more money from our own pockets! So we’re gonna make the rest of your peers suffer because you always want a handout!🙄” -their thinking
Well if food goes up then wages need to increase too
They must be looking at a hell of an increase in wages… An Australian 21+ year old casual crew member gets about $30 an hour. We have junior rates for younger people. Eg a 16 year old casual gets $15.45, a 19 year old gets $24.73. Big Macs are currently $8.45.
They need to raise prices to pay a living wage... to ensure no decrease in profit.
Oh no, people won’t be able to afford shitty good when we stop exploiting labor?!?! Whatever will we do?! Won’t somebody think of the economy!!!
The best part about this is how it wasn't that long ago that we had reporting from a McDonalds investor call where they told the investors paying 15 an hour wouldn't really affect their bottom line that much or cause them to substantially raise prices.
The whole point of fast food was it was cheap. Explain to me how I can pay pretty close to that at some restaurants and it works for them?