4 ms·

I'm a huge fan of McDonald's, just not a big fan of their food. > McDonald's exemplifies the role of small businesses in Americans' upward mobility. The compan

I'm a huge fan of McDonald's, just not a big fan of their food. > McDonald's exemplifies the role of small businesses in Americans' upward mobility. The company is largely a confederation of small businesses: 85 percent of its U.S. restaurants -- average annual sales, $2.2 million -- are owned by franchisees. McDonald's has made more millionaires, and especially black and Hispanic millionaires, than any other economic entity ever, anywhere. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/26/AR2007122601485.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12...

icebraining 9y ago
Maybe if McDonald's didn't exist, there would be a more competitive franchise market and those small businesses would have made even more money. I have no idea if that's likely or not, but without that analysis, it's no different than saying that Lamy make the book American Gods possible, just because Gaiman used one of their pens.
- oddlyaromatic 9y ago
  >it's no different than saying that Lamy make the book American Gods possible I have to say I think this is a pretty big leap. True, you can't do a controlled experiment with no McDonald's in the market to see what would have happened. But that doesn't mean you immediately throw up your hands and say "no useful or meaningful knowledge to be gained here because we can't do an impossible study." You might not get to 100% certainty but you can definitely figure some stuff out about how things are probably working, and the magnitude of the impact of the McDonald's system.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    You're agreeing with me :) that's the "without that analysis" part of my post. I just don't see it in that article.
    - oddlyaromatic 9y ago
      I'm not sure. The statement, without analysis, still makes a kind of independently true point (more millionaires made) and would lend itself to reasoning through. The statement you compare it with is obviously false and no amount of analysis could change that. I dunno. Not a huge deal in any case :)
- seibelj 9y ago
  Are you saying we shouldn't be happy about McDonald's making more minority millionaires than any other entity, because maybe if McDonald's was never founded, some other entity would exist that would make even more minority millionaires? How about we all just be happy that McDonald's did a good thing
  - caseysoftware 9y ago
    I love untestable hypotheses because you can imagine them as whatever level of success or failure you prefer in order to denigrate reality. Win!
- jmull 9y ago
  There's a large and thriving open market of franchise opportunities. McDonalds isn't somehow forcing potential franchisees to buy McDonalds franchises or preventing them from choosing a better opportunity should they find one.
  - tptacek 9y ago
    Sure, but those other franchises do not tend to make people millionaires.
- CamperBob2 9y ago
  Maybe if McDonald's didn't exist, there would be a more competitive franchise market and those small businesses would have made even more money. I'll never be able to find the original reference, but apparently, chain stores can have a "market making" effect that mitigates the harm they do to consumer choice at the local level. Starbucks used to take a lot of criticism for displacing indy coffeeshops, for example. Then, someone pointed out that a huge proportion of indy coffeeshops never existed in the first place until Starbucks normalized the idea of selling coffee and related beverages at extremely large markups. So arguably McDonalds has opened the way for other burger restaurants and chains to enter the market, rather than blocking it.

icebraining 9y ago

Maybe if McDonald's didn't exist, there would be a more competitive franchise market and those small businesses would have made even more money. I have no idea if that's likely or not, but without that analysis, it's no different than saying that Lamy make the book American Gods possible, just because Gaiman used one of their pens.

oddlyaromatic 9y ago
>it's no different than saying that Lamy make the book American Gods possible I have to say I think this is a pretty big leap. True, you can't do a controlled experiment with no McDonald's in the market to see what would have happened. But that doesn't mean you immediately throw up your hands and say "no useful or meaningful knowledge to be gained here because we can't do an impossible study." You might not get to 100% certainty but you can definitely figure some stuff out about how things are probably working, and the magnitude of the impact of the McDonald's system.
- icebraining 9y ago
  You're agreeing with me :) that's the "without that analysis" part of my post. I just don't see it in that article.
  - oddlyaromatic 9y ago
    I'm not sure. The statement, without analysis, still makes a kind of independently true point (more millionaires made) and would lend itself to reasoning through. The statement you compare it with is obviously false and no amount of analysis could change that. I dunno. Not a huge deal in any case :)
seibelj 9y ago
Are you saying we shouldn't be happy about McDonald's making more minority millionaires than any other entity, because maybe if McDonald's was never founded, some other entity would exist that would make even more minority millionaires? How about we all just be happy that McDonald's did a good thing
- caseysoftware 9y ago
  I love untestable hypotheses because you can imagine them as whatever level of success or failure you prefer in order to denigrate reality. Win!
jmull 9y ago
There's a large and thriving open market of franchise opportunities. McDonalds isn't somehow forcing potential franchisees to buy McDonalds franchises or preventing them from choosing a better opportunity should they find one.
- tptacek 9y ago
  Sure, but those other franchises do not tend to make people millionaires.
CamperBob2 9y ago
Maybe if McDonald's didn't exist, there would be a more competitive franchise market and those small businesses would have made even more money. I'll never be able to find the original reference, but apparently, chain stores can have a "market making" effect that mitigates the harm they do to consumer choice at the local level. Starbucks used to take a lot of criticism for displacing indy coffeeshops, for example. Then, someone pointed out that a huge proportion of indy coffeeshops never existed in the first place until Starbucks normalized the idea of selling coffee and related beverages at extremely large markups. So arguably McDonalds has opened the way for other burger restaurants and chains to enter the market, rather than blocking it.