Of course, even if the McDonald's budget may have been "realistic" in some areas 10 years ago, I don't think wages have kept up with the rise of prices for rent, groceries, etc in the intervening decade.
Then we moved to Philadelphia, where we paid $1,125 for a two-bedroom apartment in another nice neighborhood.
I lived in Philadelphia around that time, and there was nowhere that you could rent a two bedroom for less than $1,600.
I wouldn't trust any of those numbers, and even if you could, it still didn't account for groceries. The budget didn't include FOOD. Did they expect employees to steal hand soap and toilet paper from their reataurants? Mustard for toothpaste?
For whose point? The person you're talking to didn't do anything but respond with links. One of those links corroborates the story about the budget, regardless of what rhetorical argument they're trying to make. So you got your answer, but you don't care because you're not trying to stay factual on the Internet, you're just here to be an asshole.