Well, lowest cost isn’t always the way to go, even when catering to low income groups. There’s what you get for the price as well as other things. I’ll have to go back and see if I can find a full demographics analysis for McDonalds et. al.

“Now, name one multi-million corporation where the delta between your list and theirs is non-negative.”

Good point. A lot of fast food restaurants, in order to compete in other nations, re-marketed themselves early on, in order to cater to the teen crowd, etc. I remember thinking that their recent attempts to modernize in the US looked a heck of a lot like the fast food locals in Japan, etc.

McDonalds seems to be moving away from the lower income demographic. It will certainly be interesting to see how things go when the economy tanks again. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep their low income demographic, while also expanding.

I would be more worried, if not for the fact that there are plenty of natural causes for such leaks. There are even petroleum “volcanoes” on the ocean floor. Stuff in the ground does not always stay in the ground. We have earth quakes, volcanoes, methane emissions from wetlands, etc.

China had very little infrastructure until recently. They didn’t have to plow through large amounts of established construction. In addition, your claim that it has worked well in China is weak: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/tech…

Show me one corporation that can tell the government what to do. I don’t mean ask, I don’t mean bribe, I mean demand. Now tell me one corporation which is immune to the law (rather than just protected from it by cronyism).

I would have given him a raise, not suspend him. But seriously, we all know that if god didn’t want the priest to use a hoverboard in church, he would have set it on fire. Given that it didn’t catch fire, and so many other ones have, clearly there’s things god hates far more.

> The government is becoming increasingly untrustworthy simply because of corporate control...

There are a few reasons. First, Japan is much smaller. Second, a lot of infrastructure is newer, which means it was easier to build it. Early adopters tend to have poorer quality. It’s difficult to build high speed rail, which needs to be really straight, when you have tons of properties that scattered all over the…

No; it won’t kill Uber, because the point of Uber isn’t just the App. It’s the access. Uber is often cheaper than taxis, in part because Uber doesn’t have to deal with the massive cost of the medallions, generated by the government enforced monopolization of the taxi industry.

I do try, however since I’ve had to explain the same things over and over again (part of that has to do with the design of this commenting system and part because people don’t take the time to read threads) that I have sometimes moved a bit towards the aggressive side. I still do try to be as polite as possible though.

> That said, Looking at the paper quickly, its a rather flimsy thing to base an argument on by itself.

Carter’s main fault was operation cyclone, which began the process of aiding rebels who were fighting against the USSR. While Reagan doubled down on the process, it was still Carter who began it. And it is those rebels, that the US trained, funded, and armed, that eventually became the modern terrorist organizations…

It’s amazing that the world governments haven’t destroyed this planet yet.

This kind of thing comes out all the time. I’m surprised people fall for it anymore...

> People already do things without any kind of promised compensation in return. They are called hobbies.

Well, money is simply an intermediary for trade. Are you thinking that people will one day do things without any kind of promised compensation in return? While people certainly give to their community, etc, I highly doubt we’ll one day eliminate the desire to accumulate wealth. Humans are conspicuous consumers by…

Indeed. I’m also not sure whether this is truly an issue with the local sourcing, considering the outbreak has hit a wide radius. That suggests it’s something that is actually being taken in and then redistributed to the local restaurants which suggests that increasing the centralization of ingredients is actually a…

Open source research isn’t a bad option, but humans are somewhat nepotistic. Sorry. Did I say somewhat? Even I have issues with just putting all my research ideas out in the open. Then again, they tend to get shot down, even when I do, so *shrugs*