McDonald’s 'Dollar Menu' Goes Up to $5 (& the Federal Reserve)

reply to post by Bassago


If you make under 12 dollars an hour you will not be able to afford to live in the US in the next 2 years. Inflation is about to take everything from a huge segment of America.



This is not some doom and gloom prediction. This is based on fact and if you make anywhere near this amount you understand what I am saying. What will happen when people can not afford to live?


Fast food joints raising prices is just a symptom of the greater disease that is inflation. And this disease can not be stopped it will infect all of us one way or the other.

SubTruth
reply to post by Bassago

 

This is not some doom and gloom prediction. This is based on fact and if you make anywhere near this amount you understand what I am saying. What will happen when people can not afford to live?

Fast food joints raising prices is just a symptom of the greater disease that is inflation. And this disease can not be stopped it will infect all of us one way or the other.

edit on 25-10-2013 by SubTruth because: (no reason given)

I'll be super-optimistic here, If a person is lucky and has a job making $12 x 40 hours per week (yeah right) x 50 weeks per year they are only making $24K per year BEFORE taxes. Take 25% off that for taxes, medicare, etc (I'm being optimistic remember and not counting obamacare god help us) they're at $18K annual wage.

Yeah you are right, $18K is survivable with no wiggle room. That means no hour cuts, no sick days, no inflation. This spot between the rock and the hard place is getting much tighter.

reply to post by Bassago


It was never the $1 menu around my parts. *shrug*

I went to Wendy's the other day to try that new pretzel burger. I got two small "value" meals that included burger, fries and drink. Total cost? A whopping $16.50

I like Wendys more so than most other fast food joints, but $16.50 for two people to eat is insane! I might as well have gone to a local sit-down restaurant, tipped a server and helped the local economy.

Don't even get me started on how expensive even Taco Bell is getting, and I'm fairly sure I have the worst one in the country. I never get what I order. Ever. I've resigned to simply throwing cash into the window and saying, "give me how much food this buys!"

MystikMushroom
reply to post by Bassago

 

Don't even get me started on how expensive even Taco Bell is getting, and I'm fairly sure I have the worst one in the country. I never get what I order. Ever. I've resigned to simply throwing cash into the window and saying, "give me how much food this buys!"

Hmm.. don't know if I'd be brave enough to do that. Who knows what you'd get. I'll stick with my tried and true method for taco bell:

"Give me one Chihuahua with hot sauce!"

Sorry couldn't help it.

Back on topic - McDonald's!

MystikMushroom


Don't even get me started on how expensive even Taco Bell is getting, and I'm fairly sure I have the worst one in the country. I never get what I order. Ever. I've resigned to simply throwing cash into the window and saying, "give me how much food this buys!"

You mentioned that before, that you throw money at them, and they throw food at you, that was funny and it's still funny.

Ahem, anyway, i am wondering how much longer I will be able to get McDoubles for $1.39, it's just too good of a deal.
Sure someone mentioned that it's a double cheeseburger

seeker1963
reply to post by Bassago

 

Come on now. It's okay. We're all friends here. Your just mad because the double cheeseburger has only one slice of cheese versus the two it used to have..........right?

It still does, the double cheeseburger is not on the dollar menu, the McDouble is, the difference is one less cheese slice.

reply to post by OrphanApology


I completely agree. F$ck McDonalds. It's disgusting anyway. If they want to up their prices then let them. I don't go there for food anyway. To me, this is just one more reason to go to Steak N' Shake instead, nearly the same price, and it doesn't taste like I'm eating cancer.

GrimReaper86
reply to post by OrphanApology

 

To me, this is just one more reason to go to Steak N' Shake instead, nearly the same price, and it doesn't taste like I'm eating cancer.

I suppose then, that even if it's still cheap on the dollar menu, there are other ways you must pay!
(with your life)

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Don't you guys have Taco King in that rainy gloom yet? :lol

And yeah, what are these "dollar menus" mentioned in this thread? Does this mean the double cheeseburger will now be $4 or maybe even $5? Ultimately this may prove to be a good thing for people's health in the lower 48. If they have to spend $5 or $6 for a burger and fries, maybe more folks will learn how to cook. A box of pasta is a couple of bucks at most and with some coupon clipping and store checking quality sauce can be purchased 2 jars for $5. Throw in a couple of bucks for a bag of salad greens and you've got two or 3 nutritious meals for the price of 1 McDonald's trip.

When I was a kid in the 70's McDonald's had a commercial where you could order a meal pay with a dollar bill and still get change back.

reply to post by verylowfrequency


Here's an early 70's commercial McD's saying you can feed a family of four for under $4. Back then you could get a hamburger, small fries and small drink for under a dollar.

Note however in the commercial the guy is muttering about Big Macs, milkshakes, etc. Then he places his order for four people and gets change back from his $4. Commercials have always be created by liars and manipulators it seems.

This is gotta be the most American thread I have seen, economics in terms of cheese burgers. Sorry. Good point tho, the relationship between income and inflation is buying power and yes that is being eroded. That said (being on a low wage) although i am now having to be more careful how i spend, i am still pretty comfortable in the grand scheme of things, especially when you consider the claims of complete financial collapse over the last five or so years. Don't BUY into commercialism, we are programmed from birth into thinking that all these products will give and that we can buy happiness....its the basis of all advertising that somehow a particular brand of shampoo will improve your life.

reply to post by Bassago


Yeah, but the MCDs staff was paid less. Wage increases in them self can cause inflation, buisineses want to increase profit so you end up where you started in terms of purchasing power or maybe slightly better/worse off.

I only eat at micky dee's when there is no other place around, and I have to eat something to stop the growling in my stomach...if you like spiced cardboard with a sprig of vegetation, then enjoy....try feeding it to an animal, they'll sniff it, and turn away.

Redarguo
reply to post by Bassago

 

Yeah, but the MCDs staff was paid less. Wage increases in them self can cause inflation, buisineses want to increase profit so you end up where you started in terms of purchasing power or maybe slightly better/worse off.

I'd disagree. In 1972 I was earning $1.35/hr, a little under minimum wage in Texas. I worked 40 hours a week after school and with that wage I could afford 2 cars, 1 motorcycle, all the gas and extra money I needed. One of my friends (same job) bought and paid for a brand new Olds 442 Cutlass and another friend (same job) paid for his car (used GTO) and motorcycle and apartment.

Purchasing power in the US has vaporized over the last 40 years.

eta- And absolutely no one ever worried about filling up their gas tank. It was a non-issue.

reply to post by Bassago


I have seen the reverse of that in my life time, however I am younger and the UK economy was in a pretty bad state in the 70s. Interesting post tho. I agree wage raises definitely put up the price of goods.

reply to post by the owlbear


When people write in all caps. I don't even waste my time reading. Just skip right over and find someone intelligent enough to speak properly. All caps is screaming and it is not the type of personality I would speak to on the street therefore I don't speak to them on the internet either!

To the OP. Good thread, very interesting. After I read through it all I may have a comment or two. Not that I eat fast food much, my wife much prefers cooking when she is able, microwave food when she is not. Eating out is a rarity.

MystikMushroom
reply to post by Bassago

 

Don't even get me started on how expensive even Taco Bell is getting, and I'm fairly sure I have the worst one in the country. I never get what I order. Ever. I've resigned to simply throwing cash into the window and saying, "give me how much food this buys!"

I know.... I hadn't been to Taco Bell in years... then one day I went
there to use their WiFi.... I ordered a meal and it cost $7.98. WTF?
Last time I ordered a meal at Taco Bell it is was half that!

Ron Paul was on Stossel the other night and mentioned the fact that
gold has held stable values for thousands of years, a mathematical
reality that has caused countless societies throughout history to use
it as a form of money. The Fed’s fiat dollar, on the other hand, has
lost 97% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve was
chartered in 1913. see: silverunderground.com...



1:45 - Ron Paul: Maybe Bitcoin Offers Competition to the Fed

Though Dr. Paul once expressed skepticism about bitcoin, he seems to be warming up to it as an alternative to the Fed, considering his statements on John Stossel's Fox Business show last night, “Hayek had suggested that maybe the best transition would be just to legalize [currency] competition… maybe bitcoin offers competition.”

Do you guys use bitcoin?


> This is funny: John Cleese Explains Bitcoin

Karen Hudes: "Learn to Use Payment Systems Like Bitcoin"

She mentions Bitcoin after the 21:00-mark.

reply to post by wasaka


use bitcoin?...not in a million years. if one cannot see the problem, they need to take a remedial finance class.

I think I'm missing the conspiracy here. These are food items that already existed at the same price on their regular menu before. Rather than seeing the invisible strings of evil bankers and various other Federal reserve super-villians, I think what we are seeing here is the result of a Mcdonalds marketing meeting. It seems to a calculated business move to highlight lower priced sandwiches etc as "Value!"

It would probably be more entertaining and mysterious if Mcdonalds and the shadowy puppet masters were all in cahoots, but I'm afraid what we're seeing is a the result of a most likely incredibly dry marketing meeting. They probably even had a PowerPoint slide show and multi colored pie graphs, as you can see the meeting was successful, people are talking about Mcdonalds and they've done nothing different at all except change the name on their value menu and moved some sandwiches around.

There's no price changes, no overlords, just marketing.

reply to post by waverlyhills


I think what we're actually seeing is real price inflation driving the costs of goods upward (though the Fed denies it.) Meanwhile the Fed's insane drive to pump magic fiat money into the economy is driving the dollars value downward.

McDonald's is just an example of what happens in the middle. So are grocery prices which the Fed denies are effected by inflation either.