On the way to work for my evening shift, I swung by an A&W drive thru, I got a burger and onion rings. It was 13$… I was born in 1985, I remember subway having a special on sundays in the 90s that offered 3 footlongs for 10$, now 1 footlong is 10$. That is a 200% increase in price. Minimum wage since I got my first job as a teenager has gone up 30%. We are all getting footlonged in our butts.
I work in healthcare, our union members voted for a wage increase of 0% 2020, 1% 2021, 1.25% 2022, and 2% 2023.
4.25% pay increase over 4 years (the previous contract we accepted 0%, 0%, 0%, 0%). Inflation for consumer goods is 9%+ this year. My coworkers said “At least we got something”.
Inflation is tolerable when the added currency is distributed equally, but wages have been stagnating for the past 50 years. The rich get richer, and the working class keeps getting footlonged.
When the working class gets priced out of buying fast food burgers…. It is a sad day, a man's gotta eat.