More Big Mac Abundance

Most of us are "upskilling" workers. Investing in human capital provides excellent dividends.

We reported earlier that Big Macs had become 27 percent more abundant since 1994 for blue-collar workers. But this underestimates the real growth in abundance. Why? Because people don’t start off as blue-collar workers. They start as entry level workers, maybe even starting at McDonalds, and then move up as they upgrade their skills. We call these people upskilling workers, and most of us fall into this category.

In 1994 minimum wage was $4.75. The $2.30 Big Mac would cost an entry-level worker around 29 minutes. The current hourly wage for all employees is now $36.53. A $4.99 Big Mac now averages a little over 8 minutes. The time price has fallen almost 72 percent. An upskilling worker now gets 3.54 Big Mac for the time price of one in 1994. Abundance has increased by 254 percent. That indicates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3 percent, doubling abundance every 17 years.

Learn more about our infinitely bountiful planet at superabundance.com. We explain and give hundreds of examples why more people with freedom means much more resource abundances for everyone in our book, Superabundance, available at Amazon.

Gale Pooley is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, and a board member at Human Progress.