The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5% • Hacker News Board

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#11

Post by trentnix » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

martinky24 wrote: post #5

mproud wrote: post #4

Yes, but I think some of this is also the increase in food worker minimum wage in California.

Which is a good thing!

Minimum wage goes up and buying power goes down as a result. This is the exact spiral that was predicted and dismissed as wrongthink. It has turned into another example of the Law of Salutary Contradiction:

  The Law of Salutary Contradiction states that when an event or policy is initially dismissed as impossible or a conspiracy theory, it is later acknowledged as occurring—but framed as beneficial and morally justified.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#12

Post by martinky24 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

beastman82 wrote: post #9

martinky24 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is a good thing!

Inflation is a good thing?

Paying people a livable wage is a good thing.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#13

Post by OGEnthusiast » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:37 PM UTC

Feels like SF is over-exposed to specifically the OpenAI bubble/valuation popping. Outside of Mission Bay and SoMa, consumer spending and transit activity is still largely below pre-pandemic levels.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#14

Post by superkuh » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:38 PM UTC

People in SF have more money (on average) and so those selling things there price higher. Compare the average salary for $jobdescription in SF vs Minneapolis. The entire (very small) region has been a bubble of higher income and prices for a long time and is getting worse. It feeds on itself like a ratchet.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#15

Post by BugsJustFindMe » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

It's funny watching people in this thread talk about food in LA being so much cheaper than in SF, because in my humble experience LA is also quite expensive compared to pretty much everywhere else in the country.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#16

Post by throwaway132448 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

trentnix wrote: post #11

martinky24 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is a good thing!

Minimum wage goes up and buying power goes down as a result. This is the exact spiral that was predicted and dismissed as wrongthink. It has turned into another example of the Law of Salutary Contradiction: The Law of Salutary Contradiction states that when an event or policy is initially dismissed as impossible or a conspiracy theory, it is later acknowledged as occurring—but framed as beneficial and morally justifi…

That’s just a way for sulking conspiracy theorists to say “I told you so” after they’ve moved their own goalposts 50 times and have broken-clocked their way into validating their own genius.

P.S. There are way too many variables for you to draw that kind of causation from the correlation, and you’re very naive to think you could.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#17

Post by radley » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

> A burrito that cost $5.50 in 2014 is now $13.95.

They haven't been that cheap since the 90s. 10 years ago, they were around $10.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#18

Post by buildbot » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

testfrequency wrote: post #7

manfromchina1 wrote: post #2

Moving from LA to SF will definitely give you a sticker shock. I used to buy nice large burritos in DTLA for $10 flat as recently as 2024. That's with tax. Later that year in SF a nice sandwich in random bodegas would cost well over $20(with tax). SF is probably the most eye wateringly expensive city in all of US. It definitely beats NYC.

Food is so much cheaper (and better) in LA than SF. SF has such mediocre food for what you pay compared to any other city I’ve lived in*. You either have to fork over a few hundred to experience some of the stellar fine dining options in the city, or end up at some brunch place that’s probably pretty decent but you’re not leaving without at least $100 between two people. The good food in the Bay Area I’ve always foun…

I love Seattle and it’s food but yeah it’s really expensive by default - I haven’t spent enough time in the Bay recently to compare but it feels equally pricy.

There are still reasonable & very good places though you just have to know.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#19

Post by kwhat4 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #15

It's funny watching people in this thread talk about food in LA being so much cheaper than in SF, because in my humble experience LA is also quite expensive compared to pretty much everywhere else in the country.

My local family owned tacoria now sells a $14 burrito in LA. The rest of the prices outlined in this article are also on par with LA pricing. It's hard to find a more expensive place to live the California.

Re: The $14 Burrito: Why San Francisco Inflation Feels Higher Than 2.5%

#20

Post by scotty79 » Wed, Jan 07, 2026, 5:42 PM UTC

I'm not quite sure what official inflation index measures but you can get rough estimate of how much value dollar lost if you compare prices of bitcoin in dollars and euro at the beginning and the end of the year.

More concretely, if you converted 1btc to euro or dollar at the beginning of the year and back to btc at the end, how much fewer btc you'd end up with if you went through dollar as oppossed to euro.