Burgers take a bigger bite.

• Author: Safir, Andrew
• Position: Alaska Department of Labor review of pricing in state of Alaska

Anyone who has followed this column over the years knows my position on recycling: As an option on a dishwasher it's OK, but it should not be used to brainwash elementary school students into hoarding newsprint in the vain hope it will save a tree or two.

Economically, recycling is a bust; socially, however, the concept now has more respectability than your banker (not too difficult, given recent events). No one wants to be told that recycling usually costs more than it saves (again, just like your bank). Such statements raise more bile than asserting that cholesterol is good for you or that eating Cheez Whiz inhibits cancer (both of which have actually been supported in recent medical studies - so much for respectability in that profession).

Recycling old column ideas, however, works great, especially when we're talking about cholesterol and Cheez Whiz. That's right. Some of you have already guessed it: It's time to revisit the state of Alaska's Hamburger Index.

Several years ago, the Alaska Department of Labor was having trouble coming up with a measure of comparative living standards in Alaskan communities. As a result, some hungry sole began fishing for a way to determine relative in-state price levels. For this, the department needed a standard market-basket of goods, items that are purchased frequently and in similar quantities in each city and township from Juneau to Chicken and Adak to Anchorage.

Enter the McDonald's Happy Meal. To most folks, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large fries and a medium coke is as standard a marketbasket as there is (give or take the odd Egg McMuffin). In August 1988, the labor department collected the cost of these items from Golden Arches across Alaska and published the results in a comparative index that highlighted price level differentials.

At the time, I thought they had some overweight analyst with a heart problem doing the survey personally. (I should have known there was no free lunch. I've since been told they let...