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Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

> “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation,” Josephson said.

I find the phrasing odd. It is because corporations have raised prices that inflation has increased. Rising prices aren't a result of inflation.

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OTOH, no company or item exists in a vacuum. If McDonald’s suppliers have increased prices, and their employees expect higher wages due to inflation, then McDonald’s must increase prices or eat the cost (unsustainable in the long-term). Does this only contribute to inflation? Yes. But so does every worker who wants higher wages - unfortunately everybody in the chain has such little influence on the wider economy that they must simply prioritise themselves.

This is an overly simplistic view, of course, not least because it presumes good faith, but that is really my point: the economy has too many moving parts to simply say “you’re to blame for inflation because you increased your prices”.

No, inflation is a monetary and political phenomenon. Companies cannot set prices arbitrarily, in particular not the fast food industry which faces what is probably the strongest competition on the planet. The entire restaurant industry does not collude on the prices of burgers.

In this particular case it's wage-push inflation. The lowest quintile of workers has seen very strong wage gains among other reasons because of tight labour markets and minimum wage legislation, which on the consumer side prices a lot of people out of the service economy.

> Companies cannot set prices arbitrarily

[Source required]

Edit: how are you downvoting me? Go look at corporate profit margins now, 10 years ago, and 40 years ago.

If you believe you can hand wave with simplified BS like "Supply and Demand" you probably have some heavy reading on price elasticity to catch up on.

That's a nice excuse from the executives, but it doesn't align with reality. McDonald's profits have been rising every year. [1] If those dastardly minimum wage workers and their fat paychecks were putting even the slightest bit of pressure on struggling McDonald's, the expectation would be some sort of reduction in profit. But it's the total opposite. Profits are outpacing whatever losses they're (not) experiencing from whatever supposed wage increases they have.

[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mcdonald-q3-2025-profit-sales...

What are McDonald’s profits adjusted for inflation?

McDonald's net margin doubled from 16% to 32% in 10 years.[1]

[1] https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MCD/mcdonalds/prof...

You’re repeating generic right wing-ish talking points. Yet profit margins have increased. If your reasoning was correct, profit margins wouldn’t be increasing as they are.

.. no, corporations raise prices in response to the falling value of the dollar which has been occurring predictably since 2020 when the money supply was increased 20% (remember the "printer goes brr" memes and the "stimulus checks")?

Make more money supply -> money is worth less -> prices go up

simple stuff

I guess the next step is: blame corporations, nationalize them, see it causes economic problems (we're here), and then repeat (Trump promises $2k checks to everyone, this is coming soon)

The inflation boom was caused by the free money handed out to everyone. Inflation is inevitable when the dollar is devalued.

Why are you ignoring the more-than-doubling of McDs profit margins here?

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