The Economist shows an interesting chart comparing how much working time it takes to buy a Big Mac in different cities around the work. The New York City value looks like it’s about 17 minutes of work per Big Mac? Assuming 8 hour work days, that means New York earns about 28 Big Macs per day per person. If we convert that into calories, we get 14,000 calories at 514 calories a Big Mac. Given that 2,000 calories is your recommended daily caloric intake, we can say that New Yorkers earn enough to feed 7 people per day including themselves, assuming no other expenses. The average household size in the New York metropolitan area is about 2.7 people, so where does that other 4.3 people’s worth of food go? I’m assuming cocaine.
By contrast, it takes people in Nairobi about 160 minutes to earn a Big Mac. That’s only 1500 calories per day per person, not even enough to meet their daily recommended value. Is there no justice in the world? I bet they don’t even have Sweet Tea.