A look at the Big Mac Index and US Government lies about inflation

The price of a McDonald’s hamburger has long been used as a real-world inflation measure and even as an international price comparison called the Big Mac Index. Let’s take a look at how it is faring.

When McDonald’s opened in 1948, a burger cost $0.15. It stayed at $0.15 for 20 years. This was before the US left the gold standard and before massive federal borrowing became normal.

In 1966, the last year it was $0.15, the median US income was $7,400, which is $73,648 in today’s dollars. That’s well below today’s national average. But here’s the point: $0.15 in 1966 is worth about $1.49 in 2025 dollars. But here in my city, that burger costs $5.

So in 60 years, while the median salary has barely moved, the price of a normal burger more than doubled. The ingredients are worse, the burgers are smaller, customer service is worse, and they aren’t even hiring as many people anymore.

Corporate margins haven’t actually grown. So where has the money gone?

Inflation. Not the 2% CPI numbers… That is not real. They swap out better products for cheaper ones, drop weights and sizes, and pretend it’s the same thing. They “adjust” the basket of goods so it hides the real price hikes. Everyone knows groceries, rent, and takeout haven’t gone up 2% a year. Just compare any receipt today to one from 4 years ago. They also doubled the M2 money supply in just a year or two during COVID. Politicians approved trillions in new spending, while blaming rising prices entirely on corporate greed.

McDonalds is getting more efficient at making their burgers and running their business, thanks to technology. Take a look at this chart: the blue line should be decreasing, not increasing. Efficiency and technology make things cheaper and hide the true cost of inflation. Inflation is just so far beyond what the government recognizes that technology and efficiency improvements alone cannot hide it.

Then there’s regulation and taxes. Every part of running a business costs more because of it: Permits, zoning rules, compliance costs that mean hiring entire departments just to fill out forms. Taxes on labor, taxes on goods, taxes on profits, and hidden taxes passed on from suppliers. Every rule sounds good on paper but ends up adding a few cents here and a few dollars there until your cheap burger costs five bucks.