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Heh. Yeah, I totally understand what you're saying. I know it's a thing - I have old friends with extended families that are like this. I'm pretty sure it is

Heh. Yeah, I totally understand what you're saying. I know it's a thing - I have old friends with extended families that are like this. I'm pretty sure it is a weird American thing. It doesn't help that you guys have seemingly super cheap fast food. One thing that might be interesting to look at is - if fast food just disappeared tomorrow - imagine every restaurant below say $15 a head just was gone overnight, microwave meals disappear, etc - would there even be enough food? Would the local supermarkets have enough or would there have to be an adjustment period?

Dylan16807 7y ago
Are you redirecting all the ingredient shipments from the restaurants and factories to the grocery stores? If yes then the supply side of things is perfectly fine. Stores shelves might be low for a few days from the rush, but that will be over very quickly. All the interesting stuff is out of scope. If no then I don't think the scenerio says anything useful about the places people eat. You're just deleting a chunk of the food supply, and you would cause similar problems no matter what random chunk you deleted. Even if it wasn't particularly big. So the scenario tells you nothing about whether any kinds of food are too popular. It just says that a sudden cut to the food supply is bad.
- esotericn 7y ago
  I'm more thinking about the whole thing Americans talk about with 'food deserts' - e.g. are there people surviving on fast food that are really too far away from a real grocery shop to buy supplies - you can't build shops overnight. How many people don't have a stove i.e. they're effectively homeless if not literally on the street? Stuff like that. I have no idea. It'd definitely be alright in the UK but the way I see Americans go on about this stuff on here makes it seem as if McDonalds is critical infra.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    The US and UK have similar rates of obesity* and fast food availability, as far as I can tell. *The US is noticeably higher overall, but there are about 13 US states including NY and California with lower averages than the UK.
perl4ever 7y ago
Fast food restaurants per capita: 1 for 1,600 people in UK 1 for 1,700 people in US

Dylan16807 7y ago

Are you redirecting all the ingredient shipments from the restaurants and factories to the grocery stores? If yes then the supply side of things is perfectly fine. Stores shelves might be low for a few days from the rush, but that will be over very quickly. All the interesting stuff is out of scope. If no then I don't think the scenerio says anything useful about the places people eat. You're just deleting a chunk of the food supply, and you would cause similar problems no matter what random chunk you deleted. Even if it wasn't particularly big. So the scenario tells you nothing about whether any kinds of food are too popular. It just says that a sudden cut to the food supply is bad.

esotericn 7y ago
I'm more thinking about the whole thing Americans talk about with 'food deserts' - e.g. are there people surviving on fast food that are really too far away from a real grocery shop to buy supplies - you can't build shops overnight. How many people don't have a stove i.e. they're effectively homeless if not literally on the street? Stuff like that. I have no idea. It'd definitely be alright in the UK but the way I see Americans go on about this stuff on here makes it seem as if McDonalds is critical infra.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  The US and UK have similar rates of obesity* and fast food availability, as far as I can tell. *The US is noticeably higher overall, but there are about 13 US states including NY and California with lower averages than the UK.

perl4ever 7y ago

Fast food restaurants per capita: 1 for 1,600 people in UK 1 for 1,700 people in US