Considering how many cows are slaughtered for beef (especially those bought buy McDonalds), how come leather is so expensive?
But the working of leather can achieve art. I think you pay for the workmanship.
A lot of it may reflect the extensive processing required to manufacture leather from raw hides:
Leather itself is not typically all that expensive unless we’re talking some of the super high grades. It’s the manufacturing process and work that goes into crafting a leather item that is pricey. If you shop around you can buy medium to good quality leather jackets and related items for quite reasonable prices on sale.
I asked the same question about a year ago. Go to here for the answers already said.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=86149&highlight=leather
The price of leather is determined by supply and demand.
I’d also offer a slightly WAG that is tinged with a bit of education. I’ve shot two jobs for clients at locations that manufacture leather goods. One was for the Footjoy Golf Shoe Company, the other one was for Natuzzi, in Italy.
In both cases, the quality of the leather goods produced is DIRECTLY affected by the quality of the skins they buy. Footjoy has buyers who deal with suppliers who can guarantee a certain degree of stability and consistency, year after year. Different parts of a shoe are stamped from the same area of a skin, but on the other side of the spine line ( the thinnest part of the skin, due to the weight of the body dangling below that spine, stretching out the skin along the bone of the spine itself ). If a skin isn’t flawless at synchronous areas of the skin, then the part cannt be extracted/stamped out for both shoes from that part of the skin, and it’s rejected and used for other bits.
In the case of Natuzzi, Mr. Natuzzi solved the problem of quality control in a very basic and simple way. He owns the cattle ranches. 
Smart man. He also owns the foundry that makes the frames for his chairs and sofas, as well as the mills that make the fabric, if fabric is used. He also owns the company ( or did a few years ago when I was at his factory in Italy, since then he mighta gone public ). The guy’s a qualtiy control freak, have to give him that.
Anyway, it’s not just supply and demand, it’s supply of a certain grade, to fit a certain demand. McDonald’s doesn’t really come into the equation, IMHO. Any quality maker would likely not be buying skins from a cattle rancher raising Big Mac’s on the hoof. ( At least, I’ve never heard of such, but I’d be interested to see if that is indeed the case )
Cartooniverse
The reason hamburger is cheap is because every part of the cow is being used for other stuff. Bones/skin/gut – all used for medicines, leather, food, dog chews, chemicals, etc. If you killed a cow only for the meat and threw away the rest, that same hamburger would cost $25 a pound.
Leather quality determines the price of leather. Feed lot cows get mange, skin diseases, bug bites, brands burned into them, stretch marks, nicks and scratches, etc. That bad quality skin or hide can be turned into usable leather because there is so much processing done to it to hide blemishes that it can be (after a whole series of processes) not very “natural” at all.
The good leather is almost blemish free – it needs a lot less processing – less coating, less “finishing” - aka paint – less of everything. Because, in the end, since these hides are more rare, they command a higher price.
So, you can buy cheap leather and you can buy expensive leather. Just like everything else, quality matters.
Just note that this is a 10 year old thread. Carry on.