Howard Goodman- The Whiner

He is a Columnist for the Sun-Sentinel who covers Palm Beach County. Today Howard has a column about Boca Raton's $100 hameburger.

We live in a region of plenty that offers the amusement of a $100 hamburger. At the same time, 800,000 people in South Florida live below the poverty line, according to organizations that track hunger.

Last year, 23,000 people in Palm Beach County sought emergency food provided, in part, by the Daily Bread Food Bank, a clearinghouse for donations. That's in addition to another 30,000 people in Broward and 64,000 in Miami-Dade.

"It's a huge problem," says Judith Gatti,executive director of Daily Bread, based in Miami.

Some 800 nonprofits are running programs to combat hunger in South Florida. They're supported by thousands of donors -- including many from the restaurant industry, Gatti said.

Despite the generous effort, the need keeps growing. In recent years, the ranks of those seeking emergency food aid in America are increasing nearly 1 percent a year, she said.

The $100 hamburger?

"We could provide 600 meals for that," said Gatti. The economy is achieved by collecting and redistributing discarded and donated food, millions of pounds worth a year.

One hundred dollars.

It can buy three meals a day for a child for 200 days.

Or one ritzy burger.

Howard like alot of liberals, you seem to ignore simple economics. The eatery selling this burger priced it at what they thought the market would pay for it.

It is called capitalism. The Old Homestead Steakhouse had to figure in the cost of the beef and other products to make their burger, plus overhead for their establishment and then of course profit. The owner had to ask himself how people would want to pay for it without pricing it too high where there would not be a demand.

It's called capitalism. McDonald's does the same thing with their Double Quarter pounders with cheese that I sometimes eat. Supply and demand, what the market wil take. Whether it's 3.49 or $100.

Howard could have wrinen how many people would be fed for that $3.49. Or the cost of those French Fries Or the cost of a large drink.

I for one won't be eating that $100 burger. In truth, I doubt there is much of a market for it. If a person has that kind of money for a meal, I'd think they would buy something else to eat. Then maybe I'm wrong. Old Homestead will make that decision, not Howard Goodman.

What I think is the cause for Howard's whining, is his boss wouldn't pay for the meal. Nothing else makes sense. For a smart person would know its just capitalism at work in Boca Raton. Just like most of the free world.

Open Post- Freedom Watch, Third World County,