Employment metrics make less sense now that poorly-paid gig work is ubiquitous. Just because you "have a job" doesn't mean you'll be able to afford basic necessities.
> poorly-paid gig work The gig workers I know do it because they like the money, it's the best money available to them. So I don't know about the "poorly-paid" part, there's so much demand for gig work people complain they can't find enough of it.
Wishful thinking doesn't make for convincing rhetoric.
People in CA would go to In-n-Out anyway. https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/in-n-out-prices/ at (2.46 3+2.16 3+1.87 2) 1.0725 = $18.88. Even if you double the fries because they're not "large" you're still under $25. Five Guys is batshit insane.
In-n-Out burgers are smaller though, so I usually get two whereas I'll only have one at Five Guys. Still, Five Guys is a bit over the top expensive so I rarely go there.
True, and the "default" burger at In-n-Out is a double/double but even that's still less calories than Five Guys.
But Five Guys is up at or above Smashburger pricing, so I'm not sure what they're doing.
Correct. However, enough of us do to render your claim that Five Guys is "3x as expensive as any other chain" entirely factually incorrect. And the situation's basically the same in any UK city big enough to have a few Five Guys.
It isn't. I would try leaving London. Almost all the chains you have mentioned do not exist outside London.
It is. I do. If not chains by the same name, equivalent ones that are as or more expensive than Five Guys. E.g., Fat Hippo are in Birmingham, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham... And of the chains I mentioned, GBK for example are all over the place, in about 15 different towns and cities. I know of a chain in Manchester, "Almost Famous", if they're any cheaper than Five Guys, it'll be by about 50p. And so on. Your claim that Five Guys is 3x any other burger chain is ridiculous.
Visiting family in the UK for the first time in about five years. Costs here are _way_ higher than I remember. I bought three hamburgers, three drinks, and two large pops at a burger shop here, the total was 48 GBP (about $60 USD). This was at Five Guys. I couldn't believe it. I visited my co-worker in the UK, and over some beers, he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this. Also 20% VAT on regular shopp…
The UK seems to be at the fore front of deindustrializaton
Visiting family in the UK for the first time in about five years. Costs here are _way_ higher than I remember. I bought three hamburgers, three drinks, and two large pops at a burger shop here, the total was 48 GBP (about $60 USD). This was at Five Guys. I couldn't believe it. I visited my co-worker in the UK, and over some beers, he mentioned he's getting taxed at 48-50% on top of this. Also 20% VAT on regular shopp…
Five Guys is really expensive in the US too. Really makes in-n-out look like a bargain.
This sounds like an outlier though, no? The overall averages there are much lower. Also everyone I know in tech over here is making much more than that still.
That thats the case for the US as well. The average salary for US software dev, according to glassdoor, is 88,395/year, which iirc is about the same I've seen form other sources. Everyone working in FAAG is an outlier compared to the rest of the US. These conversations are usually pretty poor because context is very important and job + location + circumstance is seemingly pretty much impossible to compare to each oth…
I spent a while when I was trying to find a job trying to comes to terms with that "average dev salary" number, since the vast majority of jobs for an entry level position were at least 80k, with plenty being more (I was looking nationwide, wanted to move out, didn't care where). I think it's heavily biased by the fact that the field is growing at an extremely fast rate relative to others, which means the average software dev has dramatically less experience than an average, say, accountant.
So when looking at salary figures, the only sane way of doing it is to control for experience level, otherwise the variance in the explosive growth of the industry will dominate your results.
"By design" seems like a bit much, but the upper class sure didn't let the crisis go to waste. Spend $800B so the poors can eat? Hand-wringing and pearl clutching up and down the air waves. Just think of the inflation! Spend $3000B to pump real estate values? Complete silence, relatively speaking. This experience made it very clear who was in charge and who wasn't. These are US numbers, but I tend to suspect the same…
I was so angry about all of this. I had been waiting to time the market, I ended up only buying 30% down rather than the 50-80% down I was hoping. What happened in 2020 changed my understanding of markets. Politics>Economics for politicians.
No gov wants a recession on their watch. So we will have a biggest and baddest recession at some point in the future
FWIW, in CA that order at Five Guys would be $55 ( https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/five-guys-prices/ gives prices at (8.95*3+3.06*3+7.41*2)*1.0725), but I imagine people in CA are richer than people in the UK...
People in CA would go to In-n-Out anyway. https://www.fastfoodmenuprices.com/in-n-out-prices/ at (2.46 3+2.16 3+1.87 2) 1.0725 = $18.88. Even if you double the fries because they're not "large" you're still under $25. Five Guys is batshit insane.
Five Guys and In N Out are competing in different market niches. In N Out is operating in the fast food bracket, competing with McDonalds and Jack In The Box (both of which it's cheaper than, remarkably). Five Guys is trying to be a more premium burger place, in the fast-casual market. In that niche, we can compare it to Panera or Blaze Pizza or the like, where a $15-20/person bill isn't unusual at all.
Striking provides a forcing function to reveal the actual value to the employer of your labor. In certain fields (e.g. medicine, academics) there are huge centers that represent the majority of jobs for a region. Specialized workers here find it harder to job hop, as there are fewer opportunities. Striking provides another means to better pay. Say you value my work at $40/hr, but are currently paying my at $20/hr. In…
I mean I might be biased because this strategy worked for me. But how about, hear me out. Instead of not working you try working harder and providing unique value to your employer. Hard to swallow for union types but it’s how I ended up being paid significantly more and having no issues buying a house.
Are you really in here arguing that UK is not in a cost of living crisis? There's plenty of evidence that they are, and this seems like a needlessly contrarian post.
I have no idea what "a cost of living crisis" is or what the quantitative definition for one is. Demand is not falling so, by definition, there cannot be a "cost of living crisis". Because prices have increased does not mean they are at a high level. You are acting as if some govt agency has declared a "cost of living crisis" and that is somehow meaningful to reality. I gave you specific examples of the prices of foo…
Except demand is falling, as demonstrated by the very article you're commenting under. Or by the figures showing people saved energy like crazy over the last 6 months. Or by the rise in people struggling with bills and credit [1]. I don't know what numbers you're looking at, but it's pretty clear that people are hurting more now than they did before, and that is inevitably going to kill demand.