McDonald's as oasis for people who are jobless

[AccuTron]

First, the word jobless vs homeless.  A woman I know who had ended up shopping cart living after trying very hard to find work, insisted she was jobless, not homeless.  I understand her proper insistence of seeing the initial condition, not the result.  Any thoughts on that word usage?

 

This surely varies by neighborhood:  McDonald's is known as a haven, an oasis, for people who are jobless and homeless.  It's essentially a shelter, with a minimum bit of cash flow for use, probably with far better security than many actual (underfunded) shelters.

 

Today the weather was good, and when I dropped into my local McD for coffee, I could see a solitary possibly jobless woman trying to talk about fries to two uninterested fellows with laptops, her only audience.  I don't think she really cared about fries.

 

I walked over to tell her she probably would like to be listened to, and after a few minutes of her surprisingly optimistic truisms, pleased to be listened to, she thanked me for stopping by.  Can't get that kind of human interest story in a whole range of other restaurants, or not easily, is my guess.

 

I guess other fast food places fill the same function, I really don't know.  McD, when in this role, almost seems like it could have been written in as a necessary social element of a 1930's foreboding future sci-fi story that came true.  

 

Your thoughts or experiences?

[DaveR]

Forget whether it was KFC or MacDonalds, but I read somewhere in price per calorie, one of them is the most efficient place to eat, thus providing ample fuel to sustain the human body should it have to sleep outside

[AccuTron]

I believe it.  It's that calorie density which brings me into McD in the first place.  On a bicycle, it's good inexpensive fuel for a stretch, and light in the belly.  Nutritionally, given the rest of my diet, I'm fine with that.  (No side orders or fountain drinks.)  In my car, between errands and real food a bit in the future, it keeps me going.  I realize now that it's that caloric density which has crossed my path with quite a number of local jobless.  (In that 1930's fiction that I suggested above, that would be a plot point.)

[grithin]

Not-selective distribution of sympathy is a bad idea.  There is a tremendous capacity most rotten people have to play the victim.

There is a global recession in conjunction with debt retraction, and a stated plan to decrease the population.  You can expect many more homeless and they will always have a sob story.  Just envision them as Stefan's mother.  That is, without a history of demonstrated moral action, avoid giving out sympathy to such a person.

--

High calorie food will kill you over time, especially fast food.  Cheap now, expensive later.

[AccuTron]

Oh yeah, BIG agreement on first paragraph.  Fast food like many things is dose related -- minimal in this case, next level down would be "none"; no fries or sides, no drinks, and not often with the big mac.  Virtually all manufactured food has become unpalatable and repugnant to me, feeling revolted with one bite.  Anymore, I rarely buy anything not real food, other than the occasional Big Mac.  I can tell with body fat right away, if I do otherwise.  Someone said never buy food that comes in a box, and I find truth in that.  I'll buy the occasional treat from the snack aisle, and then wish I hadn't.  This isn't about being high holy, it's about it makes me sick.

[fractional slacker]

McDonalds is another example of what happens to a corporation embracing diversity rather than profits. They went from the greatest American restaurant chain - where kids used to beg their parents to go, to losing market share and becoming a warehouse for the "jobless."

The turning point: http://www.mcdonalds.com/365black/en/home.html

 

The results: (warning) physical violence

 

 

[J-William]

I thought you were going to be making a point about people getting low skill jobs at McDonald's and being able to enter the workforce.

 

That will certainly end soon as minimum wage goes up and automation takes over.

[fractional slacker]

Graffiti for decoration. You can't make this stuff up. SMH

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mcdonald-s-criticised-for-using-fake-graffiti-tags-in-newly-refurbished-brixton-branch-a6910106.html

[AccuTron]

Graffiti for decoration. You can't make this stuff up. SMH

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mcdonald-s-criticised-for-using-fake-graffiti-tags-in-newly-refurbished-brixton-branch-a6910106.html

Ouch!  At first I thought it was real graffiti and thought "Oh well, lampshades are easy to replace."  Then I read what it really is.  Bad idea.  The rest of the place in the picture looks nice, like that might be a good thing to subconsciously enforce.  It seems it would either encourage defacing the rest of the place, or seem a cheap stunt, an insult, to the locals.

 

With respect to the unsung heroes of good decor and public relations, looks like a cannon got loose in somebody's PR department.  I'm reminded of many years ago, 5" floppy disk era (another ouch), when I was a small advertiser in an industrial magazine.  We'd get monthly letter size mailings from the advertising/PR dept.  One time, upon opening the letter, a spoonful of sparkling glitter fell out all over the table, probably to mark some enthusiastic event.  Of course, cursing and cleaning up was the reality, and anyone with a floppy disc on the desk suddenly had glitter on it.  The next month's letter was an apology.