Monday, August 24, 2009

The New Big-Mac Index


I FIND THE ABOVE CHART FASCINATING. To be clear, I haven't eaten a Big Mac in decades. The last one I wolfed down was most likely racing through some foreign country at an odd, late hour of the night when I must have decided it was the only amoeba-free instant-gratification meal in town.

Many years ago for plenty of years, I doled them out---occasionally---as treats to my children, through the drive-thru only. Today, I would undoubtedly eat one if I were on the verge of starving. Not to be ungrateful, but I gave up fast food---along with many other quick and easy indiscretions that tasted good in the moment but were hard to digest in the long run---decades ago and have never looked back.

Anyway, via Carpe Diem and the Economist here's the rap:

THE ECONOMIST -- The size of your pay packet may be important, but so is its purchasing power. Helpfully, a UBS report published this week offers a handy guide to how long it takes a worker on the average net wage to earn the price of a Big Mac in 73 cities. Fast-food junkies are best off in Chicago, Toronto and Tokyo, where it takes a mere 12 minutes at work to afford a Big Mac. By contrast, employees must toil for over two hours to earn enough for a burger fix in Mexico City, Jakarta and Nairobi

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