"and in fact the french used to resist fast food a bit but they are totally into it now..."

Just had to serve alcohol with it to take off.

www.youtube.com/watch

I had a double quarter pounder with cheese the other day sans bun and fries. I've lost about 20 lbs in the last few months cutting carbs down to minute levels. My blood sugar has never been better (since testing it) - have had to cut my insulin intake in half. Pretty soon I'll be off of it.

Another thing about McDonalds.
It tastes like Shit!!!

>>>Iceland says goodbye to the Big Mac

probably the best thing that will ever happen to that country!

hehehe Never quite thought of it that way Gerard but when you think of it that way it seems quite true

"I've always thought of Ronald McDonald as some filthy sick pervert who lures young children into his den with promises of toys and games, then feeds them toxic shit and brainwashes them into blackmailing their parents into spending more money."

It wasn't always that way.

franchises.about.com/od/most...tory.htm

"The Ray Kroc Story – McDonald’s Facts and History

In 1954, at the age of 52, Ray Kroc began a new age in franchising when he became the national agent for McDonald's.

Kroc, making his rounds as a milk shake mixer salesman, came across the McDonald brothers' (Richard and Maurice) small hamburger shop in Southern California. The establishment was simple, serving only a few items: hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, and milk shakes. These two brothers became one of Kroc's best customers as they purchased several of his machines in his otherwise dying business.

Kroc, curious about why the McDonalds were purchasing so many mixers, investigated the establishment further. With his keen sense of what American consumers were looking for in eating out, Kroc suggested that the brothers expand their presence. As they asked how they could do so, he offered his services as their agent. That is how the little restaurants with the bright yellow arches began.

The First McDonald's

The first shop opened in 1955 in Chicago as the organization became the McDonald's Corporation. Six years later Ray bought out the founding brothers. By 1965 there were more than 700 sites in existence across the United States.

It wasn't long before McDonald's also caught on in several other countries. By 2003, the corporation held over 31,000 sites in 119 countries. Forty seven million people were being served every day and sales were at a hefty $17 billion.

Although Kroc did not create the concept of the chain restaurant, he saw a niche and developed the plan to transform burgers, fries and shakes into a huge empire. Kroc was a stickler for consistency and cleanliness in all of his establishments. In addition, he did everything he could to keep costs down so that even low income people could afford a meal out at McDonald's. .."


More Corporatism in action. On another note, I just watched an HBO documentary on the Garment Industry called "Shmatta: From Rags to Riches to Rags". One statistic that stood out for me was that in 1975 (when I worked for my father in his Junior Sportswear manufacturing company) 80% of clothing was made in the US. This year the number is 5%. Even the tragic Triangle Shirt factory fire of 1911 was offshored to Bangladesh in 2000 where young girls were locked into the factory and could not escape.

We export our jobs and our tastes leaving behind a shrinking middle class which fueled all this stuff in the first place. Now businesses must either cater to the rich or to the discount crowd with goods produced in China and other third world countries. Wal-mart, K-mart, Kohls are doing a bang-up business not because people are refusing to go to more expensive Mom & Pops, but because they have no other alternative. $20 jeans or $750 jeans (organically grown denim) is just another case in point illustrated in that show.

It's even more amazing when our cheap goods like Levis and Hamburgers are targeted at the wealthier people overseas.

It feels like the collapse of the Roman Empire (it just seems like they must have went through similar stages of class erosion).