McDonalds employees past present and future.

[aliceBB]

And ours are a lot cheaper than yours, and cars too. What you pay in pounds we pay in dollars.

 

It is all relative to the average take-home salary, though.

[salsafan]

actually used cars in the South Yorkshire are among the least expensive you will find anywhere in the world. 500 pounds will buy you a perfectly usable runaround with a couple of years in it, maybe more. Maybe not good enough to go to Glasgow and back twice a week but perfectly OK, around town.

 

restaurants in the US are noticeably less expensive than in the UK though. Also 'American cusine' is easily the best I have seen of the New World countries. Australian cuisine is just a poor copy of British (although their restaurants selling international cusine have also improved massively) and South African food, well it is just steak and barbecue, a vegetarian's nightmare. The US has regional cuisines in a way they don't. So you can talk of New England, South, West,and Pacific American cusines. Calling Mcdonald's and KFC 'American food' is just silly and it is a total travesty that people do. The first Mcdonalds opened only 60 odd years ago. What do you think Americans ate, before then?

 

Very good point. But the US doesn't champion this though and sell abroad this image. Because all everyone knows about the US are "McDonald burgers" or "Pizza Hut". I know, I know. It is a stereotype.

[tzijlstra]

We have a chain called The Olive Garden where you'll find food as good as anything you would in Napoli. I've been there a few times as most sailors have. New England seafood from Maine Lobster to Boston clams, cod, and haddock is first rate. No we are not big on vegan foods, I must admit, and they are often hard to find in restaurants, but I get a little tired of the constant attacks on American eating habits from UK, where from my years there it was brown windsor soup, Whimpy burgers, steak egg and chips poorly cooked and served by indifferent and surly waitresses who didn't have to worry about a tip since a service charge was imposed by the government.

 

Don't worry, I know Americans do great food as well, but it is difficult for us Europeans to see that. To us the US is the country that brought us McD, KFC, BK and Subway - not exactly the shining lights of cuisine. When we watch the telly we see Adam what's his name stuff down 3 foot subs drowning in molten 'cheese' and tonnes of processed meat.

 

You also can't deny that there is a big issue with portion sizes in the US in general. It seems to be the norm to serve more than can be eaten. This is not a US typical problem btw, but I doubt that many people realise the exact same thing happens all over South East Asia and China.

[blake]

it's maybe because I spent part of my childhood in the US in the mid 70s and I found out what American food actually was and that it totally knocked the spots of what most people in Britain were eating in those days. Of course we liked Mcdonalds, Burger King, KFC and all the rest of it as kids but we also knew that was not a real representation of what American food really was but just a type of marketing. Back in Sheffield age 16 in 1984 my schoolmates got all exited about the new Mcdonalds opening on Fargate. They had never even tried it unless they had been to the London ones and were really looking forward to it opening. I did go along soon after it opened with about 10 friends but I was distinctly less enthusiastic than they were. I was a bit puzzled why they were so exited. Because I knew Mcdonalds, although it had its place (and still does for me) was basically garbage and not what I associated with American food. Especially in those days the US food scene was miles more advanced. Not just with the incomparably larger amount of iffy processed foods available but also much better supplies of vegetables, fruit, meat, and everything else. At first it seemed like being in Britain was like being in this communist country with only just a few items like green beans and carrots, basics only, in the market. Also there were basically no or hardly any restaurants in the UK outside London until they started opening up in a big way from the 1980s onwards (Berni Inns, are not proper restaurants any more than Mcdonalds are).

 

You also can't deny that there is a big issue with portion sizes in the US in general.

 

that's true. In fact I think the reason why so many Americans have become overweight is not so much what they eat as much as how much. The portion sizes have always been ridiculous.

[tzijlstra]

it's maybe because I spent part of my childhood in the US in the mid 70s and I found out what American food actually was and that it totally knocked the spots of what most people in Britain were eating in those days. Of course we liked Mcdonalds, Burger King, KFC and all the rest of it as kids but we also knew that was not a real representation of what American food really was but just a type of marketing. Back in Sheffield age 16 in 1984 my schoolmates got all exited about the new Mcdonalds opening on Fargate. They had never even tried it unless they had been to the London ones and were really looking forward to it opening. I did go along soon after it opened with about 10 friends but I was distinctly less enthusiastic than they were. I was a bit puzzled why they were so exited. Because I knew Mcdonalds, although it had its place (and still does for me) was basically garbage and not what I associated with American food. Especially in those days the US food scene was miles more advanced. Not just with the incomparably larger amount of iffy processed foods available but also much better supplies of vegetables, fruit, meat, and everything else. At first it seemed like being in Britain was like being in this communist country with only just a few items like green beans and carrots, basics only, in the market. Also there were basically no or hardly any restaurants in the UK outside London until they started opening up in a big way from the 1980s onwards (Berni Inns, are not proper restaurants any more than Mcdonalds are).

 

You also can't deny that there is a big issue with portion sizes in the US in general.

 

that's true. In fact I think the reason why so many Americans have become overweight is not so much what they eat as much as how much. The portion sizes have always been ridiculous.

 

 

You make a very interesting point that is often overlooked. Although I have no experience of being in the States I do have the experience of 80s food and shopping in the Netherlands and it wasn't far short of appalling.

 

Our 'restaurants' were greasy snackbars on par with fish and chips shops of the time here I would imagine. Our supermarkets were tiny and offered very little choice (they still are small compared to UK supermarkets) and for fruit and veg you'd have to go to the greengrocers that only stocked what was seasonal plus some other overpriced things.

 

It is easy to be nostalgic about that time, but as a kid growing up I know I was fed up with eating a variety on the same meal every day. And, like you say, when McD opened up it was a bit like a secret portal to US culture. Burgers? We'd never eaten burgers in our lives. Never mind that theywere tough as rubber and needed more ketchup than what we normally would put on our chips to at least have some flavour.

[blake]

I do have the experience of 80s food and shopping in the Netherlands and it wasn't far short of appalling.

 

Our 'restaurants' were greasy snackbars on par with fish and chips shops of the time here I would imagine. Our supermarkets were tiny and offered very little choice (they still are small compared to UK supermarkets) and for fruit and veg you'd have to go to the greengrocers that only stocked what was seasonal plus some other overpriced things.

 

It is easy to be nostalgic about that time, but as a kid growing up I know I was fed up with eating a variety on the same meal every day. And, like you say, when McD opened up it was a bit like a secret portal to US culture. Burgers? We'd never eaten burgers in our lives. Never mind that theywere tough as rubber and needed more ketchup than what we normally would put on our chips to at least have some flavour.

 

there were burgers in those Wimpy Bars remember them?

 

though everyone laughs at them now, Wimpy was actually quite a successful international brand, and was the British version of Mcdonalds. They traded in over a dozen countries, not all of them former British colonies.

 

until the 1980s the USA was miles ahead of Europe. It wasn't just clear water. It was a different stratoshpere.

 

here is a summary of some of the differences in like the mid 1970s :

 

cars? Almost everybody who wasn't dirt poor in the US had access to one and middle class families had at least two and maybe more.

 

phones? Everybody in the US had one. In the UK even some middle class families didn't and also you had to wait for six months in this queue to be allowed one.

 

dishwashers? Middle class American families had them in their homes in the 1970s. When almost nobody in the UK even knew what they were, until they started to appear in the 1990s.

[buck]

actually used cars in the South Yorkshire are among the least expensive you will find anywhere in the world. 500 pounds will buy you a perfectly usable runaround with a couple of years in it, maybe more. Maybe not good enough to go to Glasgow and back twice a week but perfectly OK, around town.

 

restaurants in the US are noticeably less expensive than in the UK though. Also 'American cusine' is easily the best I have seen of the New World countries. Australian cuisine is just a poor copy of British (although their restaurants selling international cusine have also improved massively) and South African food, well it is just steak and barbecue, a vegetarian's nightmare. The US has regional cuisines in a way they don't. So you can talk of New England, South, West,and Pacific American cusines. Calling Mcdonald's and KFC 'American food' is just silly and it is a total travesty that people do. The first Mcdonalds opened only 60 odd years ago. What do you think Americans ate, before then?

They ate at A and W where the waitresses would bring out your food on a tray that you clipped to your half wound down window. Excellent food put out of business by Ray Krok's upstart McDonald's.The girls sometimes served on roller skates, and I never saw one ever fall down with a trayload. They stayed in business producing the best root beer in America.

 

---------- Post added 08-04-2014 at 20:02 ----------

 

It is all relative to the average take-home salary, though.

One of my sons has his Masters, his wife has a Bsc in Psychology. They clear aboud $160,000 a year. That's not too unusual, but of course there are plenty who don't. They are still paying off massive student loans though after 13 years. I was earning $55,000 a year when I retiired in 1993, plus a car. then a retirement fund worth a quarter million from 17 years with one company.

[aliceBB]

 

One of my sons has his Masters, his wife has a Bsc in Psychology. They clear aboud $160,000 a year. That's not too unusual, but of course there are plenty who don't. They are still paying off massive student loans though after 13 years. I was earning $55,000 a year when I retiired in 1993, plus a car. then a retirement fund worth a quarter million from 17 years with one company.

 

Good for them/you, but I don't see how that anything to do with the mean take-home salary of most Americans!

[buck]

Good for them/you, but I don't see how that anything to do with the mean take-home salary of most Americans!

I think the median is about $40,000 a year, with poverty rated at $25,000 at which point you pay no taxes. The minimum wage is about to be raised to $10.00 an hour. Nobody with a home to pay for can expect to live on that, but it helps if the spouse of the provider earns it. The provider today can be of either sex, and pay equality is gaining grouund here.