
How long do you have to work to earn a Big Mac? - qeek
http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14288808
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antonovka
The extremely small amount of time I have to work to earn a big mac seems
grossly disproportionate to the labor involved in sourcing, manufacturing, and
serving a Big Mac.

Am I really generating N sandwiches worth of value every few minutes?

Or am I (systemically) skimming value off the top of what's produced by
individuals who are being paid disproportionately to the value they produce?

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mrbgty
It doesn't matter. There are millions of people getting paid who produce zero
or negative value (if that's possible?) their entire lives. Not that they have
intentionally done anything wrong. Many people just end up on a path they
believe is right but ends up going nowhere (ever hear of CIA agents chasing
some guy their entire life only to find out it was all for nothing?). It's
necessary for us to advance so don't feel bad. You chose your path. They chose
theirs.

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tjmc
Your comment reminds me of something I saw once. I worked a night shift in a
video factory in London years ago when I was backpacking around Europe and
running low on funds. At one point I was working next to a guy whos job it was
to prevent videos going into a shrink wrapper crooked because they'd get stuck
in the machine. Thing was, they were all going in straight anyway. The guy was
so tired he'd occasionally try to "straighten" the odd video to show he was
doing his job - it would then get stuck and start melting. Fortunately after
about 20 mins of nodding off he actually fell asleep in his chair at which
point everything worked perfectly. Here was a man who was more productive
while asleep.

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seregine
Of course, you're comparing apples and oranges because the price of a Big Mac
is determined by the local market for Big Macs. In some places, McDonalds is
considered upscale food because it's American, because it's less common, etc.
In some places, the quality of McDonalds is much higher (kosher burgers in
Israel, I think).

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joez
The data is also a good indication of brand consciousness in a country. People
are paying a premium for the American brand.

In Beijing, a big mac meal could cost double or triple what you could get at a
local restaurant. It's seen as high class (partially because it is so
expensive) and parents treat their kids to a happy meal on their birthday.

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32587
This is exactly what I've seen here in Mexico. The majority like to go to
McDonald's for a mediocre event, like good grades, a pay raise or something to
that effect. You would still be able to get a better meal for much less at
your regular taco stand, but people pay the premium for the American brand.
Whereas in other parts of the world some people go even twice a day.

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jerf
Sitting here in Michigan, going to McDonald's is of course a total non-event,
but going out for a birthday party at the local Mexican joint would not be
considered out of line. All of the local Mexican joints are far more "upscale"
than a taco stand, of course. (Oh, and Taco Bell is of course lumped in with
McDonalds.)

The grass is always greener...

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zck
Their "global average" is under 40 minutes. I guess they're only counting the
73 cities in the study for the globe.

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ars
Yah, that's quite a meaningless average. They should really weight each city
for the population it represents.

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jasonkester
For all of us who saw that title, did a quick calculation, then thought: "25
seconds", this should serve as another reminder of just how good we have it as
computer programmers.

So yeah, you're making 10x the national average. That means you can take all
but 1.2 months _off_ every year to work on your startup and still earn as much
as the guy stocking shelves in the grocery store.

It's the reason that bootstrapped software companies work at all: we have a
huge (possibly unfair) advantage over everybody else when it comes to
time/money balance.

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ojbyrne
I'm guessing this is before taxes (since it works out to about $15/hour in
Toronto, which seems right without deductions). It would be interesting to see
the tax burden taken into account.

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9oliYQjP
It says in the description the wages were _net_ wages. Toronto proper (forget
the big box store suburbs) is a great place to find cheap food. You can find
tastier, healthier food at a cheaper cost than fast food, which is why I find
our fast food prices tend to be lower than a comparable American city. They're
forced to compete for the low cost takeout food market. Why buy a Big Mac when
you can get Vietnamese submarine sandwiches for a fraction of the price
($1.50), a chicken _and_ beef swarma, a quarter of an extra large pizza (how
big slices usually are), or countless other cheap ethnic take-out food? While
I was living alone, it was cheaper for me to eat well (quality, taste,
variety, health) by dining out than it was for me to shop for all the
groceries and cook at home.

What's your opinion on the tax burden in a city like Toronto? When I was an
employee I found it wasn't as bad as I was raised to believe it was, though I
was only up into the second-highest tax bracket. As a naive comparison (as of
2008/2009), CDN$100K would result in $19891.48 in federal taxes. South of the
border, US$100K would result in $21720 in federal taxes. At a provincial/state
level, if we compare Ontario vs California, then that same $100K would result
in $8458.61 in provincial taxes and $6693 (for a single person) in state
taxes. Obviously this isn't a precise comparison because the U.S. has some
deductions (notably regarding mortgages) that Canada does not. But the reverse
is true too, and in any event, it's not like some order of magnitude
difference that I thought would exist with all the complaining I used to hear
on talk radio here :-)

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ojbyrne
Yeah, looking at my Canadian paychecks vs. American paychecks, it's basically
a wash (you didn't mention the nightmare known as FICA). There are a couple of
other things to consider - In Canada your healthcare is paid for by your
taxes, but in the US sales tax is generally lower (and on some things like
liquor and cigarettes, significantly lower).

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paulhart
About a decade ago a group of contract software developers (of which I was
one) decided to figure out how many seconds it took each of us to earn a cup
of coffee (working for a bank, nothing was free!).

For the person who earned their coffee fastest, the machine hadn't even
dropped the cup into place before he'd earned it.

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jrockway
No wonder everyone in Chicago is a little on the large side ;)

