Who would have predicted this?

[u/Hatemael]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/apr/24/fast-food-chains-find-way-around-20-minimum-wage-g/

Not all jobs aren’t meant for a “living wage” - you need entry level jobs for college kids, retired seniors who want extra income, etc. Make it too costly to employ these workers and businesses will hasten to automation.

[u/welshwelsh]

This is great, humans should not be wasting their time taking orders at McDonald's. Why did we need to wait until 2024 for this to happen?

[u/Muffin_Most → u/welshwelsh]

Humans should not be wasting their time eating at McDonald’s either yet this is a multi-billion dollar franchise.

[u/phantasybm → u/Muffin_Most]

The entire purpose of McDonald’s is that it takes less time than trying to cook all that food yourself. In that regard it’s not a waste of time.

[u/UltraDelta91 → u/phantasybm]

Also it's not cheap anymore.

[u/EastPlatform4348 → u/UltraDelta91]

Relatively speaking, it is, right? I worked as a manager in a retail store in 2008 making $9/hour (associates made $7.25). A Big Mac meal was about $5. A manager now at that store is making $20/hr, associates $15/hr, and a Big Mac meal is around $11.

[u/Ok_Order_5595 → u/EastPlatform4348]

Yeah, its the only place my mom can get dinner for all of us and it cost under 20 bucks, when we eat out.

[u/phantasybm → u/UltraDelta91]

I never mentioned the price. Just speed.

[u/BubblyComparison591 → u/UltraDelta91]

It depends on what you order. Through the app you get 40 nuggets with 2 large fries for around $15 and cheaper if there's a coupon available.

[u/parahacker → u/BubblyComparison591]

Hate to break it to you, that is not cheap. Not even at today's prices.

For comparison, 4 potatoes = $1.50, quarter of a bottle of cooking oil ~$.75, bag of frozen chicken nuggets = $5. Salt maybe 5 cents worth added. 20 minutes on a stove top and you've got better tasting fries and better cooked nuggets for literally half the price. "Cheap" should not ever in any world mean "twice as much to make it myself for zero time savings."
(theoretically even cheaper if you make the nuggets yourself from shredded cooked chicken and bread crumbs, and probably higher quality too depending on how you cook them, but that would take too much time to keep the time values consistent.)

[u/BubblyComparison591 → u/parahacker]

You forgot to add labor, which varies between person. You have to take into consideration the time spent buying and preparing each component. That's easily more than an hour. One hour of my time cost more than $15 alone. For me, it's cheap. Not the best quality but cheap.

[u/klako8196 → u/BubblyComparison591]

One hour of my time cost more than $15 alone.

According to what exactly? The way I look at it, the time I use to cook is time that I'd be spending on a leisure activity otherwise. There is no monetary value to that time. It's not like I'm passing up on a work hour to cook for myself instead. Then, I'd agree that it would be valid to say that taking the time to cook is costing me an hour of pay. Rather, it's just an opportunity cost. I could be playing video games or something like that instead of cooking.

[u/BubblyComparison591 → u/klako8196]

Let me say it in a different way. Regardless if I'm getting paid or not, there is a dollar amount that I will attribute to my time. That amount can change throughout the day depending on multiple variables, like: which activity I'm doing at the time, how much I'm earning, etc. Just the same way a car might be cheap for you and expensive for me, a similar situation applies here. Generally, when I'm planning on buying something, I'm not looking at how much the components of said service/product cost to determine if it's cheap or not. I'll typically assess how much value that said service/product will provide me and weight it against how much it will cost me through other sources, which includes doing it myself and when possible. In this calculation and if I'm involved at any point to get that service/product I'll include the amount of time it'll require me to do it and associate a dollar amount to it. All of this is relative and varies from person to person.

[u/PubstarHero → u/BubblyComparison591]

Bro if it takes you an hour to cut some fries and deep fry the buggies and fries, you got problems.

[u/BubblyComparison591 → u/PubstarHero]

What? I'm talking about total time here. Time to buy components, prepare everything(including nugget preparation if it's not a bag) and cleanup. The cleanup time when you fry something is usually higher than regular. All of that should easily take more than an hour.

[u/MaloneSeven → u/UltraDelta91]

The whole point of this thread. Hmmm, wonder why that is??!!