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Comment by morgante | Hacker News Reader

> I just don't get why people eat out so often, unless they are incredibly short of time - and in that case maybe they just don't manage their time correctly.

Why are you making value judgements on people's time management?

Personally, I don't understand how anyone who makes over $20/hour ever cooks.

I can buy a great meal for $20. Given my hourly rate of $100/hour, I'd have to be able to prepare an equivalently good meal in just 12 minutes. That doesn't seem likely at all—especially because this analysis doesn't include the cost of ingredients.

Have you considered that many people just don't enjoy cooking? I find your post incredibly laden with value judgements. Why can't you just accept that many people don't share your priorities?

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You're also not accounting for income taxes, which dramatically lengthens the time you need to work to earn a marginal $20 in after-tax spendable money.

$100/hr is likely to be in the 33% marginal bracket, plus your state rate, plus FICA/medicare, and plus the employer's share of those if you're self-employed.

It's likely that you need to work an extra 24 minutes to earn that extra $20.

> It's likely that you need to work an extra 24 minutes to earn that extra $20.

I guess that's about right. I estimate my take-home pay at about $60/hour, which means working about 20 minutes to earn that meal.

Then again, I think it takes far longer than 20 minutes to prepare a $20 meal. Not to mention that I detest cooking.

I'm with you on the last point. There are many time-consuming hobbies I enjoy; cooking sure isn't one of them. My wife looks at me like I'm crazy when I spend an entire afternoon fiddling with some Arduino project. I give her about the same look when she spends the whole afternoon making a delicious, but time-intensive, meal.

I make no where near $100/hour, but I usually feel my money is wasted when I eat a restaurant - rarely does the quality justify the price - even for a $20 meal.

For me this is by far the main reason. I do eat out, but only at a select few places. Pretty much everywhere else, I end up thinking that I could have cooked a much, much tastier meal for a small fraction of the price.

I think more and more places are capitalizing on people who don't cook. A local bakery is all about giant cookies. I bought some once and almost gagged. They are clearly made using vegetable shortening and I have to assume their customers can't taste the difference between that and real butter. Really, I'd happily pay the small difference if they used high quality ingredients. The places that actually care about the quality of their food and not just their profits are the ones that get my business.

Do you pay someone else to have sex with your wife (or girlfriend/S.O.)?

After all, you could be earning $100/hour with that precious time.

(Sorry for the somewhat crude example, but it underscores the point that some things just aren't measured in money. Maybe some people enjoy cooking, or don't actually want to work every waking minute, or need a break from their work.)

Perhaps I didn't make this clear enough: I consider eating out a lot to be unhealthy. Sure, there are very rare restaurants that serve tasty food that is low in fat, sodium, etc. but they are a rarity.

Okay. I guess riding around on a high horse leaves you plenty of time to cook.

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