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.
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.
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.
The "unemployment" calculation has enabled me to completely ignore any economic numbers from the federal government. If they'd make such a ridiculous assertion, the rest of the numbers must be completely fabricated.
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 [email protected] 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.
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 (!)
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!
packages of refried beans and rice
You know, making this yourself from scratch is going to be cheaper and taste less like plastic-infused pseudofood.
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.
Ridiculous for that single patty burger ...
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!!!!!!!!"
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.
for its* existence
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.
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.
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.
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.
Inflation for necessities like food and housing is ridiculous and exceeding 100% over three years.
Inflation for rich luxuries have barely gone up comparatively.
But all the reports are averaged.
So since the rich are doing so fabulous that their numbers make it look like no one is struggling.
Nevermind the fact that 60% of people live paycheck to paycheck.
Can you provide… anything to actually substantiate that? Maybe some food items like fast food value options have gone up 100%. Maybe some homes in particular, extremely high demand areas have gone up.
When you make these gigantic sweeping claims with nothing but vibes and the McChicken to point to it just feels like bad faith
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
They may have been, but then they'd just be a "loss leader" and then you have your employees upsell. It's still be a good idea even if they did lose money on those items.
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.
$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.
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.
Since 'everything' is an average of all purchases, it pays to point out that necessities like food and housing has gone up significantly higher than upper class luxuries.
Because it is, and always has been, class warfare.
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
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.
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.
Give me 5 bees for a quarter
Which was the style at the time..
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?
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.
price of everything went up by x20 in Turkey in the last decade. salaries? maybe x5 or x10 if your lucky.
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. 🤦
Now a junior chicken is like four bucks
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
Actually, it's shrinkflation. Everything gets smaller and prices increase.
Meanwhile companies stay rich, so this has nothing to do with real inflation. At least not 1:1
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?
But they said Genocide Joe fixed the economy and we have Jawbs and housing now
