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> People aren't going to pay 8 dollars for a big mac, 1)The price of a Big Mac isn't just facilities, labor, material, and marketing. It's also profits. 2)So?

> People aren't going to pay 8 dollars for a big mac, 1)The price of a Big Mac isn't just facilities, labor, material, and marketing. It's also profits. 2)So? McDonalds doesn't have a right to sell a product a particular price point. Someone's unsustainable-for-society business model is not society's problem. 3)That big mac is costing us all money because McDonalds, like other starvation-wage employers, is relying on government assistance programs to keep their workers fed, housed, and healthy. Wallyworld hires people to help their employees file for welfare. Wallyworld made $183BN in profits last year. That's roughly $80,000 per employee. Tell me with a straight face that they can't pay people sufficiently that they don't need to be on welfare. Let's say that means a dollar or two more an hour. Two dollars an hour more for every employee (I don't know how many of Walmart's workers are minimum-wage retail, but it's certainly not all of them) would mean taking $4,000 out of that $80,000. A five percent profit loss. For an employee making federal minimum wage at $7.50/hour, a two dollar raise would be 27% pay increase.

throwaway9870 5y ago
The conviction of your opinion seems out of line with your understanding of numbers behind it.
Jiro 5y ago
This is nonsense. It's not 183, it's 138 (see https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/gross-profit https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/gross-... ), but that's not the error. The big error is that the $138B they make is gross profit. To quote Wikipedia: >For a firm, gross income (also gross profit, sales profit, or credit sales) is the difference between revenue and the cost of making a product or providing a service, before deducting overheads, payroll, taxation, and interest payments. Profit after deducting all expenses is net profit. Wal-mart's net profit in 2021 was 13.51 billion: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net-in.... If $183 billion gross profit is $80000 per employee, you're talking about $5900 net profit per employee. Two dollars per employee wouldn't be a 5% profit loss, it would be an 85% profit loss.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Crazy to me how often I see gross profit or gross income erroneously used instead of net profit or net income on HN.

throwaway9870 5y ago

The conviction of your opinion seems out of line with your understanding of numbers behind it.

Jiro 5y ago

This is nonsense. It's not 183, it's 138 (see https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/gross-profit https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/gross-... ), but that's not the error. The big error is that the $138B they make is gross profit. To quote Wikipedia: >For a firm, gross income (also gross profit, sales profit, or credit sales) is the difference between revenue and the cost of making a product or providing a service, before deducting overheads, payroll, taxation, and interest payments. Profit after deducting all expenses is net profit. Wal-mart's net profit in 2021 was 13.51 billion: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net-income https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net-in.... If $183 billion gross profit is $80000 per employee, you're talking about $5900 net profit per employee. Two dollars per employee wouldn't be a 5% profit loss, it would be an 85% profit loss.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Crazy to me how often I see gross profit or gross income erroneously used instead of net profit or net income on HN.