According to a viral post by Adam Livingston, the true state of the U.S. economy isn’t revealed by official data like CPI or Federal Reserve reports, it’s exposed by the price of a Burger King Whopper.
In 2015, a Whopper cost $3.75, or about 1.19 million satoshis (0.0119 BTC). Today, that same burger is priced at $8.29, while its Bitcoin equivalent has dropped to just 7,420 satoshis. Livingston calls this the ultimate proof of the U.S. dollar’s collapse, arguing that Bitcoin’s purchasing power has soared while fiat continues to erode.
“The Whopper didn’t get bigger,” Livingston wrote. “The only thing that changed is the dollar evaporated faster than the middle class.” He describes the “Whopper Index” as a more honest measure of inflation, a symbol of how everyday Americans are paying the price for decades of monetary mismanagement and money printing.
The post portrays inflation not as an accident but as the default operating system of the modern economy, where wages stagnate while prices climb and savings lose value.
Livingston frames Bitcoin as the escape hatch, “your emancipation proclamation,” he says, offering individuals a way to opt out of a system built on debt, dilution, and dependency.
His conclusion is blunt and symbolic: “One day, when the Whopper is $50 and still only costs a handful of sats, you’ll realize, the burger didn’t change. You just stopped being the clown in someone else’s drive-thru.”
