Does Your Homemade Pizza Follow the “Pizza Principle”?

It might sound crazy, but it’s true. If you live in the United States and want to know how inflation is doing, there are two things to look at – New York City subway prices, and the price of New York pizza dough. This is the “pizza principle,” and it’s one that economists refer to quite often.

Your homemade pizza can actually use Italian pizza dough or any other kind of dough you choose in order to follow the “pizza principle.” That’s because the principle simply (unofficially) states that a slice of pizza should be the same price as a ticket for the New York City subway. And while it might sound like something too ridiculous to be true, it’s a principle that’s been followed for the past 50 years. The figure isn’t usually an average or a rounded number either; but rather, the two numbers line up very accurately year after year.

If you want to make sure you’re following the pizza principle, it’s very easy. Just make sure that a slice of your pizza sells for about $2.50, the price of a single ticket to use the NYC subway system. If it does, you’re following the principle – even though most New Yorkers say that the most they’d like to pay for a slice is just one dollar.