Ok, I'll follow on just slightly here related to the cost argument. First let's take time out of the picture because there are too many factors to measure it p

Ok, I'll follow on just slightly here related to the cost argument. First let's take time out of the picture because there are too many factors to measure it properly... How close is a McDonalds, do you enjoy cooking, blah... blah... Instead let's compare on cost only... When I originally posted I did not mention the dollar value menu, that is what was immediately posted as a response by someone else. But since it is the lowest common denominator and the representation of McDonalds has cheap food... Let's try to approximate how much it costs in money only to make a "dollar burger". The dollar burger has only 1.5 ounces of meat. Today when I checked my local grocer 80% lean ground was $2.48 a pound. So that should make about 12 dollar burgers. ~21 cents per burger for hamburger Hamburger buns were 68 cents for an eight pack; that's 8.5 cents per burger. It was $2.50 for an 8 pack of presliced cheese These were much thicker higher quality cheese, and unsliced cheese can be bought far cheaper... But we splurged so that's another 32 cents per burger. 88 cents for a head of lettuce which will easily make 20+ dollar burgers so that's 4.4 cents per burger So we add this up and we are now at a burger that costs 57.4 cents to make. We still need to add a sprinkle of onion crumbs as well as a squirt of mustard and ketchup; I think we can safely assume that is going to cost less than the remaining 42.6 cents. So yes; in fact I can make an equivalent burger for less than it costs at McDonalds. If I was going to get a sandwich at McDonalds more likely I would end up with something that doesn't totally suck, like the Big Mac, which averages $4.79 in the US. For $4.79 I can make one hell of a burger.