3 ms·

> Food has gotten insanely expensive in that time. > Anecdotally, I can remember a burger at a restaurant was about $6 in 1999. Now average seems to be 15 to 2

> Food has gotten insanely expensive in that time. > Anecdotally, I can remember a burger at a restaurant was about $6 in 1999. Now average seems to be 15 to 20. When you go to a restaurant, you're mostly buying labor. It's not a good benchmark for food prices.

HarryHirsch 3y ago
When you go to a restaurant, you're mostly buying labor Wages have stagnated, but rent and energy has gone up. It's mostly the rent that you are paying for when you eat out.
- zdragnar 3y ago
  Maybe where you are. Service industry job wages have all gone up significantly since pre-covid where I live.
- steveBK123 3y ago
  Wages have not stagnated. It's been a defining feature of our COVID inflation that inequality stats have gotten better. Specifically in HCOL coastal cities, we've seen increases to minimum wage, adjustments to the "tipped minimum wage" laws that mean business needs to cover more of the wage, and finally.. labor shortages causing restaurants to pay over even those increased minimums. It wasn't long ago NYC minimum wage was under $10/hr, with "tipped minimum" being $7/hr. Now you have some restaurants paying $20/hr to get staff.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  Personal income has not stagnated in constant terms (or real terms): https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/per_capita_personal_income/tools/0/0/ https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-tr...
nonethewiser 3y ago
> It's not a good benchmark for food prices. I don’t think the original comment depended on this being a good benchmark for food prices. Paying more for labor is also part of inflation.
oceanplexian 3y ago
It’s not anecdotal, search online for old copies of menus from popular chain restaurants. Inflation has been retconned (i.e “Burgers were always $15, what are you talking about?”) They don’t want you to notice as your wealth is slowly stolen through the loss of purchasing power.
- frozenport 3y ago
  Good. I don’t want a society where people can sit on wealth.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    Have fun retiring
  - galangalalgol 3y ago
    The gp used poor terminology. Inflation doesn't impact wealth nearly so much as income. The idle rich draw their income from capital gains on investments in the things that are becoming more expensive and are largely non negotiable. People must spend wages on shelter food energy and probably transport. They will pull back on things they enjoy but cannot afford now. The wealthy will continue to purchase what they want when they want. That is why selling high end luxury goods is a much more stable option than selling thebthings that are luxuries for those who get their income from wages.
    - onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
      > The idle rich draw their income from capital gains on investments in the things that are becoming more expensive and are largely non negotiable. People must spend wages on shelter food energy and probably transport. Wages have gone up in real terms (how the fed measures inflation). Food, energy, & transport have slightly under-performed inflation. i.e. there's no way to slice it - the average laborer can afford more food & labor now than in the past. The linked site differs from Case Shiller - saying that housing has also under-performed inflation. I'm interested how they arrived at that. Housing is the real problem - and the vast, vast majority of housing in the US is owned by individuals and mom-and-pop investors, not corporations & billionaires. The idle rich cannot be blamed for our problems in housing - though they can be blamed for other things. On housing, we can only blame ourselves, voting aggressively to curtail development at every opportunity.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

HarryHirsch 3y ago

When you go to a restaurant, you're mostly buying labor Wages have stagnated, but rent and energy has gone up. It's mostly the rent that you are paying for when you eat out.

zdragnar 3y ago
Maybe where you are. Service industry job wages have all gone up significantly since pre-covid where I live.
steveBK123 3y ago
Wages have not stagnated. It's been a defining feature of our COVID inflation that inequality stats have gotten better. Specifically in HCOL coastal cities, we've seen increases to minimum wage, adjustments to the "tipped minimum wage" laws that mean business needs to cover more of the wage, and finally.. labor shortages causing restaurants to pay over even those increased minimums. It wasn't long ago NYC minimum wage was under $10/hr, with "tipped minimum" being $7/hr. Now you have some restaurants paying $20/hr to get staff.
onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
Personal income has not stagnated in constant terms (or real terms): https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-trends-analysis/per_capita_personal_income/tools/0/0/ https://united-states.reaproject.org/analysis/comparative-tr...

nonethewiser 3y ago

> It's not a good benchmark for food prices. I don’t think the original comment depended on this being a good benchmark for food prices. Paying more for labor is also part of inflation.

oceanplexian 3y ago

It’s not anecdotal, search online for old copies of menus from popular chain restaurants. Inflation has been retconned (i.e “Burgers were always $15, what are you talking about?”) They don’t want you to notice as your wealth is slowly stolen through the loss of purchasing power.

frozenport 3y ago
Good. I don’t want a society where people can sit on wealth.
- FredPret 3y ago
  Have fun retiring
- galangalalgol 3y ago
  The gp used poor terminology. Inflation doesn't impact wealth nearly so much as income. The idle rich draw their income from capital gains on investments in the things that are becoming more expensive and are largely non negotiable. People must spend wages on shelter food energy and probably transport. They will pull back on things they enjoy but cannot afford now. The wealthy will continue to purchase what they want when they want. That is why selling high end luxury goods is a much more stable option than selling thebthings that are luxuries for those who get their income from wages.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
    > The idle rich draw their income from capital gains on investments in the things that are becoming more expensive and are largely non negotiable. People must spend wages on shelter food energy and probably transport. Wages have gone up in real terms (how the fed measures inflation). Food, energy, & transport have slightly under-performed inflation. i.e. there's no way to slice it - the average laborer can afford more food & labor now than in the past. The linked site differs from Case Shiller - saying that housing has also under-performed inflation. I'm interested how they arrived at that. Housing is the real problem - and the vast, vast majority of housing in the US is owned by individuals and mom-and-pop investors, not corporations & billionaires. The idle rich cannot be blamed for our problems in housing - though they can be blamed for other things. On housing, we can only blame ourselves, voting aggressively to curtail development at every opportunity.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]