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In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

theguardian.com

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Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#141

Post by balls187 »

ghaff wrote: post #131
balls187 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried making your own mcdonald's french fries? This process was tedious, but surprisingly effective: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-h... I did not have an accurate way to measure the temp of the oil, which is important. Also I reused peanut oil, fresh oil would make the color nicer and a more pure taste.

I do like their fries--though that's about the only thing. To me, McDonalds has better fries than places like In-and-Out but their burgers are far inferior.

Of the tier-1 fastfood joints, I'd rank Wendy's followed by Burger King (always order it "CTO"--cooked to order).

McDonald's burgers have a unique flavor, which I like, but would not be my first choice.

In-n-Out burgers are decent, as is ShakeShack (though their cheese is salty), but my favorite burger is from Five Guys.

McDonald's french fries, however, are the undisputed king of sides.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#142

Post by balls187 »

amelius wrote: post #135
balls187 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried making your own mcdonald's french fries? This process was tedious, but surprisingly effective: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-h... I did not have an accurate way to measure the temp of the oil, which is important. Also I reused peanut oil, fresh oil would make the color nicer and a more pure taste.

(That link is hilarious and informative at the same time.) Do you also have a recipe for the sauce?

I'm in the US, so "sauce" means Heinz Ketchup.

Is there another sauce you are referring to?

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#143

Post by kristianc »

Kalium wrote: post #128
kristianc wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Knowing, for example, that the Founding Fathers were all secular deists. Knowing that you're actually, like, 30 times more likely to shoot yourself than an intruder. Knowing that those fools out in Kansas are voting against their own self-interest and that the trouble is Kansas doesn't know any better. Knowing all the jokes that signal this knowledge. Doesn't Vox exist to perpetuate this kind of nonsense? It's unde…

Yes, this is exactly why Vox exists. Which is both why Vox is the best place for that article and the place where its core message will go unheard.

This, from today, is another classic of the genre.

A Guardian columnist walking round one of the UK's poorest districts bewildered that white working class people do not share his opinions on the European Union:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2016/jun/14/l...

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#144

Post by dsfyu404ed »

balls187 wrote: post #118
tetromino_ wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them given your financial and time constraints, but teaching a 3-year-old to associate comfort and happiness with unhealthy food doesn't strike me as the wisest decision. When they are old enough and responsible enough for their bodies, they might decide on their own that they enjoy nicotine, corn syrup, salt, starch, and fry oil - but why bias them towards su…

> Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them. Full stop. No need to continue with the rest of your judgements. Parenting is a very hard job, and it's only made worse by all the parents (and even worse--non-parents) that want to make judgements. Being a parent, I now have a profound respect and appreciation for my parents (especially my mother). Things weren't always great, but they did the best th…

No, not full stop. Just because raising kids, being a police officer, digging a ditch is "hard work" doesn't free someone from having that work criticized.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#145

Post by niftich »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #119

What astonishes me, is how often poor people go eating in a restaurant (e.g. breakfast in the first paragraph) when making breakfast at home (or lunch) is so much cheaper (as a fun exercise we often calculate the prices of our home lunch). Although I have a nice income, 80% of the time I bring my own food to work because restaurants are too expensive in my opinion to regularly use them. As a side note: I have the sus…

To make food at home, you either need fresh, perishable ingredients and/or time to prep and cook. Even accessing fresh ingredients may be a hassle (see: food deserts), so eating off the dollar menu often feels like a better use of your money than making the trek to the grocery store to buy some perishables that you then have to cook before they go bad.

It's similar to why poor people buy poor-quality shoes more often, as opposed to one high-quality pair once a year.

EDIT: or cars. Poor people buy cars that are in poor condition because that's all they can afford, and they spend more money on it overall than if they could've gotten a better-quality car instead. It's expensive to be poor.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#146

Post by doomtop »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #33
gh-lfneu28 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad to see you downvoted for expressing a great American freedom, voting with your dollars.

I suspect they're being downvoted for comparing LGBT folks to "weirdos or spiky-haired freaks" moreso than having a contrary choice in fast food restaurant.

I assumed they were being sarcastic, but it seems not...

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#147

Post by DanielBMarkham »

stcredzero wrote: post #126
DarkLinkXXXX wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political jargon already has a term for this. When someone claims to be a member of political demographic A, but his ideals are more closely aligned with, or he secretly supports political demographic B, he is said to be a crypto-B. For example, liberals might hyperbolicly call Trump a crypto-fascist, and Sanders supporters might call Clinton a crypto-Conservative, or a crypto-neoliberal. Granted, it's not used in ma…

People in the US need to be more aware of the Authoritarian Anti-Authoritarian spectrum in politics. There are some people on the left who are very authoritarian, while there are others who instead prioritize individual rights. In the us, the term "Libertarian" has been placed on the political right, while the "left" is a mishmash of very Authoritarian and Anti-Authoritarian views.

Yes.

It used to be that the left was anti-authoritarian and the right was authoritarian. Libertarians were extremely anti-authoritarian. What has evolved, however, was that "soft" libertarianism got co-opted by the right. The left also co-opted libertarians, but not to the degree the right did. As the right gained more libertarians, it gave up some of its boardroom elitism. The result here was that the right's base become less elite while the left's base became more elite. (Because in the disparity of how both sides appealed to the libertarian center. In addition the left was naturally filled with smaller, more organized and fervent groups around a single cause, while the right had a broader base)

Then both the right and left became more and more authoritarian (along with the associated in-and-out clanning behavior) What with endless wars and the security state, I think we're seeing the end of the ride for the natural libertarians on the right. Perhaps the left too. Remains to be seen.

It will be interesting to see if the coming election involves a split in either/both major parties, and if so, along what fault line that split occurs.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#148

Post by jernfrost »

boona wrote: post #43
darpa_escapee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something incredibly American about a multibillion dollar fast-food corporation that's unwittingly found itself as the gathering place for those abandoned by a society that has gutted and underfunded social services.

>gutted and underfunded social services The US spends so much, that social security and medicare combined have nearly 33 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. To give you a sense of scale, that's half of the world's gdp. In terms of taxes, there are 4 payees for every beneficiary and it's estimated that by 2030 that number will be 2 to 1. When you sift through all the propaganda, America is financially imploding…

That is a myth. I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Americans tend to thing they spend such huge amount of money on social services and welfare. You don't okay. Look at the statistics and try to travel a bit. For people who have actually been around the world, it is blindly obvious that America isn't spending much money on its poor.

America has the highest level of inequality of any rich country. Look it up.

Ok by Indian and Chinese standard, America is probably extremely generous and that seems to be the standard which many American conservatives measure American efforts towards the poor. If it is significantly better than India or some other dirt poor third world country then it must be great.

Seriously America is one of the richest countries in the world and yet I've never been to a developed country where you see so much depravity, poverty and people struggling all in the midst of opulence. Kind of sick that people tolerate this.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#149

Post by balls187 »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #144
balls187 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them. Full stop. No need to continue with the rest of your judgements. Parenting is a very hard job, and it's only made worse by all the parents (and even worse--non-parents) that want to make judgements. Being a parent, I now have a profound respect and appreciation for my parents (especially my mother). Things weren't always great, but they did the best th…

No, not full stop. Just because raising kids, being a police officer, digging a ditch is "hard work" doesn't free someone from having that work criticized.

Strawman Argument.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#150

Post by rhizome »

Retric wrote: post #121
stcredzero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People finding community of some form is not just a good thing, it's an essential thing to human life. It should always be lauded. However, there is a lot of socioeconomic and sub-cultural in-group/out-group judgement in US society, all of which feels absolutely justified by those doing the judging. http://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberali... In reality, it's all exactly the same sort of crap that…

You can find deeply troubling things about all cultures. White, black, brown, rich, poor, middle class, young, old, doctors, brick layers, or welfare recipients. Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists all have beliefs that seem wrong to people both inside and outside of those groups. Pretending groups are somehow above criticism is more about manners than fact. PS: I have watched several people be…

That some have and others have not become more racist after moving to DC means it's primarily about the people involved. If it can't be generalized on "moving to DC," then the distinctions have to be evaluated on finer data.
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