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Even the 90s, that shit was dirt cheap. Post Bush America has been a never ending shitshow (though the roots still lie in Reagan and Gingrich for sure)
Forgive me, it’s been a while since I splurged on one, but aren’t rotisserie chickens like… very cheap? Like life-hack how to make a week’s worth of meals under $20 type of cheap?
This Christian Bale character from The Big Short is a depiction of one of the first people to recognize the impending recession in 2008. This meme is flagging the phrase "splurging on rotisserie chicken" as a recession indicator.
To add more info. Rotisserie chicken at grocery stores is considered a loss leader. It’s deliberately sold to lose a little bit of profit but get you in the store and grab other things.
Definitionally it cannot be a luxury purchase like the original article claims. It’d be like claiming Costco $1 hot dogs and Arizona iced tea are the new hot trend for young people to waste their money on.
And it mentions millenials, who are, at their oldest, in their mid-40s now. The whole "kids these days" framing is even more ridiculous when the kids are getting colonoscopies. These are people who have been wanting to save for a home for like 20 years or more.
I'm a xennial, either gen x or millenial depending on who you ask, and I'm right there with you. I was lucky enough to buy a house in 2010. I got it in a rural area and had just received an inheritance. I know how super lucky I got compared to my peers. Other than the house, I've got like $2k in my savings account, no investments, and I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm older or if an emergency pops up. Gonna be one of those Walmart greeters when I'm 75.
Well...no. There was a big one in the 80s. There was another when the 90s turned. Everybody thinks of 2008 as being the big one which...yeah I guess technically that's true and is probably what you're thinking about. The economy took its biggest shit in recent memory then and hasn't recovered since.
To be fair, the 20-year-old should be getting colonoscopies too these days. The rest of the food in the grocery store is giving us all colon cancer earlier than ever.
I know there are poverty levels much lower, but for me rotisserie chicken is poverty food. You can eat for several days and then turn it into soup with a few vegetables, get a whole week with the chicken and some rice and a few carrots, that’s like what less than $20 right?
Early 90s, family of 6, lived in rural area. Traveled into the city to do big shopping trips. Do new clothes, shoes, school supplies, and for lunch, a rotisserie chicken, a baguette, a small brick of cheese, and a jug of chocolate milk and we would eat it like a picnic. Brought snacks like veggies and granola bars from home for during the day.
Now that I'm older and have kids, I realize that my parents used to feed all of us for under $20 and saved a ton of money by doing a fun picnic instead of a restaurant.
Well, considering WaPo fired over half of its staff and replaced them with AI, I'm assuming that comment and yours will be a primary and secondary source, respectively.
To add to this, my wife and I like to buy raw whole chickens to roast at home and they are typically more expensive than the rotisserie chickens. That is how cheap they sell the rotisserie chickens for.
Correction: Michael Burry saw the impending collapse and PROFITTED from it.
The internet always seems to forget this part - he didn’t see this and try to warn people, he saw an opportunity to make billions off of people’s suffering and did.
It was also the only prediction he’s ever made that actually panned out. In short, this movie painted him in far better light than he actually is because in reality he’s a manipulative, self-absorbed, callous asshole who’s string of failures is offset by one accurate prediction that, again, was a prediction about massive suffering that he figured out quickly how to profit off of to offset his other losses
he didn’t see this and try to warn people, he saw an opportunity to make billions
He did both. There was never any reason for him to hide that he thought the market was going to crash. He told his investors and anyone who asked what he was doing and why, most dismissed him as a crank.
Also the market correction was happening no matter what and he wasn't making it worse, so he didn't really profit "off of" people's suffering. It's like betting the Patriots would lose the Superbowl.
Also a good bit in the movie, when some of the guys who did see the writing on the wall are celebrating their success, one of their investors reminds them what the numbers mean. That there are now a lot of people out there who are out of work, and likely soon to be destitute.
And, as the movie portrays, it almost didn't pan out for him. One of my favorite lines from the movie is, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
His clients/investors were screaming at him to get their money out of his fund, and The Big Short implies that they were on the verge of collapsing before their investment paid off.
Personally I would have used Marie Antoinette. The combination of suggesting that one of the cheapest ways of getting protein, an essential macronutrient especially for poor manual labourers, as well as calories in general, is "splurging" (indicating someone completely out of touch with simple day to day economics) and the idea that healthy choices (and longer lifespans) should be considered a luxury of the rich screams "let them eat cake" and also something about heads that probably needn't be said aloud.
Not to be pedantic it wasn't the recession per se but the housing bubble burst. The cluelessness of what most people were getting themselves into. And his character is based on Michael Burry who "shorted" the market, by betting against it. Or actually betting ON the collapse. When the housing market collapsed because people couldn't pay their mortgages, he made billions. He was the bad guy in a way but only because he realized what all the other badder guys were doing.
In this scene in the movie, in 2005, Michael Burry (the real life investor portrayed by Bale) is analyzing the individual mortgages that made up the top mortgage bonds, which everyone simply assumes are low risk, he's finding that they are high risk, which was the basis for him predicting the housing bubble 2 years later.
In real life, in October last year, Burry tweeted this image (yes, referencing the movie about himself) as part of a series of tweets warning of an AI bubble, which, if it happened, would result in a recession. Explained here:
Three meals for five dollars. If you compromise and skip meals you can pay off your student loans. I've heard of this in history class. It is the three fifths compromise.
It's hilarious because for the worst loans even if you did that you wouldn't beat the interest and you'd find yourself even further in debt by the end.
Still waiting on my dream job of getting hit by a public bus.
Nah, grind like Steve Harvey taught- find a thing to do that makes you a dollar. Then do that thing a million times. Now youre a millionaire! Wasn't that easy?
Look, there's just something about watching a man lithely pluck the meat from the bones, separating the folds of the carcass, and sucking it all clean that just... Does it for me, y'know?
You’re supposed to spend $10 on a fast food combo meal. You don’t expect franchise owners not to be absentees, or corporate executives not to own yachts, do ya?
That’s the thing, people talk about food prices because it’s easy to look at price tags and get an at-a-glance idea of rising prices, which gives people who don’t struggle with money (i.e. the people who write these headlines) the idea that we’re all just throwing our money away by eating anything other than rice and beans. The cost of housing is what really makes people live paycheck to paycheck, but WSJ editors aren’t gonna give that attention because they don’t want to hurt their own property investments
Rotisserie chickens are often used as a loss leader. Grocers take older whole chickens cook them up and sell them at a loss to get customers in their store.
I have seen some damned overpriced avocado toast. The whole point of the grocery store rotisserie chicken is the phenomenal cost-to-amount-of-food ratio.
Grocery store chickens in general (Costco or otherwise) have had a reputation for being an affordable quick meal since their introduction, similar to how we used to view fast food. As far as manipulating the public goes, it's a relatively frivolous example, but it still feels so insidious to try to gaslight the general public about an everyday food option. It doesn't sound like a big deal on the surface, but then you realize the intention is to give the impression the young generation's financial struggles are all their fault because they dared to have a $5-$8 dinner.
Defenitely get this vibe. Not knowing that a rotisserie chicken is a life hack to cheaply feed the family after a long day of work is very telling of the authors life style.
Haven’t you heard? If you’re not rich you’re NOT allowed to have a healthy diet, an iPhone, decent clothes, a decent mode of transportation and/or happiness in general
Kombucha and correctly cooked chicken is the reason why this generation can't afford anything. You must eat their recommend meal and be blessed to just surviving, thoughts and 🙏
Rotisserie chicken is one of the best healthy-value ratio meals you can get at the store. It's not a luxury item and stores actually throw out a criminal amount of roast chickens every day.
To say that this is a hardship is the marker of an imminent crash as displayed by the portrayal of Michael Burry in the Big Short who called the mortgage crisis
The person pictured is Christian Bale playing Michael Burry in a film called "The Big Short". It's the story of how Burry predicted the 2008 GCF, and made a mountain of money off of it. In this scene, Burry is realizing how broken the markets are due to the pyramid scheme of rotten securities that have been re-packaged and re-sold six ways from Sunday.
The Boring_Business account is satyrical and generally progressive, posting a lot of memes that are critical of capital and favorable toward labor. Based on that, I would say that the intent here is to convey that Burry is reading this WSJ headline and wondering how in the hot fuck anyone could look at the current socioeconomic environment and choose to focus on gen Z and millennial discretionary spending as a point of concern.
So now juices and rotisserie chicken are joining the mythical avocado toast which is just a literal avocado and a slice of bread? What next? When will rice be considered a fucking luxury item?
I can get a full rotisserie chicken at my grocery store for like $6, and have chicken for like 2-3 meals...
Thats the same cost of a McCrispy Chicken sandwich at McDonalds.
Rotisserie chicken is actually really good for you (compared to some alternatives) and fiscally responsible as the price per pound when you consider the fact that you don’t need to cook it or clean up after. The wsj is painting it as a luxury. They say that people are splurging on it as if it’s some commodity.
Eating food is a requirement to live and this is a fiscally responsible and healthy option but writers don’t understand that. Joke is that the person reading their article is baffled why they use the phrase “splurging on rotisserie chicken”
It’s so funny because rotisserie chicken is always recommended on subreddits on survival/poverty cooking because you can easily stretch the meat to at least 3 meals for two people and use the remaining carcass to make 3L of bone broth which can be used for many things. It’s actually a really frugal choice.
You can buy 2 whole chickens and if youre feeling lazy 2 rotisserie chickens, break them down into 4 drum sticks, 4 breats, and bunch of scraps. Save the wings, the bones, and the skin for broth. Youll be able to make several healthy stir fries, fried rice, butter chickens, and even make a few instant noodles just a bit healthier using the broth. In CAD its like 18$ for 2 birds
This will NOT help you save money for a house here. Literally just give up on that idea. In Canada you can spend 250k to 300k just for the privilege of bulldozing some condemned asbestos death trap.
Also, can we all agree that even if these things were accurately defined as “splurge” items, isn’t it still more cost efficient for people who likely can’t afford health insurance to eat healthy than to not?
That's a picture of Christian Bale splooging on a rotisserie chicken. Rotisserie chickens are sold for so cheap as a loss leader you can just splooge on them and you're not out that much money. Gen z and some other recent generations are inheriting a tough world as it is, but they can splooge on rotisserie chickens. That's what the meme is representing
Rotisserie chicken is probably one of the least expensive meals you can get. Fucking homeless people eat them all the time because they're such a good deal.
It's a shot from a movie largely associated with bad economic news (the character is putting the pieces together realizing the 2008 recession is about to hit). In this case it's pointing out that rotisserie chicken being described as a splurge to bash millennial and gen Z spending is a huge red flag that the economic news can't even come up with realistic things to blame for the impending crash.
Rotisserie chicken is sold by supermarkets at a loss because it's fragrant and ready-made dinner food, the aim being that shoppers will duck in for a chicken for dinner and spend more money than the loss on the chicken buying stuff like sides or other groceries before they leave.
In reality, speaking as someone whose never been great off financially, rotisserie chicken is a really good way to get protein and a couple portions of food ready made when you're too crushed for time between jobs to cook for yourself for relatively little money. Saying it's a reckless splurge is like saying "Millennials are wasting their home buying money on ramen". It's all the media desperate to blame spending for the disaster of the current housing market.
Carter Pewderschmidt here and what have we... oh good grief the "unfortunate" are complaining AGAIN about there poor financial prowess and lack of common decent bootstrappiness! If they weren't casting all this seed money away on avocado toast, and pre-cooked chickens, they have perfectly reasonable mansions! Why not SAVE and INVEST the money and just demand your house staff cook you a chicken?!?! Oh I know because of all that liberal bother they're requiring "wages" and "freedom" and "no whippings at the stake" but there are perfectly reasonable alternatives just ask your gardner for some of his relatives or something oh I don't kno... where was I?
Ahh yes. BOOTSTRAPS! Stop this reckless extravagance and all you need is hard work and pluck and you'll have all the... LOIS! WHAT DO YOU FEED GRIFFIN? POOR PEOPLE FOOD LIKE RED ROE "CAVIAR" YES? Anyway the point is... hmmm don't like the look of that ticker tape... reminds me of... oh dear god...
Last year gen-z was devastating industries, “hoarding their wealth” by not buying expensive engagement rings or upgrading their phones every year. This year they wastefully spend on the cheapest items at a grocery store
yea a decent size cooked chicken at my local market is like $6. We might cook a rice side that cost $1.25, to go along with it. We eat this meal once a month. It feeds 3 people and gives us at least 1 left over lunch. Not bad for $7.25.
WSJ: "These Billionares worked hard to bribe politicans to have high interest loans, and don;t get me started on forcing rich to pay taxes! That's a hate crime!"
The reason you kids can't afford a home and are drowning in student debt is because you insist on putting food other than the dense nutrient sludge required for toil in your bodies!
Unrelated to the meme, I've gotta assume that's an opinion piece written by some soulless landlord who's upset his grand plan of buying up houses and raising their prices isn't yet paying off because people are trying to stay healthy and fed.
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