Wednesday, October 9, 2013

$15 for a McDonald's hamburger?

OK.  So minimum wage goes up to $10 or $12 an hour.   Hamburgers have to go up to $15.  For the average family of parents and two children, with a few fries and Cokes, lunch could cost $75.

How's that work for that family?

What can we do about this?  People need a good wage for their work.  People need to be able to afford fast food when they feel like it.  

HOW?

Z

61 comments:

Ducky's here said...

Hamburgers have to go up to $15.

----------
I'd love to see that reasoning.
Stunning conclusion.

Jim at Asylum Watch said...

The laws of economics can not long be abridged. Labor is a commodity subject to the laws of supply and demand like any other commodity. People may need a decent wage to live on; but they must offer something in exchange of equal value.

Mustang said...

Minimum wage laws result in high employment. Sam wrote about this not long ago—good essay.

Z said...

Ducky, perhaps you don't understand that when costs go up, businesses with brains have to pass that on in their prices.
OK...maybe it'll be $11.25 per burger....stunning that you can't loosen up and address THE POINT. ever.

Jim and Mustang, yes, jobs will be lost, too... On top of Obama care...and higher min. wage. WOW.

It's so clear that it's stunning that some don't get that.

Or, I KNOW!! Let's just charge the same for our product though our costs are going way up in min.wage and healthcare, and screw our investors and let our shops become shacks because we can't afford to fix them, OR just play leftwingers and pretend costs don't affect our bottom line :-)

sue hanes said...


Z - Hamburgers for $15 - I don't think so. That would mean no more Happy Meals for the grandkids.

Ducky's here said...

Give it a look,z. It's a start

Ducky's here said...

Yeah, Sinclair, double your labor costs and the price of a Mac triples.

Brilliant.

Always On Watch said...

If McDonald's burgers go to $15 each, then McDonald's will go out of business.

Every McDonald's that I know of is packed for lunch: construction workers, day laborers, and the like.

FreeThinke said...

When I was in college, the average cost of a grilled ham and cheese CLUB sandwich with a layer of tuna fish salad and sliced fresh tomatoes plus chips, a pickle AND a medium Coke was THRITY-FIVE CENTS,

Yes, I said cents, CENTS, CENTS!

THat should tell you everything you ever need o now about the horrifyingly destructive power of LEFTIST policies.

FreeThinke said...

Canardo, as usual, you are full of outmoded COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA and aggressively misleading TRIPE.

No one buys your stale, ineffectual, rebarbative ravings. NO ONE!

So, please, stop embarrassing yourself, and just GET OFF the STAGE.

Ducky's here said...

Yeah, FT, and what was the average wage.

Give it a little thought.

Back in the 50's things were cheaper and we had nasty, nasty unions.
Like I say, try thinking.

Anonymous said...

A million vets are coming to DC to demand their monuments be opened | Washington Times Communities
Here's the lame excuse on why this is closed. We all know it's just because the President is a prick, but here's the supposed reason anyway.

Via Jake Tapper:
Why was there a need for barricades in the first place?

“Park Service did not want to barricade these, but unfortunately we have been directed, because of the lack of appropriations, to close all facilities and grounds,” said National Mall and Memorial parks spokeswoman Carol Johnson.

“I know that this is an open-air memorial, but we have people on staff who are CPR trained, (and) we want to make sure that we have maintenance crew to take care of any problems.
What we’re trying to do is protect this resource for future generations,” said Johnson.
And I agree. The President is a Winnie

This is unprecedented. No shut down in the past has resulted in closing open air parks, much less arresting elderly veterans. It is part of Obama's strategy to make this as painful as possible to make the Republicans look bad. But the only ones buying that crap are mouth breathing retards like the commenters over at Progressive Eruptions.

UPDATE: WWII MEMORIAL PRIVATELY FUNDED! ? OBAMA SENDS MORE BARRICADES TO WWII MEMORIAL TO KEEP VETERANS OUT!

BHO’s approval 37%. Need we say more?
ObamaCare is a train-wreck and needs to be stopped?
__________________
Man is not free unless government is limited. ~ Ronald Reagan

The Screaming Eagle said...

"$15 for a McDonald's hamburger?"

Wow, it's getting so that the only one who will be able to afford a McDonald's BIG MAC hamburger is Michelle Obama!

Z said...

Ducky, I don't agree with their research...this article says if minimum wages rise significantly, companies will hire more workers.
Oh, really? :-)
You might want to read Mustang's link by Sam.

Always on Watch...good to see you WRITING! I hope you're doing well. xx


Anonymous, now they're telling the families of a handful of soldiers who died in Afghanistan recently that they won't pay for them to go meet their dead soldier, etc etc.
As if this is big money we can't afford?

This is ALL about mean spiritedness; listen to the President's rhetoric! the name calling..the withering, childish insults.

HE KNOWS the American public's hearing him and believes him...the names he's calling Republicans, the blame, etc., is unprecedented.

But, if you have a media in his pocket which won't criticize...he wins.
He's not dumb in that respect.

Remember the word when he moved into the WH? That he had hired bigwig producers from CNN, networks, etc., to control his rhetoric to help him in whatever he needs winning about? They are GOOD and we need to remember that.
THEY are the ones giving him his powerful, influentical rhetoric to get back at the GOP and influence non-curious Americans. They are VERY VERY VERY good.

JonBerg said...

"For the average family of parents and two children, with a few fries and Cokes, lunch could cost $75."

If that actually happened, many would just stay home, learn or re-learn how to make a much better hamburger(s), etc for $10 or less and avoid the traffic and other hassles of going out for "fast food"! In the meantime purveyors of fast food would seek ways to become more automated and require fewer employees. The "Market" is what it is and all of the 'pipe dreams' that Liberals come up with will not change that.

Z said...

Let's go a step farther:
Everybody read Ducky's link if you can.

When costs rise, we hire MORE PEOPLE? Is that what YOU think, too?

Is $15 probably hyperbole? yes. Did it get your attention? and it should.

How many of you think that with doubling the minimum wage, companies will hire more workers?

How many of you think that with Obamacare, companies will hire more workers?


Voila...let's talk

Sam Huntington said...

An increase in the cost of most goods and services results in a decline in consumer spending. Who in their right mind will pay $15.00 for a Happy Meal? I would not be surprised to learn that people place so much value on a food product guaranteed to kill you—it is in the nature of Americans to rely on the idiot gene more than they do their common sense gene.

The cost of labor (thanks to the progressive morons) is precisely why companies are beginning to replace their low skilled workers with robotic instruments. The other day, someone asked, “What will happen to the no-to-low skilled worker?” At this point, it is hard to tell. Maybe it will suddenly occur to people to stay in school, or in the case of all those “struggling” single mothers … to keep their legs closed. Or maybe the government should seize their children and enroll them into the Commie Academy.

I read of a McDonalds in Michigan that has only two employees: both are PhDs. Everything in the store is computerized and robotic. I can’t wait to see the result of union efforts to organize robots.

No, companies are looking to hire less workers, not more of them. It is a shame with machines are more reliable than human workers, isn't it?

Thersites said...

This is simple... simply subsidize hamburger purchases. So if a hamburger cost $15, let the government offer MickieD's a $10 subsidy on each hamburger sold...

Like student aid and Obamacare, the price is BOUND to come down.

Thersites said...

Oh, wait... the minimum wage IS a government subsidy.

Never mind.

Thersites said...

This is simple... simply subsidize hamburger purchases. So if a hamburger cost $15, let the government offer MickieD's a $10 subsidy on each hamburger sold...

Like student aid and Obamacare, the price is BOUND to come down.

Ducky's here said...

An increase in the cost of most goods and services results in a decline in consumer spending.

-----
Even if demand increases because of increased wages?

JonBerg said...

So now we know, INFLATION is the answer!

Anonymous said...

FT gives you a PERFECT example of EXACTLY what has happened to our economy in less than fifty years, and all he gets is a foolish, hopelessly ignorant retort from the Duck.

Doesn't anyone understand anything at all about economics? It doesn't matter how many dollars you earn or manage to save. ALL that matters is the PURCHASING POWER of the dollars you have.

We'd all be better off with less money, if government interference bowing to the big noise of communist labor agitators had not precipitated horrifying rates of inflation.

Does no One understand the meaning of INFLATION?

Inflation works to erode the purchasing power of your savings and investments. It removes the incentive to save and invest, because it will give you a negative return on your investments.

Doesn't anyone understand ANYTHING these days?

Dick Wilde

Ducky's here said...

Does no One understand the meaning of INFLATION?

-----
Milton Friedman did some great work studying it.

Now your task is to find an economist that believes some level of inflation isn't a natural part of a capitalist economic system. It isn't damaging if it takes place gradually.

Friedman's monetarist solution proved to be a failure.

I assume you prefer the current situation that creates equity bubbles at the top of the scale and keeps you static unless you go into recession when the equity bubble bursts. Yeah, that's the ticket.

JonBerg said...

Hey Dick,

Just because a few, in particular one,fail to understand basic economics, inflation etc that is not a blanket indictment on the vast majority who comment here. Perhaps you should stop-by more often!

Sam Huntington said...

Discretionary spending only increases when consumers realize an increase in disposable income and when the cost of necessities remains constant. This rarely occurs, however, for when wages increase, so too does the cost of necessities: housing, food, gasoline, and utilities.

Anonymous said...

@Z:


" they won't pay for them to go meet their dead soldier, etc etc."...

Yup...so far a lousy $500K...100K for each dead hero. But...they can give the shitheads at NPR $445,000,000!! $#@!%^&&%$!

I can't say all that here...except for the fact that I thought that after F&F, Benghazi, NSA and the IRS and now Parks gate....this POS , Zero would long be gone.

Anonymous said...

"Even if demand increases because of increased wages?"


You actually believe the McD flippers will actually buy or afford their own product?

Anonymous said...

Mr. 0bama:

Far from being a “new kind of politician” (as you were advertised), you are the most political politician this country has ever seen.

You are political to your core, in your essence, at an atomic level, and so you are unable to offer any direction or clarity when the nation needs it most.


Sometimes, Mr. "President", the affairs of this nation require a man, not a politician, and it is during those times that you are especially useless.

You don’t have any interest in fixing our present crisis because you’re too busy finding ways to keep a busload of 90 year old war veterans from looking at a memorial.

Closing down parks, monuments and memorials just to score political points is hardly your most insidious deed, but it’s certainly one of your pettiest. That’s why it stands, ironically, as a monument of its own.

If we ever build a statue of you, Mr." President", you won’t be triumphantly holding a flaming torch like Lady Liberty, or standing authoritatively with a look of determination, like the MLK memorial.

No, it will be a statue of you pulling the wings off of a fly, or spitting in someone’s orange juice. It will show you in your essence, as monuments are meant to do.


It will show you as a petulant, skulking, juvenile bully. It will you show you as you are.


And we’ll make sure it’s always open, especially during a government shut down."

Ducky's here said...

"Look, I don't like Obamacare anymore than they do. But the people have spoken, it's been through the Supreme Court, and through a second election. It's the law of the land. We are now hurting the very veterans and their families that we voted to send to war. Kids who need cancer treatment are suffering. It is time to end this nonsense."

---- John McCain

I know, he's a commie but it's worth considering what he says.

The ACA has gone through over 60 Congressional attempts at repeal.
It has been at least partially validated by presidential re-election.
It has been reviewed by SCOTUS.

Tie to face the facts and tell the rump minority to cut the crap.
This will destroy the Republican party for a period of time. Not that we lose anything as it is currently constituted.


JonBerg said...

"You actually believe the McD flippers will actually buy or afford their own product?"

Yes,(ha,ha) and even more absurd; "fast food" will become the "corner stone" of our ecnomic base.Those newly affluent "flippers" will lead the way by massive increases in consumer spending, thus lifting the entire economy to levels heretofore unimaginable and the U.S. will be restored to the status it once deserved.

skudrunner said...

Ducktail

Obamacare is the law of the land but all that is being asked is to extend the same to small business and individuals that has been extended to large corporations. Delay implementation for a year.

I think the gop is making a mistake by demanding the delay because it will sink under it's own weight. Even kathlene silliness has said it is not going well and if 7 million people sign up it will be a success, in her mind. Thought it was designed to provide insurance for 40 million.

Always On Watch said...

OBAMA SENDS MORE BARRICADES TO WWII MEMORIAL TO KEEP VETERANS OUT!

Are you KIDDING ME?

How much is all that manpower costing?

Always On Watch said...

Skudrunner,
I think the gop is making a mistake by demanding the delay because it will sink under it's own weight.

I agree completely!

Thersites said...

Tear down the BARRYcades!

Thersites said...

OCCUPY America!

Thersites said...

Tear down the BARRYcades!

Anonymous said...

GEEEZ AT WORK:

Ducky...you ask a good question.

EVERYBODY:
Increased wages = increased demand?

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Makes sense.


Other than that, Ducky...please don't quote McCain to us. Suddenly, he's a hero of yours?
VERY few of us admire or respect him.

The Republicans voted for helping the vets, but what does McCain know, apparently?

And yes...we all want children to die because Obama won't listen and negotiate.

As for Obama Care..it stinks.
Don't buy into the media

Anonymous said...

FROM GEEEZ:

Always On Watch and Thersites...do you mean he's sending MORE NOW?
I heard they were at least letting vets in but nobody else....are you serious?
They do seem to be spending more money NOW than normal.

Also; if this was a legitimate move to save money, why aren't they closing the White House visits again? Or are they still closed from last time? Oh. I just Googled and it looks like they have been closed since March.
Unbelievable.
We're spending billions on crap and saving money in keeping Americans out of what's rightfully THEIRS.
fascinating.

it's almost getting scary.

Unknown said...

@ Z

Sam answered the question above, I think. I agree. Increased wages does not necessarily result in increased consumer spending.

Anonymous said...

"They do seem to be spending more money NOW than normal."


These NPA shitheads are actually blocking views of Old Faithful and Mount Rushmore! Do you believe this rot? We are the owners of these national treasures...and the feds are the trustees in certain cases...and they have no right to deny access to our property...WE ARE THE GD LANDLORDS.

What these scum are doing is totally against we the people and they're acting like Gestapo fiends...especially towards our vets! I think they're enjoying the power trip and they ought to get thier bear hats shoved up their keesters. Maybe that'll happen with the truck drives when they surround DC this week.

They're missing something rather Huge in property law, and this ignorance permits them to continue to believe there's nothing at all wrong with the National Park Service capturing public lands for partisan political ends.

And I do mean Huge. This is first-year stuff. This is not just first-year stuff, this is first-half of the first-year stuff.

But the media doesn't know a whole lot of Huge things, but they paper over their manifold ignorances with the confident swagger of the Righteously, Ignorantly, Indignantly Partisan.

Anonymous said...

The conduct of the National Park Service over the last week might be the biggest scandal of the Obama administration.

This is an expansive claim, of course. Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS, the NSA, the HHS mandate--this is an administration that has not lacked for appalling abuses of power. And we still have three years to go.


Even so, consider the actions of the National Park Service since the government shutdown began. People first noticed what the NPS was up to when the World War II Memorial on the National Mall was “closed.”

Just to be clear, the memorial is an open plaza. There is nothing to operate. Sometimes there might be a ranger standing around. But he’s not collecting tickets or opening gates. Putting up barricades and posting guards to “close” the World War II Memorial takes more resources and manpower than “keeping it open.”

The closure of the World War II Memorial was just the start of the Park Service’s partisan assault on the citizenry.

There’s a cute little historic site just outside of the capital in McLean, Virginia, called the Claude Moore Colonial Farm. They do historical reenactments, and once upon a time the National Park Service helped run the place.

But in 1980, the NPS cut the farm out of its budget. A group of private citizens set up an endowment to take care of the farm’s expenses. Ever since, the site has operated independently through a combination of private donations and volunteer workers.

The farm’s administrators appealed this directive--they explained that the Park Service doesn’t actually do anything for the historic site. The folks at the NPS were unmoved. And so, last week, the National Park Service found the scratch to send officers to the park to forcibly remove both volunteer workers and visitors.

Think about that for a minute. The Park Service, which is supposed to serve the public by administering parks, is now in the business of forcing parks they don’t administer to close.

....

But the pièce de résistance occurred in South Dakota. The Park Service wasn’t content just to close Mount Rushmore.

No, they went the extra mile and put out orange cones to block the little scenic overlook areas on the roads near Mount Rushmore. You know, just to make sure no taxpayers could catch a glimpse of it.

It’s one thing for politicians to play shutdown theater. It’s another thing entirely for a civil bureaucracy entrusted with the privilege of caring for our national heritage to wage war against the citizenry on behalf of a political party.

Anonymous said...

There's an annual contest at Bond University , Australia , calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.

This year's chosen term was "political correctness."

The winning student wrote:

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end."

Kid said...

McDonalds was never meant to be a career.
It's a self-correcting system though. If the fast junk food gets too expensive,people stop buying, fast food enterprises go out of business, absurd employees are without a job, 401K's go down the toilet, people lose retirement $ and ducky is ecstatic with pleasure.

Socialism will do that to you when you don't have a working brain.

Kid said...

Holy Carp, what a conversation line being offered by the libtards... heheh

Just offer the information that, for those that didn't know, some unions, like Cargo handlers at airports hae their wages based upon the minimum wage, so if it goes up, do does theirs. Which means that, since everything is interconnected, Everything goes up.

Push the blue button down, the yellow one pops up. It's pretty simple really.

Kid said...

Duck, did you even read harrison beggeron? You somehow missed the Reading Comprehension class in your 9th year at college? Or what.

Kid said...

Equality is the puke city cesspool of rewarding mediocrity and worse.

When you can be a loser and get by quite well, most people will happily be losers rather than work their ass off to pay for the losers to have a 'good life'.

Z said...

Kid, I don't know if Smart and Final is a national store but we have them here and they're very inexpensive and have larger sizes of stuff so I buy things for work there...you know.

I was there yesterday, and "Joaquin", a skinny Hispanic kid, was asked to help me get my VERY HEAVY cart and stuff to my car and load my trunk. We talked a little and he said he has three jobs, one of which is with Smart and Final and one other with Victoria's Secret. (I didn't ask about his third job)
I had to laugh when I got in the car after he told me "No, I'm not that happy at Victoria's Secret because you can't imagine how many names girls' underwear have and I'm always sorting them in the wrong places!" HILARIOUS. Here I thought any young guy would love to work there but he was befuddled in the stock room trying to figure out "where's THIS go?"
undies, Gstrings, you name it...all new to HIM :-)

Anyway, I complimented him on working so hard and not just taking a welfare check and he said "Many people just don't want to work; I do..I like the feeling of making money and putting in a day's work" (I'm paraphrasing because his English wasn't that good)...I was so happy to hear this!

Ducky's here said...

No genius, I haven't read it.

Have you finished Berlin Alexanderplatz ?

What's your point?

Impertinent said...

Let's sign up for Obamacare?




https://www.healthcare.gov/

Joe said...

I think $15.00 for a hamburger if Minimum wage goes to $10.00+ is a bit of an exaggeration, the principle of higher prices for comparable goods as MW rises is historically accurate. The dollar menu at Micky D's is yesterday's $0.25 menu.

There is always a direct relationship between the cost of wages and the price of goods. Always. As wages go up, so do prices and the ratio of "buyablility" on the part of the consumer adjusts accordingly.

But that is not a good thing, because it results in no improvement in the economic life of the consumer. It demands at best a static economy and at worst a falling economy.

Ducky's here said...

Joe, say the traffic at a McD's increases by a certain percentage and the patrons were served with no increase in staff.

If some of that increase in productivity goes to increased wages will the price of a Mac necessarily rise?


Anonymous said...

"he dollar menu at Micky D's is yesterday's $0.25 menu..."


That would make a $4 Big Mac....12 bucks.

Marine4ever said...

Why does Detroit keep coming to mind?

Kid said...

When the country is in a smoldering ruin, duck will still be yapping about nothing that makes any sense, blaming 43 Tea Party people for screwing everything up while the democrats have done Exactly everything they've wanted for at least the last 6 years.

*BUSH* SQUAWK! *BUSH* TEA PARTY!!

Imagine what it's like to go through life with a 'mind' like that.

I'd ordinarily pity people like duck but they're simply causing too much damage since they've been given control...

Ducky's here said...

You tell us, you're the one hallucinating.

Mustang said...

Kid ... you have to work with Ducky; he's mentally incontinent. Something he inherited from his Cro-magnon forebears.

Joe said...

Anonymous: "That would make a $4 Big Mac....12 bucks." In 1998, the average price of a Big Mac was about $2.50. Today, the average Big Mac is $4.56.

The Big Mac and the hamburger are two different animals (even though they both claim to be cow meat). Production costs are not even similar, let alone the same.

Ducky: "If some of that increase in productivity goes to increased wages will the price of a Mac necessarily rise?"

Yes. The question reeks of a lack of understanding about how costs, productivity and profit co-mingle.

Kid said...

I'm trying Mustang. Thanks for the heads up though.

Anonymous said...

They'll do like in France when labor costs are too high to keep prices low: they'll reduce workforce in huge chunks and will reduce the quality of service. They will also squeeze providers and ask them to make an effort. They in turn will cut labor, etc...

Like it or not, when wages don't reflect value and are not productive in terms of investment, this is what happens. And this is partly why France has fairly low wages or why we have high unemployment or why France is crazy about replacing people with machines.

It may not trigger inflation but it will impact the life of young people who need to work for college, people who don't have a high enough education and minorities. Again like in France. 40% unemployment for under 25 and super high unemployment rate for minorities.

Z said...

FB..exactly right, I 'm afraid.