this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 123 points 6 days ago (2 children)

No problem, as salaries also trippled in that time

Tap for spoiler/s

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Maybe not tripled, but making 7.25-10/hour was pretty common in 2008. The standard today is 15-20/hour at fast food.

I'm aware this doesn't justify tripling the price. Even 3x wages would not triple the cost of the burger.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yet $7.25 is still the federal minimum wage today

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Norway has been considered to be super-expensive among tourists and others looking in from abroad. However, Norwegians going to the US really have to mind their spending nowadays, especially when eating out. Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe, so the price we see on the menu is what we expect to pay.

If you go to a gas station near an airport in Western Norway, you can get a massive 300g burger (3/4 lb) with added cheese and bacon for about 200 kroner, which is $19. If you want something that normal people can finish, a regular 150g cheeseburger is about $12. A McDonald’s double cheeseburger is 43 kroner, or $4.12. If you order a burger at a restaurant or a pub, you’ll probably be spending about $25 for a bacon cheeseburger with included fries. You’re not expected to tip in Norway.

Considering that the prices Americans here refer to don’t include taxes and tips, I’m actually pretty sure it would be more expensive to eat out in the US than in Norway, and average pay for a waiter/waitress here is about $41 000 per year.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Forcing employees to rely on tips to get above slave wage is generally not a thing in Europe

It is in England (which while not in the EU, it is in Europe). And unlike the US, they will try to guilt you into a big auto tip.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

When Bob's Burgers started airing the burger of the day was $5.95. This used to be a reasonable price for a burger.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Gentrification came for flavortown.

Rent is now $4000/mth. No loitering.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

LOL where can you find $4k/month? My dentist said her office rent in W. Seattle was $11k/mo.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

For commercial rent that nearly seems reasonable. Especially considering what they're charging for dentistry, that's like... 3 people without insurance? πŸ₯²

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 6 days ago (6 children)

Wow, so I did tha math. The official inflation rate factors up to just over 1.5 (50% increase) over the past 16 years. But this meme suggests a factor of 3.58!!! (258% increase)

[–] [email protected] 92 points 6 days ago (3 children)

The official inflation rate doesn't include food or energy. It's ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 6 days ago

Food and products have 2.3x'd since just before covid started.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The most funny thing was the "I can't eat an iPad" reply, when someone from the Fed tried to explain these mental gymnastics

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704893604576199113452719274

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It does include food and energy, but they also separately report a "core" inflation that excludes those items because food and energy tend to go up and down.

[–] DrDeadCrash 18 points 6 days ago

Or up and less up

[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Looking at beef in particular, a pound of ground beef has gone up from $2.10/lb in 2008 to $6.20 in 2025.

Chicken breast, on the other hand, has gone from $3.50/lb to about $4.10.

Beef has been getting more expensive faster than inflation basically my whole life, while stuff like chicken, milk, and eggs have been volatile, jumping up and down at times, and stuff like rice and flour have long periods of stability with the occasional big permanent jump.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 days ago (3 children)

In Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travolta's character freaks out over the "5$ milkshake".

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Here in Japan, a chain has a cheese burger with beef from Kobe, caramelized onions, and gravy made from the drippings for 7.50USD Half that if you want it with regular beef.

I investigated why things are so cheap and businesses can have the weirdest hours (there's a bar in Tokyo that's only open for 5 hours a week on fridays), they tax unused commercial property (for certain definitions of unused, like in rural areas just throwing some gravel down and letting your neighbor park there for a few bucks can be enough to dodge the tax), so companies offer extremely competitive rates to get businesses in. The .4% interest rate and very cheap remodeling costs (except plumbers for some reason) serve to keep startup more accessible, so places don't have to be super profitable to exist. The taxes work in conjunction with the interest rates to keep banks and capital firms from just buying everything up with the free money to establish a local monopoly and drive up prices. There's probably other things driving down home and commercial property costs, it's mindboggling to see a 3 floor+attic, 800sqft/floor building in the center of a city with 10 million people and have the business owner say he's renting it because the owner wanted 2.5m to buy the whole thing, and that was too much.

I know China manages to keep commercial property somewhat cheap by having 5 year plans and SoEs/universities guarantee the commercial sectors have the inputs such as steel, concrete, and skilled labor they'll need at a specific price point, but I've never managed to talk to someone about tax policies and the like.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago

One of my parents said that steaks were 35 cents when they were kids.

I am not looking forward to my Walmart cheese & breadstick snacks costing $70 bucks for a set of five.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The CEO's, shareholders and the 1% need to make more! There is no fucking way I am going to spend $17.00 for a fucking cheeseburger.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

Yup. As soon as I see a fancy toothpick in the picture, I know I should just leave.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 6 days ago (2 children)

AI burger meat is my favorite.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

That's good, cause it's all we'll be able to afford in a few years.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Guess what will happen to food prices in the US when farmers cannot exploit cheap migrants anymore...

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago

Not to worry - they'll be replaced with children and prisoners and robots.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Coming out of left field here, but… scaling beef production is not very sustainable?

Like, unless it’s a rare treat, I feel like beef has to go artificial or prices keep going up, even if wealth distribution is worked out.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

I mean, I agree, but beef consumption in the US has dropped in the past 20 years. And you can find similar price stories for all meal prices, regardless of ingredients.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

True, to an extent. But the price of a pound of hamburger at the grocery store has gone up relatively equal to inflation.

In a lot of places, minimum wage has raise 3x to when it originally was. But they're paying this wage bumps off and just a handful of sales.

Commercial real estate is probably up about 3x from where it was when we were eating $4.75 bodacious bacon cheeseburgers from Roy Rogers

I think, pretty much, we're looking at disproportionately high real estate costs and greed.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

$17 for a burger, even if it really did look like the picture, which we all know it doesn't, is way too much. No, thank you.

I pay $12/day to feed myself. I make all of my own meals at home, I haven't eaten out since the pandemic. I formed the habit, and just kept cooking at home as prices got ridiculous. My diet is excellent, mostly fresh vegetables, and organic chicken.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago

We're not in flavor town anymore, Toto.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

Carl's Jr. $5 Burger used to mock this bullshit. It cost $3 and it was fucking amazing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

people used to think I was on crazy pills because I for some reason used to point to 2008 as my favorite nostalgia year.

Nothing particularly major happened with mine, no sports team championship, no graduation, no first date, nothing like that, and my family was for the most part, well insulated from the financial crisis, we lived in a country that was less impacted anyway

2008 was just another year in the 2000s, I only remember it so well because of the small little gaming communities I had joined online when I was 16, Still talk to and hang out with them today at 32.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Burgers are fine-dining now. Still trying to find cheap food that's nutritious and doesn't contain too much fiber for medical reasons. Eventually that will be fine dining prices too.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Pave Flavortown, put up a parking lot.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 days ago

Being on a food TV show and becoming slightly famous therefor allows you to increase your prices and still keep all the seats filled. The best burger place near me has increased to $10 from $5 over roughly the same time period, in keeping with the increase in beef prices over that time.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Do we really not see that being on that show might have something to do with that?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (9 children)

$10 Aud gets you a proper burger in Oz at a bakery or takeaway spot, you'll pay $20+ Aud inc chips/fries in a pub/bistro, but either way you have to tackle them to stop them putting fucking pickled beetroot on it first, dark times all round indeed..

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (6 children)

According to the US Dept of Labor and Statistics, ground chuck cost $2.83/lb in March 2008, and 5.85/lb in March 2025. If i can basic math, that’s an increase of ~~206~~ 106%.

Edit: Math hard.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

That is an increase of 106%

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[–] Colloidal 2 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

That seems to track. A local place near me burgers have gone from around 10 bucks about 7 years ago to 17-18 bucks a burger. Seems to be the going rate these days

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