McDonalds food. Why the hell is it getting expensive?
- Thread starter urrutiap
- Start date
Bribes, just like anywhere.
Sure, but none of this changes the fact that money can be exchanged for goods and services.
Everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it.
A
Amaris
Guest
In an unstructured system, yes. We don't live in such a system.
Reality isn't real?
Not really much point in carrying on a conversation with a figment of my own imagination
Not really much point in carrying on a conversation with a figment of my own imagination
Bonz has a dirty secret that only they know...
A
Amaris
Guest
No, what I'm saying is we live in a structured system. Money is only real because we label it and give it purpose. What good is a dollar bill outside of the designation we give it? You can burn it for warmth, staple a bunch together for a shoddy blanket, or paper your wall with it, but that's about the extent of its usage outside of the structured monetary system in which it is used. Look at these folks who invest in crypto, and talk about NFTs. They talk about how much value it has like it's something that exists outside of a number blockchain.Reality isn't real?
Not really much point in carrying on a conversation with a figment of my own imagination
The point is that nearly all currency as we know it today is fiat currency, it only exists as long as the government authority backing it exists. You made the statement "sure, but none of this changes the fact that money can be exchanged for goods and services" as if that took away from my point, and it doesn't. My point simply was that value is only as real as the collective will to make it real. The moment people stop caring, you go from having a $1,000,000 monkey picture to a .jpg. It's all in your head. We live in a system of artificial scarcity when there is more than enough for everyone, and it's to keep you believing that you have to live in the conditions you do because that's just the way it is.
I'm down with that.
I mean, if the government says money is real...if my store says the wages they pay me are real...and the places I SPEND that money say it's real...then, hey, it's real! Simple enough.
And let's be honest, what's the alternative? Barter? Good luck with that.
Reality isn't real?
Not really much point in carrying on a conversation with a figment of my own imagination
My head just blew up.
A
Amaris
Guest
I'm not talking about barter, I'm talking about the perception of value, that it isn't something concrete. My point is that it's all made up, and that we can change the rules if we so desire, that this isn't something in nature we can't combat, nor is it an immovable object. I'll speak of the US, specifically here.I'm down with that.
I mean, if the government says money is real...if my store says the wages they pay me are real...and the places I SPEND that money say it's real...then, hey, it's real! Simple enough.
And let's be honest, what's the alternative? Barter? Good luck with that.
All of the talking heads who tell you with grave faces that things are going to get more expensive are telling you the rules you have to live by, but those are not the rules everyone has to live by, nor does everyone live by them. Those are rules for the poor, for people without resources in holding. You are the one who has to live with the decisions made by people who won't be affected by them. The US government tells you they have to cut costs in social programs, but they'll drop $6 trillion in the stock market inside of a week to boost it back up. As the joke goes, the stock market isn't about the health of the economy, it's the profit margins of rich people.
The stock market rocketed upward under Trump, and it is under Biden, but I'm not any richer, the people I know aren't any better off. If anything, things are worse off for the poor, the sick, the disabled. You'll be told with great assurance that things are getting better because the entire system works on credibility. People have faith the system works, even when they say it screws them over. They do this because they have to have faith, because otherwise if you've worked your life away to make money for your boss in the hopes that it will trickle down to you, what have you actually done for yourself except survive while they thrive?
Things don't have to be this way, that's what I'm saying. We have the capacity to change it, because it only exists based on our willingness to accept it as true. $3 ATM fee. $6 delivery charges. $10 for a burger and fries. $300 vials of insulin. $40 for skin to skin contact when a mother holds her baby. These are not real costs, they are assigned costs not in the name of necessity, but in the name of profit. For you, profit may not be a dirty word, and that might be because you've worked your whole life giving much of your value to your boss in the hopes you might make more money later, whether by finding a higher paying job, or by working up the truly not real corporate ladder in a very much bullshit meritocracy.
So, in that same vein, you might hope to gain profit yourself, to build your income, to create wealth for yourself and the people you care about. You will work your whole life to hold on to something people in many other countries already have. You're told we can't afford it. You're told it's a difficult task. That's why McDonalds is getting expensive, because you're down with that. You're willing to pay it, and as long as you're willing to pay it, as long as you accept that these things are far bigger than just you, that they're market forces, just the way the economy works, then it will keep happening, even as it slides out of the possibility for millions of other people who aren't okay with it, who can't afford it, who know they're being cheated not because of a genuine lack of resources in a land of abundance, but because that is just how the market works, because you've been told that's just how the market works.
It's not real. None of it. It's a game of numbers designed to funnel money and labor resources from you, upward. That's okay if you're down with that, I'm not here thinking I'm going to change your mind on a Star Trek forum, but I'm not down with that. I'm not down with what people have to pay just for basic services now. It's not okay, and it's becoming more than untenable for most.
Last edited:
Aaaah man, you should have just said 'crypto' and saved us a lot of bother.
This is the economic equivalent of sovereign citizenship.
This is the economic equivalent of sovereign citizenship.
All this talk about currency reminded me of something:
Canadian money looks really, really cool.
I love how the denominations are all different colors (the 5 is red, 10 blue, 20 green). I wish American money was like that!
Canadian money looks really, really cool.
I love how the denominations are all different colors (the 5 is red, 10 blue, 20 green). I wish American money was like that!
And holographic too, to help against counterfeiting.
Just a small correction: the 5 is blue, and the 10 is purple.
The 50 is red, though. And I believe the 100 is brown. Not like I ever see either of those, though!
I thought I read a while ago that the latest series of American bank notes actually added some denomination-based colouring?
Simples, it's how the combined currency holdings of the US Fed is moved around the world. Due to COVID and government policies, people are converting their M2 holdings (long-term savings and solid assets (houses, bonds, shares)) to pure cash (otherwise known as the M1 supply) as they are predicting/expecting bad times ahead. Thus the M1 supply, i.e the amount of free cash sloshing around the US economy, has increased substantially since late 2020. More free cash = more competition for goods and services, hence the price rises observed. Hence the rise is assets of crypto and art that have different tax considerations than other solid assets such as bonds, shares and gold.
That sounds so authoritative coming from a Q! 
Pounds Sterling is similar (though this is a recent development for non-BoE notes), as are both Australian and New Zealand dollars, Indian rupees and Euros. The US Dollar is relatively late to the party on coloured notes, many of the others also use different sizes for the different denominations as well, although this is IIRC less common with the switch to polymer notes.
A little bit, yes. It's more a specific styling too, to try to stay ahead of counterfeiting. Here's a PDF if you're really that curious. I recall having to get use to it in order to spot fakes at work.
It's also much healthier.
On the rare occasion that I get the urge for fast food , I'll swing by and order off the dollar menu. Those so-called "value meals" ceased being a value a very long time ago.
As to why prices are getting higher, it's been awhile since I took economics, but I believe Covid has created work force conditions that have negatively effected the entire supply chain. The lower productivity means goods aren't being created as much as they use to which means less product being shipped. I use to work at a McDonalds many years ago and they required large shipments coming in twice a week like clockwork. How many of those businesses in the supply chain were able to stick around during Covid? And after we started coming out of Covid there was a large surge in demand, which always raises prices. Higher gas prices haven't helped either as it's now more expensive to transport those goods.
I’m color blind and broke…
At least we will have A.I. beer
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-beerbots-brewing.html
And the computer will tell you how to make a meal with your scraps
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-04-generates-complex-recipes-images-ingredients.html
And snitch on you?
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-biomarker-score-adherence-mediterranean-diet.html
Maybe we should go paleo
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-digesta-overlooked-source-ice-age.html
Last edited:
Similar threads
