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Inflation Is Here, Get Used To It
Global Macro Monitor ^ | 4-25-2018

Posted on 04/25/2018 9:44:57 AM PDT by blam

I stopped to grab a burger in Marin County today and was kind of shocked to see the following posted on the front door.

That is a pretty steep starting wage for nonskilled labor, and $5.00 more than the California minimum wage.

In-N-Out does pay their employees well. The private burger chain pays store managers an average yearly salary of more than $160,000 with no college degree or previous management experience required. Facebook engineers soon to be flipping burgers.

Nonbinding

It is clear the minimum wage in California is nonbinding — that is irrelevant — and all the bluster about raising it would cause unemployment is just that, bluster.

During softer economic times, when the minimum wage is binding, the story changes. Not now, however.

Passing It On

Nevertheless, it did feel prices have risen for a burger, fries, and soda since the last time I was in an In-N-Out. I think it cost me around $8.50 today.

Does anyone remember the days of a $.35 Big Mac?

Real Minimum Wage Higher

Here is what is interesting about that $16.00 per hour offer.

In 1980, the minimum wage was $3.10 per hour, which equates to $9.94 in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars. The minimum wage is $11.00 in California, so a slight increase in the real wage.

If In-N-Out is forced to pay almost 50 percent above that to attract decent burger flippers and the company can pass it on in higher prices, inflation cometh is here, folks.

Other firms will have to pay higher wages to keep and attract their workers if In-N-Out is going to start bidding up the labor market.

We are happy for the entry-level workers, high school, and college kids that now have a higher return on their labor.

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at macromon.wordpress.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: economy; finance; inflation; prices; stockmarket
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To: GOPJ

“Inflation hurts ‘savers’ and helps ‘borrowers’...”

And the biggest borrower in the history of planet earth is our own beloved federal government. Probably just a coincidence that they desperately need low inflation, and “presto” they discover we have low inflation.


21 posted on 04/25/2018 10:24:12 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: DivineMomentsOfTruth

In the 60’s we had McDonalds when we lived in the suburbs of Washington DC.

Then in 1968 - I was 10 - we moved to San Antonio. Where there were no McDonalds until about 4-5 years later.

I still remember when that happened.


22 posted on 04/25/2018 10:24:43 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: PGR88

“The big caveat to that is - you have to trust the Government’s inflation statistics.”

Gee Wally, the government has to tell the truth...right?


23 posted on 04/25/2018 10:26:44 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: blam

“Carrolls”; Change back from your dollar in the 70’s


24 posted on 04/25/2018 10:27:18 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: kaktuskid

This has not been my experience at all.


25 posted on 04/25/2018 10:27:29 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegals, abolish the DEA, IRS and ATF.)
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To: 1Old Pro

maybe mid to late 60’s


26 posted on 04/25/2018 10:27:58 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: WisconsinRep

Nixon should have been impeached for going off the Gold Standard, the idiot Globalist.


27 posted on 04/25/2018 10:46:00 AM PDT by cowboyusa (Lang)
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To: cowboyusa

The Federal Reserve was overprinting the money supply and didn’t have the gold to cover it. Other countries noticed this and started to exchange their dollars for gold and this would have bankrupted the U.S.

Nixon took us off the Gold standard because the U.S. economic system would have collapsed.

The Federal Reserve caused the problem.


28 posted on 04/25/2018 10:51:13 AM PDT by WisconsinRep
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To: WisconsinRep

Yes, that is the head of the snake.


29 posted on 04/25/2018 10:53:59 AM PDT by cowboyusa (Lang)
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To: RedStateRocker
If somebody is worried about a buck in the price of a 6 dollar burger to the point they are upset at a hard working kid making $15 an hour

Seriously???

Very few workers in fast food are kids.

Some, but few HS kids.

MAYBE some kids working their way through school.

For THOSE kids, they are hard working.

For the rest, fast food isn't what I'd call hard working.
It's entry level work, with the barest of responsibility or the barest of skills required.

Fast food is a stepping stone, not a career choice, unless going the management route.

It's easy to mock a person paying $6 for a burger...IF you're making $50+k a year...and single.

But the median income per person is about $37k.
The median income per household is about $58k.

McDonalds and BK don't build play areas because they are catering to adults.

Multiply the extra costs that YOU don't have a problem with, over 2-3 more mouths to feed, and the costs increase considerably.

Spend time in a fast food joint and it doesn't take long to see the demographics that make up the customer base, and it ain't those who think nothing of $6 burgers.

30 posted on 04/25/2018 11:06:06 AM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: GOPJ
Inflation hurts 'savers' and helps 'borrowers'... It helps kids with student loans who have fixed rates, people who own a home and want to sell, older people with money in savings accounts who will get higher interest rates.

The older person, who is now retired.

Who made $10 an hour at the height of his career and saved $10k.
Now, the same job pays twice that.

The money that was saved back then is worth half as much now.

The higher interest rates you tout, don't even match inflation rates.

That means that saved money is actually losing value.

31 posted on 04/25/2018 11:13:20 AM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Yep things cost less back in the old days.

But then we all earned quite a bit less at our jobs.

I’m perhaps ignorant of some things, but, I never understood why inflation is said to be good by some economists. They say a low rate of inflation helps the economy expand. Why does inflation , or debasement of the currency, help economic growth? Why can’t the economy grow with no inflation? And if you get an annual raise at work of 3% for example, and the inflation rate is 3% that year, you haven’t really gotten a raise, have you?


32 posted on 04/25/2018 11:13:55 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: mountn man

If I had 2-3 mouths to feed I’d be cooking healthy meals at home.

Nope, I want *ANYONE* who has anything to do with my food to be decently paid, be able to take a paid sick day and be able to see a doctor, period.

And yes, the in-and-out workers here are kids, they deserve every cent, and ebola is too good for any cheap ass*ole who has a problem with them (or *ANYONE* who works a full day of hard labor) making enough to have a car and a place to live.

YMMV, but I’ll vote with my wallet and around here, if you pay anyone less than $15 an hour you deserve food poisoning or equivalently incompetent if not dangerous labor or service.


33 posted on 04/25/2018 11:25:17 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegals, abolish the DEA, IRS and ATF.)
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To: blam

Dumb article. Companies can pay employees what they please and charge what they please. If you think a certain company charges too much, don’t buy their products.


34 posted on 04/25/2018 11:37:18 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (DACA is going to be a riot!)
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To: I want the USA back

Inflation is a tool used by the Elites to render us into economic slavery, in perpetuity.

Those Elites should be hung, but they should suffer first.


35 posted on 04/25/2018 11:56:11 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan (Idiocracy is here, and it votes democrat.)
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To: WisconsinRep
Once upon a time, my mother every now and then would give my brother and me a 50 cent piece made of solid silver and let us go to town on a Saturday. We lived like kings—candy, cokes, hamburger, and a movie too.
36 posted on 04/25/2018 12:14:17 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (MAGA in the mornin', MAGA in the evenin', MAGA at suppertime . . .)
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To: blam

Its technically not “inflation” (the same way Depression level type real unemployment also isn’t the quoted ‘People ON paid unemployment’ government statistic — the Obama Depression lasted so long that the 99-week max ‘unemployment’ ran out for most of the real unemployed years ago — so IS NOT COUNTED)

In any case Obama&co energy regulation driving up energy costs (which affects EVERYTHING) and Obama&co socialize medicine (which likewise affects everything) have driven up Consumer Costs significantly, while ‘inflation’ (the misleading government statistic) has been near ZERO for quite a few years.

Sometime in the future Trump should expose these dishonestly quoted statistic and let the American public understand that they have been lied to (possibly another reason so many RINOs hate him cuz he might put the blame on them also for this government dishonesty).


37 posted on 04/25/2018 12:51:29 PM PDT by elbook
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To: blam
"Does anyone remember the days of a $.35 Big Mac? "

I do.

Worked at one when they were that price.

38 posted on 04/25/2018 2:12:10 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: circlecity
They are easy to make at home and just as good.

All you need is an egg ring, which is one of these things.

Put in the egg, flip it when mostly cooked, warm the Canadian bacon, add a slice of American cheese all on a toasted Thomas's English muffin and you're good to go.

39 posted on 04/25/2018 2:16:54 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: RedStateRocker

Mighty noble of you.

Are you willing to foot that bill yourself???

Increase wages enough that it drives the end product prices up, will reduce sales volume at the restaurant.

Thus, dropping sales volume means increasing prices to maintain revenue.

It’s easy to be generous,
when OTHERS are paying the bulk of the expenses.

Do away with families and the lower/marginal income, who make up the largest portion of fast food sales and production costs rise exponentially.

Like Walmart, fast food has low prices BECAUSE of the volume they do.
Raise prices-drop volume


40 posted on 04/25/2018 2:18:22 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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