> Unless you're extremely poor, spending twice as much at McDonald's won't affect you (and, consequently economy) in any way but it'll affect people working at McDonald's.
Not so fast. I can afford to spend much more at McDonalds, but if I do so, I'm not spending that money somewhere else, regardless of how much money I have. You have to assume that I get no value from spending that money elsewhere to conclude that spending it instead at McDonalds doesn't affect me.
However, even with that assumption, it's absurd to claim that my spending more money at McDonalds and less somewhere else doesn't affect the economy.
You're going to have to argue that the economy benefits from spending money at McDonalds vs somewhere else. The folks who'd otherwise get that spending will be very interested to see that argument.
Moreover, you're making incorrect assumptions about McDonalds customers. They're (typically) not all that well off. More to the point, they're extremely price sensitive, hence the success of the "dollar menu".
We can test your claim in a situation more favorable to it than the real world, namely airports. It's inconvenient to "bag it" and the clientele is reasonably well off. Yet, many folks do, and not just because they don't like airport food. (The Denver airport, for example, has some decent places.)
You're claiming that airport food places could double their prices without affecting what people buy. Do you really believe that? (You can't argue "but airport food is already too expensive" without providing a quantitative argument showing that McDonalds in South San Jose isn't in pretty much the same situation.)
If folks are actually price-insensitive, what limits prices at airport places? (No - competition between restaurants doesn't explain it because the airport could charge them all more money.)
FWIW, I picked "cleaning service" for a reason. The low-end cleaning services in San Jose raised their prices 7-10% about a couple of years ago. (I looked around when mine did.) Mine claimed that she and her competitors lost accounts when they did so and that some went out of biz. She says that there's less money being spent on cleaning services even today.
How do you know that she's wrong?
And no, customers' response to a price increase does not depend on why the price is increasing. (They may be happy with a price increase accomplanied by some other change, but that's not what you're proposing.)
> I don't know what the answer is
You claim to know enough to know that there's no effect from raising the minimum wage.
> but you certainly haven't proven that 20% rise of McDonald's prices would cause McDonald's collapse
I didn't say that it would cause a collapse. I'm pointing out that the "no change" claim is almost certainly wrong.
If you think that McDonalds is cheaper than a sandwich that you make yourself I understand why you want to avoid quantitative arguments.
Comments
> Unless you're extremely poor, spending twice as much at McDonald's won't affect you (and, consequently economy) in any way but it'll affect people working at McDonald's.
Not so fast. I can afford to spend much more at McDonalds, but if I do so, I'm not spending that money somewhere else, regardless of how much money I have. You have to assume that I get no value from spending that money elsewhere to conclude that spending it instead at McDonalds doesn't affect me.
However, even with that assumption, it's absurd to claim that my spending more money at McDonalds and less somewhere else doesn't affect the economy.
You're going to have to argue that the economy benefits from spending money at McDonalds vs somewhere else. The folks who'd otherwise get that spending will be very interested to see that argument.
Moreover, you're making incorrect assumptions about McDonalds customers. They're (typically) not all that well off. More to the point, they're extremely price sensitive, hence the success of the "dollar menu".
We can test your claim in a situation more favorable to it than the real world, namely airports. It's inconvenient to "bag it" and the clientele is reasonably well off. Yet, many folks do, and not just because they don't like airport food. (The Denver airport, for example, has some decent places.)
You're claiming that airport food places could double their prices without affecting what people buy. Do you really believe that? (You can't argue "but airport food is already too expensive" without providing a quantitative argument showing that McDonalds in South San Jose isn't in pretty much the same situation.)
If folks are actually price-insensitive, what limits prices at airport places? (No - competition between restaurants doesn't explain it because the airport could charge them all more money.)
FWIW, I picked "cleaning service" for a reason. The low-end cleaning services in San Jose raised their prices 7-10% about a couple of years ago. (I looked around when mine did.) Mine claimed that she and her competitors lost accounts when they did so and that some went out of biz. She says that there's less money being spent on cleaning services even today.
How do you know that she's wrong?
And no, customers' response to a price increase does not depend on why the price is increasing. (They may be happy with a price increase accomplanied by some other change, but that's not what you're proposing.)
> I don't know what the answer is
You claim to know enough to know that there's no effect from raising the minimum wage.
> but you certainly haven't proven that 20% rise of McDonald's prices would cause McDonald's collapse
I didn't say that it would cause a collapse. I'm pointing out that the "no change" claim is almost certainly wrong.
If you think that McDonalds is cheaper than a sandwich that you make yourself I understand why you want to avoid quantitative arguments.