The gaslighting bothers me the most. “The soft landing worked! The economy is great! Look at all these jobs!” Are they good jobs? Do they pay enough to live? Why has the price of everything gone up so much? It’s eerie being lied to on such a massive scale like this. Very much a superb example of “don’t piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining.”
It's purposeful. The system is collapsing and the only option they have is to lie to people to convince them to continue participating.
"you now have to spend more money to survive" -> "people are now spending more money" -> "the GDP is going up" -> "the economy is doing well!"
If you are eating fast food and you give a shit if the price goes up you already lost.
The CPI is not the economy, the stock market is not the economy, wages and unemployment are not the economy, there is no one measure that effectively captures what's happening with the economy.
This exactly, and the people making policy are so far out of touch that they don't even have a friend of a friend that's as impacted as we are by this insane inflation.
Worst thing is, we weren't getting cost of living increases before inflation went batshit.
I mean, they are out of touch, but don't believe for a second that they don't know what they're doing.
There is the Consumer Sentiment Index which at least tries to quantify what people are feeling about the economy. According to the recent report, 48% of consumers expect bad times in the year ahead for business conditions, which is down from the high of June 2022 when 79% of consumers expected challenging times ahead for the economy.
Index of Consumer Sentiment, 1960-2024 - University of Michigan
Oof indeed. It's hard to think back to June 2022, but I'd have to imagine some of the sentiment increases are due to supply chain shortages getting worked out.
Personally as someone in tech, it feels like with interest rates going up, a lot of investments in technology companies have dried up. Looking back, mid 2010s was low interest rates and it seemed like there was more money being invested, without the focus of immediate profit. Now it feels like the screws are being tightened and every cent they can extract out of customers is being taken advantage of, regardless if that is overall good for the product or company.
Since the Great Depression (about a century ago!) The US government has been fudging the numbers so that the economy looks better than it is. Inflation, unemployment, wages, etc. are qualifed with modifiers (because why count anyone who stopped looking for work?).
The system intends to gaslight us and convince us the economy is doing great. We're down on our luck, or we suck and deserve to be on the brink of homelessness and starvation.
After all, if our government was transparent with us, we might see it's not all because of corporate greed and anticompetitive markets. We might realize regulatory capture has real consequences. We might pressure the government to actually serve the pubic and install some effective social safety nets. And then the companies would have to pay us living wages for short work weeks and provide a non-toxic, non-hazardous work environment.
And our plutocrats won't have that.
Exactly. There may be a numerous jobs, but do they pay well?
The unemployment rate has plummeted ever since we started counting jobs per capita instead of employed individuals!
It's been below -50% ever since!
I know what a crab being brought to boil feels like now.
King crab sounds hella good right now, not gonna lie
Better than a garbage-ass McChicken ever was. I remember eating them when I was on the struggle, before covid. The only good thing about them back then was the price; now they don't even have that going for them.
Yeah best part of McDonalds was the price. When the McSuits tried to portray the price increases as a quality increases they dropped the ball immensely.
Wasn’t that meme debunked? It’s actually: a frog with brain removed will not jump out of a pot slowly brought to boil.
A frog with its brain intact will jump out no problem.
Yeah but crabs can't hop.
.
Not a meal - that's just the burger.
$8.30 AUD (5.42usd). Ridiculous.
How in the actual fuck are you all surviving down there? Are you like hunting down the kangaroos for sustenance?
It’s my understanding that kangaroos are plentiful. I’ve had kangaroo meat and it’s pretty tasty, like very lean beef.
I was in Cincinnati a long time ago and they have this insane and awesome (in the true sense of the word) supermarket called Jungle Jim's and they had kangaroo meat, but I didn't trust the hotel freezer, so I didn't buy it. I regret it now, although I don't eat meat anymore. I don't know, maybe I'd make an exception just once just to try kangaroo. It would be very hard to resist.
Corporate greedflation.
I was gonna say, this post seems pretty disingenuous to blame "every public figurehead" for corporate greed. Maybe if we better taxed and regulated those companies this wouldn't be happening. If only some public figureheads had literally that exact platform.
Considering greedy corporations are lobbying (bribing) public figure heads, it’s not far off.
Then the party of campaign and political finance reform would be the obvious choice.
lol oh is it? Which party is that again?
I don't know what country you even live in, mate. If it's the USA then look up "HR 1 For The People Act".
Ok and? This act has nothing to do with financial reform.
If you think this changes anything then I have a bridge to sell you.
It literally does, though?
Passed House (03/03/2021)
For the People Act of 2021
This bill addresses voter access, election integrity and security, campaign finance, and ethics for the three branches of government.
Specifically, the bill expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early
voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls.
The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting.
Additionally, the bill sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials,
supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in
the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the
cybersecurity of election systems.
Further, the bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring
additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising,
and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices.
The bill addresses ethics in all three branches of government, including by requiring a code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices,
prohibiting Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity, and establishing additional conflict-of-interest and
ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House.
The bill requires the President, the Vice President, and certain candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns.
It was a partisan DNC bill that immediately passed the house upon them gaining a majority.
And how exactly is this reforming finance? I’ve read the entire thing and don’t see a single thing that will change the current financial system in any meaningful way
If that's true then clearly you don't have the reading comprehension to understand it even if it were explained to you.
Sounds like a strawman argument to me. This was passed years ago yet nothing has actually changed. It’s meaningless. If you can show me empirical evidence that demonstrates real reform then show me, otherwise your words are as meaningless as this “act”.
You have no argument.
I'm sorry for calling you an idiot, earlier. If you're interested in the subject then I'll leave a brief intro to the US political process.
It's a bit convoluted but basically for a bill to become law it has to pass 3 chambers: the House, the Senate, and be signed by the sitting President. Even after this, the courts can rule changing the interpretation of the law but generally that doesn't happen often because Congress can impeach a judge for misconduct, and judicial organizations can disbar them, effectively ending their legal career.
Amendments to the constitution, anything that changes the congressional budget past a defined limit, removal from office a federal official, or vetoing a decision by a sitting president all require a Supermajority (sometimes referred to as a 2/3rds vote) which is 67 out of 100 senators or 290 of 435 house representatives. One tactic people use to prevent a bill from passing is to simply "filibuster" or prolong the debate process by taking a stand at the podium for long periods of time until people leave to sleep, eat, or return to their families causing them to miss the vote, but a 2/3rds majority can also bypass the filibuster and force the vote to proceed.
HR1 For the People Act was passed in the House of Representatives after the "Blue Wave" backlash against conservatives in 2020 where a lot of new DNC representatives were elected to the House. Unfortunately it was short lived as the Senate has been in a deadlock ever since, even now it's a 48:49 DNC to RNC split with 3 Independents caucusing with DNC to have them elect the majority leader. A total of 45 DNC Senators sponsored the bill but it's not nearly enough to bypass filibuster or even pass at all without support from other parties.
It never passed. It went through the house and never passed in the senate. Idiot.
If you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, work an extra shift, maybe sell some things you don't need, you can afford a McChicken Sandwich (!)
Honestly anyone who isn't willing to work an extra 5 or 6 jobs has no right to complain.
Even then, you could be making passive income.
Yeah, just buy a house and rent it, demand for housing is super high so you can charge as much as you want!
Have you seen the price of boots these days? More like pull yourself up by your dirty socks (cost probably $15 to wash) and then get kicked out of any building you walk into for being in your socks then go find a hole somewhere without anti-homeless spikes to crawl into and die then your next of kin get the outrageous bill for the ambulance that was called, the cycle repeats and basically everything will be fine haha!
If I can pull myself up, I'll just have the pie in the sky.
I am and old millennial and have pretty much considered my wife and I somewhat upper middle class. We never paid attention to grocery prices, took a vacation every year and were able to put away money for retirement. And while I am fortunate enough to still be doing well, that comfort and buffer we had has all but dissappeared in the pandemic.
Half decade sounds longer than 5 years. Someone could have started highschool, and by the end of highschool be in a completely different price market than before. 5 years is way too quick for these things to change that much.
Me who started driving in 2001 and then saw gas prices double before I was out of hs. Then the great recession happened when I finally got out on my own and gas was even more expensive than it is now and companies had started raising prices like crazy with the excuse that fuel prices were high. It's also when shrinkflation started happening. Good jobs were also unobtainable because people postponed retirement for years after the recession. I didn't get anything decent until around 10 years ago, and now I feel like I'm back where I was when I was 21 working at McDonald's.
Half decade sounds longer than 5 years
Only if you have no clue how long a decade is (10 years).
I buy those dollar store packages of refried beans and rice, and cans of mixed vegetables. I put them in individual containers and freeze them to take to work for lunch. It's pretty cheap, and it makes me feel a lot fuller than anything I could buy at a convenience store or restaurant.
It's also vegan and gluten free (I have celiac and severe lactose intolerance)
A thing I have thought of trying is to take a bean and rice mixture and make stuffed peppers with it. I am certain it will be delicious. Certainly better than a ShitChicken.
This sounds really good too!
Also, whenever I cook something like soup or even pasta, I always cook extra so I can freeze it in portions. It's so much better than paying like $15 for fast food or junk food that's not even satisfying
I have two boys that will soon be giants. I'm working on my rice and beans skills.
I do that with poblanos (and vegan chorizo if I'm feeling fancy), and I can confirm that it's so good, and not terribly expensive. The last time I did it, it was probably about $10 for the ingredients, but it made enough peppers for 2 meals each for me and my mom, plus enough leftover filling for at least couple more.
I can also very much recommend lentins.
They are good. There's even pasta made out of lentins. It is gluten free. You use it like ordinary pasta. It's good.
I've had that, and I totally agree!
Lentils
It would be even cheaper if you bought them nearly anywhere else but the dollar store.
Unit for unit, dollar stores are almost always more expensive than grocery stores or warehouse clubs.
In this case, they are cheaper at the dollar store. I've compared prices at Walmart and grocery stores.
Same with the packages of pre-cooked microwaveable rice.
While I agree that dollar store prices can be higher, with the foods I buy they're pretty consistently cheaper per ounce at the dollar store. Believe me, I compare!
Not even 15 minutes ago I was in a McDonald’s drive-thru. The only thing I ordered was a Single Cheeseburger, the cost was $3.59…. I told them never mind and came home and made pasta instead.
Absolutely ridiculous that a single patty burger from there could cost so much.
Of course, it's cheaper to cook at home. But the McChicken is, like the whole industry that is to blame for it's existance, a serious threat to our physical health and thus to be avoided at any cost.
The only way to get decent prices is through the app, and even then, it's really hit or miss.
Over a lifetime it's more economical to not eat any fast food.
The fast food you eat on a regular basis early on in life just degrades your health later on in life when you will spend money trying to remedy. You will pay for that fast food twice, once when you eat it and again later on life when you pay to treat your heart, weight, circulation, blood and inflammation.
Eating fast food is investing in having some terrible last years of your life .... you may live long but if you're not healthy now, you'll spend the last ten or 20 years of your life miserable.
If you’re eating it on a regular basis sure, McDonald’s once every two weeks or longer isn’t going to kill anyone more than the rest of the junk on the shelves
for its* existence
And they can get away with it because your average voter only cares about whatever culture war nonsense Fox tells them to be angry about
"Idc about cost of living nonsense when there's migrants caravans at the boarder and kids are being transed!!!!!!!!"
The thing that gets me, is that since 2018, I can confidently say that my wage has not even nearly tripled... It's barely even ~40% higher, and I've been on a fairly steady upward path, but the fucking McChicken has increased by almost triple.
I could not give fewer shits about the numerical prices. It's the relative price that annoys me. A trip to McDonald's (or realistically, anywhere) is that much more of a percentage of my paycheque.
And the icing on this shit-filled cake is that productivity has been on a steady incline the entire time. So we're doing more work, for the same wages, and prices continue to inflate.
Where is it all going? (Isn't it obvious)
They're exploiting the fact that they've turned humanity into creepy, hopelessly dependent little goblins and it's horrific to watch.
You're getting wage increases?
No. I just applied for jobs that paid more.
Eventually I got one.
Kind of hate posts like this. Yes! Inflation is happening and bad. And yes! The McChicken (and a lot of fast food value options) have soared in price in recent years. But trying to take that and frame it as “look at this… it’s so obvious the government is lying to us and overall inflation is actually over 100%” Is just ignorant nonsense and it tends to play into conspiratorial minds who don’t actually have any experience in economics or data collection.
You can hate the federal government all you want. Really. I totally get it. But they are unfortunately really good at data collection.
I get what you are saying, but think about it like this. If all you ate was McChickens then food inflation for you specifically was almost 300%. So even though "real" inflation was lower, you are still paying 3 times the amount you did before for your food.
See I get that, and that’s absolutely fine. There’s just a gigantic difference between saying “hmm, it seems like inflation for ‘budget’ items used by poorer individuals has gone up at a higher rate than other items, let me see if I can find some info on that” and “nope! The government is lying, actually! I can tell from the vibes.”
One is very solution and truth oriented and the other is impatience that only sets them up to fall for further conspiracy theories and emotional arguement
I love burgers but I don't get to have them anymore from anywhere because costs skyrocketed and my income didn't. McDonald's even stopped being affordable a while ago. In Canada the price of a McDouble, at least last time I checked near me, was $4. For a McDouble.
I just eat ramen and dream of burgers.
You can get a stack of burger patties from stores usually for like 10-12 bucks then cook one for a burger in your broiler if you got one, 15 min, flip once, throw some vegs as a side, yummay!!
I've got an air fryer. Wonder if crispy burgers are a thing
A wild idea that deserves experimentation
I know what I'm buying at the end of the month then
I've made burgers in the air fryer before. Just put it on the Bake setting instead of Air Fry.
Just FYI. If you use the app, you can get 2 mcdoubles and a medium fry for just over $4. It's the only place I will still get fast food because they actually have prices similar to they used to in the app.
Remember, if you are getting something for free (including a discount) in exchange for using an app, you're paying for that in data.
Some people don't care about that, lots of people care an awful lot about that. Sure you'll get a McDouble for cheaper but you'll also be receiving scam phone calls every day for the rest of your life as McDonald's sells your personal data to anyone who bids for it.
Very true - I do use burner emails and remove trackers. Fortunately my spam filter for phone calls works well, but yeah, they gonna get dat data.
$1 in January of 2018 has the same buying power as...$1.24 in December of 2023. "The price of everything" did not increased 100%, it increased 24%.
That also sucks, and you don't have to lie about it to make your point.
Tell that to all of us paying upwards of 3X as much for many basic goods, including McChickens.
I am currently telling you that, and your response is to shift from a claim of a 100% increase to a 200% increase which just about proves my point.
Then I'll spell it out for you: your complaint is moot because what actually matters to people is the price listed in this meme, not blatant attempts at distorting what we can clearly see happening in front of our eyes.
We're suffering hyperinflation and no amount of dishonesty and manipulation from you is going to change that. You want it to not be true? Petition McDonald's to lower their prices.
Are McDonalds dollar menu items so absolutely pivotal to your life that it completely breaks down when they raise in price?
Am I so much of a threat to the status quo you benefit from that you completely break down over a picture of the price of a McChicken at McDonald's?
Does it truly matter so much to you?
I don’t think you’re a threat to anyone. I just think it’s kind of baby brained and an overall bad trend for society to think like that
Do you understand what the overall inflation figure means though? You can’t just say “no, that figure about overall inflation in the economy isn’t true, my double whopper supreme is way more than that!!”
Wasn’t Lemmy supposed to be the somewhat “smarter” Reddit where people had taken a basic stats class at some point in their life? I just really don’t get this thinking.
🤔 Oh, I get it. You're one of "those types." The type that'll find any way to dispute anything that tells us something is wrong.
As if the overall inflation figure and other obscure, arcane bullshit changes the fact that a McChicken tripled in price, which is something that deeply and demonstrably affects ALL of our lives whether we eat fast food or not.
No just one side tends to have very complex figures backed by large independent teams of experts in the field and the other has McChicken prices and vibes.
If the other side had like… any real data I would be on board with it
Hot take: a McChicken isn't a basic good.
It is to people who can't afford anything else or cook for themselves. Like the homeless population you claim to care about.
In 2018 I'm pretty sure junior chickens were 1.89... they are 3.89 now, that's double the price.
One fast food chain might have increased the price of one sandwich, that doesn't mean "the price of everything" has "at least" doubled. The price of everything weighed together has increased 24%. We monitor these things scientifically and consistently across time to get as accurate a number as is possible.
You can't refute that by extrapolating the price of one sandwich from one chain in one cherry picked time frame.
Personally I charge people double for me to give a fuck these days so I'd say there's two sandwiches to worry about.
Definitely. I really don’t like posts like this, as they really just feed into a false, conspiratorial narrative wherein somehow every single federal agency and employee, no matter how bureaucratic, monitored, and independent - is under the direct control of whoever happens to be the sitting president at the time.
It’s just fundamentally really not how government (or data collection) works, and it reeks of that dangerous “midwit” territory wherein people feel like they can cite one or two examples of the data seeming off or the government being a bit opaque and they think they’re experts on the subject.
You end up creating a society in which people can’t trust/believe basic facts because everyone keeps convincing eachother that only the vibes of a situation matter
I'm not sure the original post was referring specifically to the inflation of the dollar but it does highlight a real phenomenon in which large corporations are shrinking their product and their workforce, yet prices increase exponentially.
I'm not arguing that McDonald's sandwich price changes are reflective of the economy either, but as one of the worst offenders on the planet in regards to corporate greed, there's no question "inflation" only accounts for a small portion of the increase,
Actually McDonald's sandwich prices are literally an economic measure. The big Mac has specifically been used by economists to measure purchase power over time
Yeah that 24% may very well be true for the average of "the price of everything", but food is definitely closer to a 100% increase, so especially people with lower income will be closer to experiencing inflation of up to a hundred percent and not "just" 24.
On average the economy is doing good but people don't live in averages, especially if the average is skewed by billionaires.
In school we learned that when the economy "booms" or is at its current high point, everyone, excluding very rich people, are doing worse. Most of humanity (like 95%) are better off when the economy is doing poorly, as goods tend to get cheaper. Just something I wanted to share.
Most of humanity (like 95%) are better off when the economy is doing poorly, as goods tend to get cheaper.
They're cheaper because people are buying less.
People are buying less because they don't have the money to buy more.
They don't have the money because they're out of a job.
They're out of a job because the economy is in the toilet.
The super rich also love recessions. They still have money. If they want to acquire a company, they can do it for cheaper. The GCF of 2007-2009 is considered to be one of the largest wealth transfers and wealth consolidations in history.
"the economy" can be replaced with "rich pepole's yacht money"
"Rich people's yacht money is at an all time high!"
"trickle down economy"
All the trash will magically trickle down from their yachts onto the beaches and onto our plates!
I used to love getting the dollar menu stuff from McDonald’s and idk if it’s that I turned 30 and suddenly started feeling grumpy about everything but I refuse to go there now that their prices are like this for a “value menu”.
Not only has the price of the McDonalds hash brown increased, the size portion has decreased.
Used to be you could get two for a dollar, now they're like three bucks apiece and they don't even fry 'em right.
This seems like a bad example, there is a good video by modern MBA on taco bells value menu that mentions McDonald's losing money with the dollar menu
Figures, the price hike was probably long overdue. Sucks that it hits so hard now but it is what it is
I find it hard to believe McDonald's was losing money on the dollar menu items. Considering they owned the entire process from factory, shipping, to restaurant. Back in the 90's even I know the fountain drinks alone were insanely profitable.
They might not “lose money” per McChicken sold but if they’re not gaining a certain dollar amount per hour/week/month/etc that particular McDonalds restaurant might lose money over time.
Take two burger places, one of them makes 20 cents on every burger, while the other makes a dollar and 20 cents on every burger. Even if the latter one gets a bit less traffic it’s absolutely going to out perform the former.
This can suck but… if can also be the reality of the situation. A sandwich (even a small one) being a single dollar is likely way below McDonalds usual margin, and unless you’re demanding an immediate People’s Revolution of fast food restaurants they’re going to run the numbers and make the most profitable locations they can.
I mean, I worked there. I was there when the beany baby craze was in full effect. The profit margins even back then were huge since they control the entire supply line. Never thought I'd see the day people come out to be apologists for McDonalds.
Why I'm getting downvoted because a video (that wasn't linked) had someone talking about a Yum! branded company (Taco Bell) whos profits tanked in 2016 (from $13B to $1.89B) mentioned McDonalds... who's not seen any sort of comparable problems as based on the links I provided... is beyond me.
It’s not really “shilling for a company” to understand that price increases for products (especially “value” products) do not often perfectly follow country-wide overall inflation percentages
If I recall correctly, taco bell started the value menu war but they made items that were designed to be priced at one dollar. Burger King, Wendys, and McDonald's discounted existing items that cut into their previous prices in response.
Give me 5 bees for a quarter
Which was the style at the time..
Inflation is calculated off of the cost of some particular basket of goods, and tends not to be even across those goods.
Yeah, if you eat a lot of corporate fast food, prices have skyrocketed recently. At a rate that far outpaces the local pizzeria and Chinese restaurant down the street, or the cost of chicken and eggs from the grocery store.
Why has one increase more than the other? Is there a specific driving force?
Probably stonks or some shit
Cause McDonald's used to price a lot of things at a loss and it's not worth it anymore with other costs rising.
Well say thanks to the government in 2020 that printed half of all dollars in existence today. Small government my ass
I mean they've been printing bailout checks for big oil for a long, long time.
there was a depression and the 1% used it to further centralize profits. That is by far the biggest contributor to this situation
Where did the money go? I doubt it went into the hands of the average person who then decided to overpay for everything.
I wonder how much of this is the fault of food delivery apps. I've heard multiple people who run a small restaurant or food cart complaining that those apps as part of their terms/contract wouldn't let you price up your menu items in-app to cover the % cut they take. during pandemic when app orders become the majority of your business, it makes sense to price up the items to include uber's cut across the board and just incorporate it into your cost model.
man i hate food delivery apps. theyre shitty to their employees and shitty to businesses; they just feel like a leech on society
Is that how all the ghost kitchens got started?
price of everything went up by x20 in Turkey in the last decade. salaries? maybe x5 or x10 if your lucky.
Now a junior chicken is like four bucks
and this is why we micro farm and raise chickens.
But they said Genocide Joe fixed the economy and we have Jawbs and housing now
This dudes reference is literally a capitalist giant bullshit product with completely imaginary prices.
Like, McDumb raising random prices is no clear indication of inflation. Rice, noodles and stuff are
I think the Big Mac index is a somewhat good measure of buying power since it has to source so many local ingredients.
Tell that to the extreme poor who are dependent on McChickens to survive
Food at home: something way worse in every possible way.
If your food at home is worse, you should blame the chef.
How come? Haven't you ever cooked on your own before?
Bro literally just toss some things in a pot, fry it up, add water, and simmer until it tastes nice
your home cooking sucks because you want it to suck
Nah, my choices are very limited due to the Hungarian kitchen...😥
Hungarian kitchen? Wtf does this mean?
I grew up in a 2nd generation Hungarian American family and we cooked tons of cheap, and amazing foods. Goulash, paprikash, and pierogis are all "pesant/farmer" foods and are cheap as all hell, not to mention they boast amazing flavors. Additionally you can explore regional and family variantions on the recipes and never run out fresh experiences.
The gaslighting bothers me the most. “The soft landing worked! The economy is great! Look at all these jobs!” Are they good jobs? Do they pay enough to live? Why has the price of everything gone up so much? It’s eerie being lied to on such a massive scale like this. Very much a superb example of “don’t piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining.”
It's purposeful. The system is collapsing and the only option they have is to lie to people to convince them to continue participating.
"you now have to spend more money to survive" -> "people are now spending more money" -> "the GDP is going up" -> "the economy is doing well!"
If you are eating fast food and you give a shit if the price goes up you already lost.
The CPI is not the economy, the stock market is not the economy, wages and unemployment are not the economy, there is no one measure that effectively captures what's happening with the economy.
This exactly, and the people making policy are so far out of touch that they don't even have a friend of a friend that's as impacted as we are by this insane inflation.
Worst thing is, we weren't getting cost of living increases before inflation went batshit.
I mean, they are out of touch, but don't believe for a second that they don't know what they're doing.
For example, why would a politican regulate the housing market and bolster tenants' rights when they and a bunch of their buddies are making bank?
There is the Consumer Sentiment Index which at least tries to quantify what people are feeling about the economy. According to the recent report, 48% of consumers expect bad times in the year ahead for business conditions, which is down from the high of June 2022 when 79% of consumers expected challenging times ahead for the economy.
Index of Consumer Sentiment, 1960-2024 - University of Michigan
Oof
Source
Oof indeed. It's hard to think back to June 2022, but I'd have to imagine some of the sentiment increases are due to supply chain shortages getting worked out.
Personally as someone in tech, it feels like with interest rates going up, a lot of investments in technology companies have dried up. Looking back, mid 2010s was low interest rates and it seemed like there was more money being invested, without the focus of immediate profit. Now it feels like the screws are being tightened and every cent they can extract out of customers is being taken advantage of, regardless if that is overall good for the product or company.
Since the Great Depression (about a century ago!) The US government has been fudging the numbers so that the economy looks better than it is. Inflation, unemployment, wages, etc. are qualifed with modifiers (because why count anyone who stopped looking for work?).
The system intends to gaslight us and convince us the economy is doing great. We're down on our luck, or we suck and deserve to be on the brink of homelessness and starvation.
After all, if our government was transparent with us, we might see it's not all because of corporate greed and anticompetitive markets. We might realize regulatory capture has real consequences. We might pressure the government to actually serve the pubic and install some effective social safety nets. And then the companies would have to pay us living wages for short work weeks and provide a non-toxic, non-hazardous work environment.
And our plutocrats won't have that.
Exactly. There may be a numerous jobs, but do they pay well?
The unemployment rate has plummeted ever since we started counting jobs per capita instead of employed individuals! It's been below -50% ever since!
I know what a crab being brought to boil feels like now.
King crab sounds hella good right now, not gonna lie
Better than a garbage-ass McChicken ever was. I remember eating them when I was on the struggle, before covid. The only good thing about them back then was the price; now they don't even have that going for them.
🤔 Someone ought to make a !cookathome@lemmy.cafe sub. EDIT: there we go :P
King crab are gone mon ami, their population is collapsing
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a41854680/crab-shortage-billion-crabs-missing/
McChicken is all we gonna have soon
😥
Yeah best part of McDonalds was the price. When the McSuits tried to portray the price increases as a quality increases they dropped the ball immensely.
Wasn’t that meme debunked? It’s actually: a frog with brain removed will not jump out of a pot slowly brought to boil.
A frog with its brain intact will jump out no problem.
Yeah but crabs can't hop.
Not a meal - that's just the burger. $8.30 AUD (5.42usd). Ridiculous.
How in the actual fuck are you all surviving down there? Are you like hunting down the kangaroos for sustenance?
It’s my understanding that kangaroos are plentiful. I’ve had kangaroo meat and it’s pretty tasty, like very lean beef.
I was in Cincinnati a long time ago and they have this insane and awesome (in the true sense of the word) supermarket called Jungle Jim's and they had kangaroo meat, but I didn't trust the hotel freezer, so I didn't buy it. I regret it now, although I don't eat meat anymore. I don't know, maybe I'd make an exception just once just to try kangaroo. It would be very hard to resist.
Corporate greedflation.
I was gonna say, this post seems pretty disingenuous to blame "every public figurehead" for corporate greed. Maybe if we better taxed and regulated those companies this wouldn't be happening. If only some public figureheads had literally that exact platform.
Considering greedy corporations are lobbying (bribing) public figure heads, it’s not far off.
Then the party of campaign and political finance reform would be the obvious choice.
lol oh is it? Which party is that again?
I don't know what country you even live in, mate. If it's the USA then look up "HR 1 For The People Act".
Ok and? This act has nothing to do with financial reform.
If you think this changes anything then I have a bridge to sell you.
It literally does, though?
It was a partisan DNC bill that immediately passed the house upon them gaining a majority.
And how exactly is this reforming finance? I’ve read the entire thing and don’t see a single thing that will change the current financial system in any meaningful way
If that's true then clearly you don't have the reading comprehension to understand it even if it were explained to you.
Sounds like a strawman argument to me. This was passed years ago yet nothing has actually changed. It’s meaningless. If you can show me empirical evidence that demonstrates real reform then show me, otherwise your words are as meaningless as this “act”.
You have no argument.
I'm sorry for calling you an idiot, earlier. If you're interested in the subject then I'll leave a brief intro to the US political process.
It's a bit convoluted but basically for a bill to become law it has to pass 3 chambers: the House, the Senate, and be signed by the sitting President. Even after this, the courts can rule changing the interpretation of the law but generally that doesn't happen often because Congress can impeach a judge for misconduct, and judicial organizations can disbar them, effectively ending their legal career.
Amendments to the constitution, anything that changes the congressional budget past a defined limit, removal from office a federal official, or vetoing a decision by a sitting president all require a Supermajority (sometimes referred to as a 2/3rds vote) which is 67 out of 100 senators or 290 of 435 house representatives. One tactic people use to prevent a bill from passing is to simply "filibuster" or prolong the debate process by taking a stand at the podium for long periods of time until people leave to sleep, eat, or return to their families causing them to miss the vote, but a 2/3rds majority can also bypass the filibuster and force the vote to proceed.
HR1 For the People Act was passed in the House of Representatives after the "Blue Wave" backlash against conservatives in 2020 where a lot of new DNC representatives were elected to the House. Unfortunately it was short lived as the Senate has been in a deadlock ever since, even now it's a 48:49 DNC to RNC split with 3 Independents caucusing with DNC to have them elect the majority leader. A total of 45 DNC Senators sponsored the bill but it's not nearly enough to bypass filibuster or even pass at all without support from other parties.
It never passed. It went through the house and never passed in the senate. Idiot.
Hey now, that's just not true (!)
If you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, work an extra shift, maybe sell some things you don't need, you can afford a McChicken Sandwich (!)
Honestly anyone who isn't willing to work an extra 5 or 6 jobs has no right to complain.
Even then, you could be making passive income.
Yeah, just buy a house and rent it, demand for housing is super high so you can charge as much as you want!
Have you seen the price of boots these days? More like pull yourself up by your dirty socks (cost probably $15 to wash) and then get kicked out of any building you walk into for being in your socks then go find a hole somewhere without anti-homeless spikes to crawl into and die then your next of kin get the outrageous bill for the ambulance that was called, the cycle repeats and basically everything will be fine haha!
If I can pull myself up, I'll just have the pie in the sky.
I am and old millennial and have pretty much considered my wife and I somewhat upper middle class. We never paid attention to grocery prices, took a vacation every year and were able to put away money for retirement. And while I am fortunate enough to still be doing well, that comfort and buffer we had has all but dissappeared in the pandemic.
Half decade sounds longer than 5 years. Someone could have started highschool, and by the end of highschool be in a completely different price market than before. 5 years is way too quick for these things to change that much.
Me who started driving in 2001 and then saw gas prices double before I was out of hs. Then the great recession happened when I finally got out on my own and gas was even more expensive than it is now and companies had started raising prices like crazy with the excuse that fuel prices were high. It's also when shrinkflation started happening. Good jobs were also unobtainable because people postponed retirement for years after the recession. I didn't get anything decent until around 10 years ago, and now I feel like I'm back where I was when I was 21 working at McDonald's.
Only if you have no clue how long a decade is (10 years).
I buy those dollar store packages of refried beans and rice, and cans of mixed vegetables. I put them in individual containers and freeze them to take to work for lunch. It's pretty cheap, and it makes me feel a lot fuller than anything I could buy at a convenience store or restaurant.
It's also vegan and gluten free (I have celiac and severe lactose intolerance)
A thing I have thought of trying is to take a bean and rice mixture and make stuffed peppers with it. I am certain it will be delicious. Certainly better than a ShitChicken.
This sounds really good too!
Also, whenever I cook something like soup or even pasta, I always cook extra so I can freeze it in portions. It's so much better than paying like $15 for fast food or junk food that's not even satisfying
I have two boys that will soon be giants. I'm working on my rice and beans skills.
I do that with poblanos (and vegan chorizo if I'm feeling fancy), and I can confirm that it's so good, and not terribly expensive. The last time I did it, it was probably about $10 for the ingredients, but it made enough peppers for 2 meals each for me and my mom, plus enough leftover filling for at least couple more.
I can also very much recommend lentins.
They are good. There's even pasta made out of lentins. It is gluten free. You use it like ordinary pasta. It's good.
I've had that, and I totally agree!
Lentils
It would be even cheaper if you bought them nearly anywhere else but the dollar store.
Unit for unit, dollar stores are almost always more expensive than grocery stores or warehouse clubs.
In this case, they are cheaper at the dollar store. I've compared prices at Walmart and grocery stores.
Same with the packages of pre-cooked microwaveable rice.
While I agree that dollar store prices can be higher, with the foods I buy they're pretty consistently cheaper per ounce at the dollar store. Believe me, I compare!
Not even 15 minutes ago I was in a McDonald’s drive-thru. The only thing I ordered was a Single Cheeseburger, the cost was $3.59…. I told them never mind and came home and made pasta instead. Absolutely ridiculous that a single patty burger from there could cost so much.
Of course, it's cheaper to cook at home. But the McChicken is, like the whole industry that is to blame for it's existance, a serious threat to our physical health and thus to be avoided at any cost.
The only way to get decent prices is through the app, and even then, it's really hit or miss.
Over a lifetime it's more economical to not eat any fast food.
The fast food you eat on a regular basis early on in life just degrades your health later on in life when you will spend money trying to remedy. You will pay for that fast food twice, once when you eat it and again later on life when you pay to treat your heart, weight, circulation, blood and inflammation.
Eating fast food is investing in having some terrible last years of your life .... you may live long but if you're not healthy now, you'll spend the last ten or 20 years of your life miserable.
If you’re eating it on a regular basis sure, McDonald’s once every two weeks or longer isn’t going to kill anyone more than the rest of the junk on the shelves
And they can get away with it because your average voter only cares about whatever culture war nonsense Fox tells them to be angry about
"Idc about cost of living nonsense when there's migrants caravans at the boarder and kids are being transed!!!!!!!!"
The thing that gets me, is that since 2018, I can confidently say that my wage has not even nearly tripled... It's barely even ~40% higher, and I've been on a fairly steady upward path, but the fucking McChicken has increased by almost triple.
I could not give fewer shits about the numerical prices. It's the relative price that annoys me. A trip to McDonald's (or realistically, anywhere) is that much more of a percentage of my paycheque.
And the icing on this shit-filled cake is that productivity has been on a steady incline the entire time. So we're doing more work, for the same wages, and prices continue to inflate.
Where is it all going? (Isn't it obvious)
They're exploiting the fact that they've turned humanity into creepy, hopelessly dependent little goblins and it's horrific to watch.
You're getting wage increases?
No. I just applied for jobs that paid more.
Eventually I got one.
Kind of hate posts like this. Yes! Inflation is happening and bad. And yes! The McChicken (and a lot of fast food value options) have soared in price in recent years. But trying to take that and frame it as “look at this… it’s so obvious the government is lying to us and overall inflation is actually over 100%” Is just ignorant nonsense and it tends to play into conspiratorial minds who don’t actually have any experience in economics or data collection.
You can hate the federal government all you want. Really. I totally get it. But they are unfortunately really good at data collection.
I get what you are saying, but think about it like this. If all you ate was McChickens then food inflation for you specifically was almost 300%. So even though "real" inflation was lower, you are still paying 3 times the amount you did before for your food.
See I get that, and that’s absolutely fine. There’s just a gigantic difference between saying “hmm, it seems like inflation for ‘budget’ items used by poorer individuals has gone up at a higher rate than other items, let me see if I can find some info on that” and “nope! The government is lying, actually! I can tell from the vibes.”
One is very solution and truth oriented and the other is impatience that only sets them up to fall for further conspiracy theories and emotional arguement
I love burgers but I don't get to have them anymore from anywhere because costs skyrocketed and my income didn't. McDonald's even stopped being affordable a while ago. In Canada the price of a McDouble, at least last time I checked near me, was $4. For a McDouble.
I just eat ramen and dream of burgers.
You can get a stack of burger patties from stores usually for like 10-12 bucks then cook one for a burger in your broiler if you got one, 15 min, flip once, throw some vegs as a side, yummay!!
I've got an air fryer. Wonder if crispy burgers are a thing
A wild idea that deserves experimentation
I know what I'm buying at the end of the month then
I've made burgers in the air fryer before. Just put it on the Bake setting instead of Air Fry.
Just FYI. If you use the app, you can get 2 mcdoubles and a medium fry for just over $4. It's the only place I will still get fast food because they actually have prices similar to they used to in the app.
Remember, if you are getting something for free (including a discount) in exchange for using an app, you're paying for that in data.
Some people don't care about that, lots of people care an awful lot about that. Sure you'll get a McDouble for cheaper but you'll also be receiving scam phone calls every day for the rest of your life as McDonald's sells your personal data to anyone who bids for it.
Very true - I do use burner emails and remove trackers. Fortunately my spam filter for phone calls works well, but yeah, they gonna get dat data.
$1 in January of 2018 has the same buying power as...$1.24 in December of 2023. "The price of everything" did not increased 100%, it increased 24%.
That also sucks, and you don't have to lie about it to make your point.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1&year1=201801&year2=202312
Tell that to all of us paying upwards of 3X as much for many basic goods, including McChickens.
I am currently telling you that, and your response is to shift from a claim of a 100% increase to a 200% increase which just about proves my point.
Then I'll spell it out for you: your complaint is moot because what actually matters to people is the price listed in this meme, not blatant attempts at distorting what we can clearly see happening in front of our eyes.
We're suffering hyperinflation and no amount of dishonesty and manipulation from you is going to change that. You want it to not be true? Petition McDonald's to lower their prices.
Are McDonalds dollar menu items so absolutely pivotal to your life that it completely breaks down when they raise in price?
Am I so much of a threat to the status quo you benefit from that you completely break down over a picture of the price of a McChicken at McDonald's?
Does it truly matter so much to you?
I don’t think you’re a threat to anyone. I just think it’s kind of baby brained and an overall bad trend for society to think like that
Do you understand what the overall inflation figure means though? You can’t just say “no, that figure about overall inflation in the economy isn’t true, my double whopper supreme is way more than that!!”
Wasn’t Lemmy supposed to be the somewhat “smarter” Reddit where people had taken a basic stats class at some point in their life? I just really don’t get this thinking.
🤔 Oh, I get it. You're one of "those types." The type that'll find any way to dispute anything that tells us something is wrong.
As if the overall inflation figure and other obscure, arcane bullshit changes the fact that a McChicken tripled in price, which is something that deeply and demonstrably affects ALL of our lives whether we eat fast food or not.
No just one side tends to have very complex figures backed by large independent teams of experts in the field and the other has McChicken prices and vibes.
If the other side had like… any real data I would be on board with it
Hot take: a McChicken isn't a basic good.
It is to people who can't afford anything else or cook for themselves. Like the homeless population you claim to care about.
In 2018 I'm pretty sure junior chickens were 1.89... they are 3.89 now, that's double the price.
One fast food chain might have increased the price of one sandwich, that doesn't mean "the price of everything" has "at least" doubled. The price of everything weighed together has increased 24%. We monitor these things scientifically and consistently across time to get as accurate a number as is possible.
You can't refute that by extrapolating the price of one sandwich from one chain in one cherry picked time frame.
Personally I charge people double for me to give a fuck these days so I'd say there's two sandwiches to worry about.
Definitely. I really don’t like posts like this, as they really just feed into a false, conspiratorial narrative wherein somehow every single federal agency and employee, no matter how bureaucratic, monitored, and independent - is under the direct control of whoever happens to be the sitting president at the time.
It’s just fundamentally really not how government (or data collection) works, and it reeks of that dangerous “midwit” territory wherein people feel like they can cite one or two examples of the data seeming off or the government being a bit opaque and they think they’re experts on the subject.
You end up creating a society in which people can’t trust/believe basic facts because everyone keeps convincing eachother that only the vibes of a situation matter
I'm not sure the original post was referring specifically to the inflation of the dollar but it does highlight a real phenomenon in which large corporations are shrinking their product and their workforce, yet prices increase exponentially. I'm not arguing that McDonald's sandwich price changes are reflective of the economy either, but as one of the worst offenders on the planet in regards to corporate greed, there's no question "inflation" only accounts for a small portion of the increase,
Actually McDonald's sandwich prices are literally an economic measure. The big Mac has specifically been used by economists to measure purchase power over time
Yeah that 24% may very well be true for the average of "the price of everything", but food is definitely closer to a 100% increase, so especially people with lower income will be closer to experiencing inflation of up to a hundred percent and not "just" 24.
BuT tHe EcOnOmY iS bOoMiNg!
On average the economy is doing good but people don't live in averages, especially if the average is skewed by billionaires.
In school we learned that when the economy "booms" or is at its current high point, everyone, excluding very rich people, are doing worse. Most of humanity (like 95%) are better off when the economy is doing poorly, as goods tend to get cheaper. Just something I wanted to share.
They're cheaper because people are buying less.
People are buying less because they don't have the money to buy more.
They don't have the money because they're out of a job.
They're out of a job because the economy is in the toilet.
The super rich also love recessions. They still have money. If they want to acquire a company, they can do it for cheaper. The GCF of 2007-2009 is considered to be one of the largest wealth transfers and wealth consolidations in history.
"the economy" can be replaced with "rich pepole's yacht money"
"Rich people's yacht money is at an all time high!"
"trickle down economy" All the trash will magically trickle down from their yachts onto the beaches and onto our plates!
I used to love getting the dollar menu stuff from McDonald’s and idk if it’s that I turned 30 and suddenly started feeling grumpy about everything but I refuse to go there now that their prices are like this for a “value menu”.
Not only has the price of the McDonalds hash brown increased, the size portion has decreased.
Used to be you could get two for a dollar, now they're like three bucks apiece and they don't even fry 'em right.
This seems like a bad example, there is a good video by modern MBA on taco bells value menu that mentions McDonald's losing money with the dollar menu
Figures, the price hike was probably long overdue. Sucks that it hits so hard now but it is what it is
I find it hard to believe McDonald's was losing money on the dollar menu items. Considering they owned the entire process from factory, shipping, to restaurant. Back in the 90's even I know the fountain drinks alone were insanely profitable.
They might not “lose money” per McChicken sold but if they’re not gaining a certain dollar amount per hour/week/month/etc that particular McDonalds restaurant might lose money over time.
Take two burger places, one of them makes 20 cents on every burger, while the other makes a dollar and 20 cents on every burger. Even if the latter one gets a bit less traffic it’s absolutely going to out perform the former.
This can suck but… if can also be the reality of the situation. A sandwich (even a small one) being a single dollar is likely way below McDonalds usual margin, and unless you’re demanding an immediate People’s Revolution of fast food restaurants they’re going to run the numbers and make the most profitable locations they can.
I mean, I worked there. I was there when the beany baby craze was in full effect. The profit margins even back then were huge since they control the entire supply line. Never thought I'd see the day people come out to be apologists for McDonalds.
Their revenue from 2002 when they introduced the dollar menu meal was $15.40 B. Then climbed to 20 billion by 2005 and has bounced between 20 to 28 billion every year since except for 2020 where they dipped to 19 billion. They are far ahead of https://companiesmarketcap.com/mcdonald/revenue/ https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MCD/mcdonalds/gross-profit
Why I'm getting downvoted because a video (that wasn't linked) had someone talking about a Yum! branded company (Taco Bell) whos profits tanked in 2016 (from $13B to $1.89B) mentioned McDonalds... who's not seen any sort of comparable problems as based on the links I provided... is beyond me.
It’s not really “shilling for a company” to understand that price increases for products (especially “value” products) do not often perfectly follow country-wide overall inflation percentages
Sorry, I think this is the video https://youtu.be/WKh85_81US0
Interestingly, taco bells lower performance gave them more freedom
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/WKh85_81US0
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
If I recall correctly, taco bell started the value menu war but they made items that were designed to be priced at one dollar. Burger King, Wendys, and McDonald's discounted existing items that cut into their previous prices in response.
Give me 5 bees for a quarter
Which was the style at the time..
Inflation is calculated off of the cost of some particular basket of goods, and tends not to be even across those goods.
Yeah, if you eat a lot of corporate fast food, prices have skyrocketed recently. At a rate that far outpaces the local pizzeria and Chinese restaurant down the street, or the cost of chicken and eggs from the grocery store.
Why has one increase more than the other? Is there a specific driving force?
Probably stonks or some shit
Cause McDonald's used to price a lot of things at a loss and it's not worth it anymore with other costs rising.
Well say thanks to the government in 2020 that printed half of all dollars in existence today. Small government my ass
I mean they've been printing bailout checks for big oil for a long, long time.
there was a depression and the 1% used it to further centralize profits. That is by far the biggest contributor to this situation
Where did the money go? I doubt it went into the hands of the average person who then decided to overpay for everything.
Trillions went into the hands of corporations.
Yeah, that was one of their more boneheaded moves. 🤦
I wonder how much of this is the fault of food delivery apps. I've heard multiple people who run a small restaurant or food cart complaining that those apps as part of their terms/contract wouldn't let you price up your menu items in-app to cover the % cut they take. during pandemic when app orders become the majority of your business, it makes sense to price up the items to include uber's cut across the board and just incorporate it into your cost model.
man i hate food delivery apps. theyre shitty to their employees and shitty to businesses; they just feel like a leech on society
Is that how all the ghost kitchens got started?
price of everything went up by x20 in Turkey in the last decade. salaries? maybe x5 or x10 if your lucky.
Now a junior chicken is like four bucks
and this is why we micro farm and raise chickens.
But they said Genocide Joe fixed the economy and we have Jawbs and housing now
This dudes reference is literally a capitalist giant bullshit product with completely imaginary prices.
Like, McDumb raising random prices is no clear indication of inflation. Rice, noodles and stuff are
I think the Big Mac index is a somewhat good measure of buying power since it has to source so many local ingredients.
Tell that to the extreme poor who are dependent on McChickens to survive
Food at home: something way worse in every possible way.
If your food at home is worse, you should blame the chef.
How come? Haven't you ever cooked on your own before?
Bro literally just toss some things in a pot, fry it up, add water, and simmer until it tastes nice
your home cooking sucks because you want it to suck
Nah, my choices are very limited due to the Hungarian kitchen...😥
Hungarian kitchen? Wtf does this mean?
I grew up in a 2nd generation Hungarian American family and we cooked tons of cheap, and amazing foods. Goulash, paprikash, and pierogis are all "pesant/farmer" foods and are cheap as all hell, not to mention they boast amazing flavors. Additionally you can explore regional and family variantions on the recipes and never run out fresh experiences.
Paprika is amazing, use it, love it, live it.
No better, healthier, tastier, more