I find it both funny and sad that everyone who is supposedly suffering on $176 per month is also incredibly fat. Of course, according to this, you need to have tons of money to afford a low calorie diet. I could live for 2 months on $176!
My friend who is a grocer clerk has found that the majority of people who use food stamps buy the choicest cuts in meat, expensive juices, tons of overpriced frozen goods, etc.
I remember some college student kid wrote a book in response to Nickel and Dimed in which he pretty much destroyed such communist myths. It’s actually much, much cheaper to buy cheap raw foods and cook your own food than to buy junk food.
Exactly, and it isn’t even that hard to learn how to cook delicious and relatively quick and effortless meals from simple, cheap ingredients. Maybe as long as they have welfare they should do it on electronic cards that only allow people to buy staples or relatively inexpensive foods. Or maybe some private charities should start doing it.
A little bit of life experience would tell you that much. Fast food is cheap in countries like Britain. But does anyone seriously believe they’re cheaper than making food out of raw ingredients?
Yes. First of all, time is money. Second of all, cooking creates more dirty dishes, which goes back to time is money, since you have to wash dishes. Lastly, if you have a small family, fast food can be cheaper, because there is less waste.
If you have a stay at home mom however, who has a lot of time on her hands, then cooking at home is probably less expensive than eating out.
Nope. Fast food factors in the price of employees, maintenance, dish washing, licensing, etc. When it comes to making your own food vs. purchasing fast food, homemade wins.
I guess the people who are faced with the choice of fast food vs homemade have one more variable to consider then - the cost in their own health of eating certain foods. If they choose quick and easy and unhealthy to slightly slower and healthy - that’s their decision. But they can’t really complain about the results.
Large fast food chains benefit from economies of scale compared to small fast food chains, not compared to home cooking. They still have to pay for employees, leases, taxes, regulations, licensing, maintenance, etc. Those costs are enough to eat up any lower prices from economies of scale.
Which brings us back to I pay the same amount for the food, and get my time as well, since I do not have to cook the food or clean the dishes. So yes, restaurants do benefit from economies of scale compared to the home kitchen.
For me to make one hamburger, I have to buy the meat, the bun, the tomato, the lettuce, the ketchup, the mayo, the onion, and the cheese. Except I have to buy it all in bulk. So my one hamburger, will cost me $15. Plus I have to cook it, then clean all the dishes. The one hamburger I get from Carl’s Jr costs me $3, I do not have to cook it, and I have no dishes to clean up.
Now, all the food I bought would probably make me two or three hamburgers, plus some extra cheese and ketchup that I can save. That is still more expensive than the three hamburgers I would get from Carl’s Jr. Even if you knock $5 off from all the food I had to buy, I still get a much better deal at Carl’s Jr, plus I still get the vegetables.
