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McDonald’s to Exit from Russia
- boomboomsubban 4y agoThey never had an issue operating in Saudi Arabia despite the invasion of Yemen. They still maintain their Guantanamo Bay location. How is operating in Russia inconsistent with their values?
- bloblaw 4y ago[flagged]
- xtian 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocrisy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocrisy """ Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the failure to follow one's own expressed moral rules and principles.[1] """
- whataboutery 4y ago[flagged]
- dspillett 4y agoNot every comparison is pure whataboutism design to pull the discussion off-topic or complete off-track. Perhaps the difference is so obvious to you that the question doesn't even need asking, but I think it is a valid question: what values does this invasion violate that the other situations do not, at least not to the extent that McD reacts by considering pulling out completely. It would undeniably be whataboutism if it were McD being asked why they've done (or not done) something and they're point out something unrelated (or only tangentially related) that they have/not done or asking about what other bodies have/not done in that area of discussion. But as an outsider looking at McD, asking them to define their position more precisely, perhaps with reference to their position in what may be seen as similar circumstances, feels like a valid request rather than the fallacy of whataboutism. Of course the question could be used purely to make McD look bad, particularly if the asker of the question as some axe to grind (against McD specifically, American corporates more generally, or big business even more globally), which flips the pendulum back in the direction of a logical error because the asker is not actually trying to gain perspective but is instead intending to impose that others take their perspective. --- FWIW I think I have a fairly solid idea of what the difference is. If you remove the moral aspect and just look at the circumstances from the robotic PoV of a business doing business: while the sanctions don't directly affect McD their impact does affect their ability to efficiently do business in Russia. Such sanctions don't exist in a manner that affects them in the same way in those other situations. Moving away from purely robotic business related points, this is happening in Eastern Europe not the East so it is both closer to home to those making decisions and is getting a lot more attention in Europe and the US (meaning that there is more push from their customer base in the west).
- programmarchy 4y agoMcDonalds is a symbol of US global hegemony. Exiting from Russia is maintaining that status quo. Protesting an ally of the US, or the US itself, would be a significant political statement, and probably contrary to their interests.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoThese things are not the same.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoSo what are their values that make the first two acceptable but not the third?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoThey list unpredictability as a factor. They obviously believe Saudi Arabia is a stable place to conduct business.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoSo their values have nothing to do with the humanitarian concerns they mention, just the ease of doing business in the country. Believable, but makes this press release sound like BS.
- FpUser 4y agoYep. Shit comes in a variety of colors.
- d82nsjk9 4y ago
- alaricus 4y ago
- whitepaint 4y agoWhy? They have such tasty food, I love it.
- idontwantthis 4y agoYou are loving it*
- titaniumtown 4y agoyou aren't gonna be loving it when you get health problems
- Spivak 4y agoLook, it’s just food. Unhealthy food sure, but not provenly worse for you than the same greasy fare you’d get at other burger joints.
- meragrin_ 4y agoWhat kind of health problems would you expect from going there once in a while? There was no mention of frequency. Going there once every month or two is not going to do much.
- barry-cotter 4y agoIt’s a statement about social class disguised as one about health. Note that the insecurity tells you that they’re on some level concerned that they’ll be confused with the kind of person who eats a lot of McDonald’s. Any time you see performative hatred of something ask who the performance is for.
- paganel 4y agoThought they had already left. Good decision for Russia and for Russians' health, to be honest.
- VGltZUNvbnN1 4y agoThey halted operations like most of the corporations that "exited".
- mrweasel 4y agoI believe they closed the stores, but kept paying their employees. That would make things easier, would they have decided to re-open.
- throwaway290 4y agoNo, this was the case until now but the point of the article is that they're selling all assets and letting everyone go. They promised to help them get employed by another company, but themselves they are pretty much quitting the country. It's a big move for McD, they are probably the only foreign chain that actually owns most of its restaurants rather than just franchising them out.
- ineedasername 4y agoI know there was a Russian restaurant franchise that had started buying, or least committed to buy, a bunch of locations of different Western chains.
- throwaway290 4y agoNever heard of it. Edit: I did hear some McD locations got 're-branded'. I'm not sure whether those were the franchised restaurants that turned or someone actually expropriated McDonalds' assets.
- rs999gti 4y agoMCD will be back once the war or situation stabilizes. Russia is a large economy that any global company would want to be a part of.
- mupuff1234 4y agoCan you sell the Russian business without violating the sanctions?
- jnorthrop 4y agoI'm not sure who downvoted you. It is a good question. McDonald's and other consumer goods type companies are not sanctioned, so the company can sell its assets. For that matter they could continue to operate as normal in Russia if they choose.
- boole1854 4y agoI'm not sure they really could easily continue to operate as normal. Their business units in Russia get paid by consumers in rubles, but due to the financial sanctions, they can no longer convert rubles to US dollars [1]. From the point of view of their non-Russian shareholders, this effectively means all that money is inaccessible. This would result in complications in reporting the revenue on their income statement. Plausibly (I am not an expert), this would mean they can't even recognize the revenue at all. At minimum, it becomes an open question whether or not the revenue will ever benefit the corporation or if it will be 'trapped' perpetually. [1] This is my understanding. If someone knows better, please post. One source that goes into some detail about the current situation is: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-war-and-sanctions-make-the-ruble-harder-to-trade/2022/04/11/8d267832-b9a9-11ec-a92d-c763de818c21_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-war-and-s...
- chupasaurus 4y agoYou're right, currently you can't get your revenue outside unless you're down to use a scheme involving exchange for trades inside Russia, move them outside and turn back to money. I've diagonally read the article linked and it depicts everything correctly.
- selimthegrim 4y agoDiagonally?
- wawjgreen 4y ago
- GekkePrutser 4y ago> The Company intends to initiate the process of “de-Arching” those restaurants, which entails no longer using the McDonald’s name, logo, branding, and menu, though the Company will continue to retain its trademarks in Russia. Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :)
- logifail 4y ago> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-seizure/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/61357256 https://www.bbc.com/news/61357256
- GekkePrutser 4y agoThat's true, but abandoning them will be a guarantee they won't be respected. At least there is some leverage and the ability to wage a lawsuit. But I agree there is little chance it will succeed.
- hippich 4y agoYeah, in the short term, any property rights of foreign organizations in russia is probably not something to rely on. On the other hand, regimes do fall and organization can survive long enough for the policy in russia to change. So it makes sense at least have a claim for trademark (because right now it is really a claim, not a property, since russia can take it away any time it wants)
- laserdancepony 4y agoRemember that the local Coca Cola branch survived in Nazi Germany during the war and even launched a new product: Fanta.
- have_faith 4y agoThe biggest takeaway (...) for me was the stats about how they are still growing by a decent amount. I haven't paid attention to them in a long time but > expects... over 1,300 net restaurant additions in 2022. suprised me.
- aasasd 4y agoFrom what I heard, at least at some time McDonalds profited more from trading real estate than from selling burgers. As in, buy a shop, wait for the district around to develop, sell the shop. So I would expect them to continue buying shops on the outskirts where cities are expanding. For myself, I can't really imagine this whole operation with Mac selling now for some reason instead of a hundred years later—after all, presumably they still want to have burger joints in all those places. But maybe I don't understand too much about real estate.
- eatonphil 4y agoThis is a surprisingly well-written, engaging corporate statement. Most statements are pretty bland and purely to the point but after reading this I thought I was reading news coverage of their exit not their own statement.
- AnonCoward4 4y agoIn Germany this is called "Gratismut" (gratis bravery). It's the current thing to hate Russia, so they don't lose anything by doing a passionate write-up about it. McDonald's also wants to convince you that they have any values, but in reality they have no problem with horrendous human rights violations in other countries.
- thereddaikon 4y agoWhat changed here of course is that after Putin gave Aeroloft the go ahead to seize aircraft they were leasing, western business lost any appetite for the Russian market. When your assets can be taken over at any moment and its encouraged by the state, its best to cut your losses. A similar but more drastic example are the various communist revolutions in the 20th century. It was standard practice for the new governments to cancel any debts or obligations the previous government had and seize all sorts of foreign owned assets in country. That inevitably destroyed its diplomatic relations with many nations for decades. So as you note, its not because McDonald's or any other corporation has morals, they are amoral entities. Its all just business and right now business in Russia is bad.
- vetinari 4y agoDo not forget that there was a wave of seizures of russian-owned assets in the west. I would not be surprised, if Aeroflot still had to pay the leases they owe, but the proceeds would be paid to subjects who had their assets seized abroad. Until it evens out 1:1.
- thereddaikon 4y agoI could be mistaken but with the exception of Germany seizing the gazprom terminal, I think all of the other seizures have been to specifically sanctioned individuals. Of course in Russia they have a oligarchy so they probably see sanctioning a person the same as sanctioning a company.
- alaricus 4y ago
- throwaway290 4y agoWhat does 'Arching' ('de-Arching') mean in this context?
- asddubs 4y agoprobably referring to the golden arches, the mcdonalds logo
- medo-bear 4y agoi guess it means de-mcdonalds-izing ... gulp
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y agoThe removal of the branding (the "Golden Arches").
- mbg721 4y agoTearing down the big golden-arch signs and storing them securely in the Archie Bunker.
- uptown 4y agoThose were the days...
- vondro 4y agoSomething that has been bugging me for some time (genuine question, please forgive me lack of geopolitics/economy understanding) is this: Supposing we want to hurt Russian economy - how are we hurting it by stopping selling them licenses/branding/machines to make and sell burgers and fries? Are we not ripping them off money if we sell to them? As in: we gain, they lose? I understand we don't want to sell advanced technology, or weapons. And we also want to stop buying oil/gas or other goods produced in Russia. But burgers? If you understand what's going on, please share it :-)
- k__ 4y agoProbably just the hope of companies to improve their image by not being associated with such countries. I mean, look how people think about companies doing China's bidding.
- giancarlostoro 4y agoThe only argument there is we are providing them jobs and building up local infrastructure by investing in locations, I suppose.
- asddubs 4y agowe can't let proprietary american advanced protein delivery technology to fall into the wrong hands, allowing them to use it to create an army of super soldiers
- parshua 4y agoFrom what I understand, it has nothing to do with morality or hurting Russia. The banking sanctions make it impossible to do financial transactions with the country, which effectively puts an stop on business relations.
- chongli 4y agoFor a globally recognizable brand like McDonald's, the move to leave the country has a symbolic meaning. It sends a message to the Russian people that something is deeply wrong with the direction taken by their government. Of course, some Russians will interpret the move differently, but that cannot be avoided.
- ushakov 4y agoRussian propaganda will use this news as a tool they already say “we don’t need McDonalds”
- jmnicolas 4y agoNo country NEEDS McDonald's.
- uptown 4y agoThen where do you expect Mayor McCheese to govern? https://mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/Mayor_McCheese https://mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/Mayor_McCheese
- ushakov 4y agothe difference is that for 30 years since McDonalds is in Russia, nobody said “We don’t need McDonalds” they only left after the “special operation” started, but the propaganda will try to shift the blame and tell “whatever, we don’t need McDonalds anyways” next thing you know: “we dont’t need bread, we don’t need bananas, we don’t need water, German cars are for fashists”, etc.
- thriftwy 4y agoThe EU is "don't need"ing Russian oil and gas for some time already. So?
- qwerty456127 4y agoRussia does. Look at how bizarrely long the queue to the first McDonalds in Moscow was.
- allarm 4y agoIt was after approx 70 years of Soviet regime. People had never seen anything like this before, during their whole life.
- medo-bear 4y ago
- JeromeLon 4y agoI would keep the business open, add a 20% Ukraine war fee to all sales (call it special operation fee if needed), and give it to a Ukraine war relief fund.
- chimen 4y agoand have your windows smashed daily. You underestimate the power of propaganda and how people think in Russia in regards to this war.
- SXX 4y agoNah. You'll more likely get your window smashed if you gonna put some Z-swastika on it. No doubt a lot of population in Russian affected by propoganda, but primary goal of Putin's propoganda is to make people passive and not to have opinion on anything at all. But yeah if you put anything Ukraine-related or anti-war related police will come to you immediately.
- ogurechny 4y agoIt is regular thugs — sent by officials, secret police, mafia bosses, or persons taking more than one of those positions — who smash windows 9 times out of 10. However, your logic takes unwarranted turn to “power of propaganda” and “people of Russia”, probably because there's plenty of stereotypes of how “people” in any country behave to use.
- ushakov 4y agothat’s not how it works supporting Ukraine = supporting “fascist Regime” (in Russian terms) you know what Russia does to imaginary “fascists” they’ll nationalize McDonalds or force sell it to oligarch same story happened to Tinkoff Bank: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/01/world/europe/oligarch-putin-oleg-tinkov.html?smid=tw-share https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/01/world/europe/oligarch-put... leaving on your own gives you more leverage than having to leave at gunpoint
- throwaway121415 4y agobet they still doin biz in china and shanghai though
- shmde 4y agoEvery US corpo is "I support the current thing" meme personified.
- trasz 4y agoHow is China even remotely similar to an aggresive fascist state of Russia? (And can't help but notice this account has been created less than one hour ago)
- watwut 4y agoChina has been accused of genocide against Uyghur last year. But, they are not not expanding.
- trasz 4y agoAnd US has invaded Middle East, which was ethically orders of magnitude worse. So what?
- inawarminister 4y agoOh, unlike what talking heads in your TV claims, China is much more of an enemy to the "Free World" (American Empire) than Russia is... But they are still fighting in the economic and cultural sphere, for now.
- trasz 4y agoChina is an economic enemy, not a military one.
- rubyist5eva 4y agoThis actually sounds like a positive. Can they exit from Canada next?
- eddieroger 4y agoBased on what? I'm sure they could exit anywhere they wanted, but since Canada isn't actively committing war crimes and having sanctions placed on it, what positive would come from leaving Canada?
- shmde 4y agoBy exiting countries they can bring down obesity rates.
- rubyist5eva 4y agoBecause people here are getting fat. Not as bad as America, but obesity is a problem here.
- yardstick 4y agoI blame the poutine.
- rubyist5eva 4y agoMcDonald's poutine is actually disgusting, ironically/coincidentally.
- eddieroger 4y agoIf people crash their car, should we blame Toyota? McDonald's doesn't force anyone to eat their food. If your fellow Canadians want to eat McDonald's, that's their choice. If they all stopped, McDonald's would either have to make healthier food or exit the country. But unless they're force feeding helpless Canadians food, it doesn't seem like them exiting because "people here are getting fat" is a rational suggestion.
- klausjensen 4y agoI remember the evening news on TV when the first McDonald's restaurant opened in 1990 at Pushkin Square. There was a huge crowd of Russians outside, wanting to try the burger. It was a sign of a more open world, something resembling an end of the cold war. There was a sense of optimism in the West about a peaceful future with Russia. It does not matter that McD itself is closing in Russia, but it does tell us something about what the political and security-climate has reverted to.
- baybal2 4y agoOne of my traumas from life in Russia during my childhood is the understanding that you live in a North Korea redux, and you have McDonalds, and other Western companies from democratic countries coming here, and feeding that regime. US politicians kept droning how terrible Russia was through whole 200X, yet allow their companies to "wage business on the free world" Can you imagine McDonalds in Pyongyang, and Don Thompson happily fellating political commissars in their boardroom? This is how I felt Western companies were behaving.
- scandox 4y agoI'd be interested in your opinion on the alternatives. Would it have been better for you (and the country) if those businesses had decided in the noughties that Russia was not democratic enough and pulled out? Do you think it would have made a major impact at that time? Or do you think it should have been tackled from an anti-corruption point of view with investigations into how those companies were conducting business?
- baybal2 4y ago
- FpUser 4y ago>"One of my traumas from life in Russia during my childhood is the understanding that you live in a North Korea redux, and you have McDonalds, and other Western companies from democratic countries coming here, and feeding that regime." A child traumatized by the thoughts about geopolitical issues?
- wiz21c 4y agoIf only McDonald's could exit my country...
- ibobev 4y agoThis will result in less junk food for the Russians. :)
- baud147258 4y agothe restaurants will stay open, just under a new franchise
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Bud 4y agoI visited the USSR in 1990 and ate at that first McDonald's in Moscow. People were deliriously happy. It was a hopeful time. And such a beautiful country. The most amazing architecture; shockingly incredibly museums. We seem to have lost those times of hope. It's tragic.
- konstmonst 4y agoRussia is a vassal state of china and shows the direction emperor Xi wants to go, but can't afford to. They wanted to show that dictatorships are more powerfull and efficent than democracy but even the market (inkl Mc. Donalds) showed that they aren't. I wonder if humanity will survive the next maybe indiect conflict with China...
- avakand 4y agoIt seems that McDonald's closed stores that operated directly under their control. As a result, only stores in westert part of Russia were closed (in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg). The stores in Siberia (i.e. Novosibirsk) and in Moscow airports continued operating as usual, as they are working under franchaising. Even the mobile app continued functioning. So not much is going to change, I think. Hell, McDonalds is even open in DNR/LNR "republics" under the name "DonMac".
- zapt02 4y agoMcDonalds is not "open in DNR/LNR", DonMak is a completely unaffiliated restaurant that is a knock-off of the McDonalds brand. https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.326T9WB https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.326T9WB
- samwillis 4y agoI think the suggestion is that they are going to remove the branding rights from the franchise owners “de-Arching” them. So there will be no McDonalds branded restaurants in Russia.
- tut-urut-utut 4y agoCould they actually do that if the “lease” contract expires? (if that is the correct term for a franchise).
- pionar 4y agoI assume there's a clause in the franchise agreement covering this sort of thing. If the franchisor decides to exit a market, the agreement probably provides a process to do so. Not a McD franchisee, but I've been involved in franchise businesses before.
- scohesc 4y agoWhat will McDonalds do if Russian franchises/restaurants just keep using the golden arches, menu item names, etc? Sure they might taste different - but what is McDonalds' recourse? Not sure they can do anything if they've decided to remove themselves from doing business in Russia. Seems similar in situation to the knock-offs in other countries that McD's doesn't do business in.
- philshem 4y agoAlso in the press release > McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine remain closed while the Company continues to pay full salaries for its employees in the country…
- quantumfissure 4y agoBravo to McDonald's for that. My company (I'm an American working for an international one based in Germany) is doing the same thing. They're also building temporary small houses for our Ukrainian employees and families on corporate property in Poland and Germany. They also tried paying our Russian employees full wages too, until local Russian authorities and NATO/EU sanctions stopped that. That, and they matched Euro for Euro employee contributions to any Ukrainian relief effort they donated to. Outstanding response, I think.
- nerdjon 4y agoI don't really have much to add to the topic that hasn't already been said here. It will be interesting to see if this continues and what it does to Russia. But on a tech side of things, why is the corporate section of McDonalds trying to request my location?!? Glad Safari prompted me and I blocked it but this is ridiculous.
- 0898 4y agoCan anybody explain why the rouble is at a five-year high? Or is there something in the intricacies of currency pairings that means this high isn't quite like other "highs"?
- actuator 4y agoIt is not at a five year high though. Seems to be 10-15% down than five year high against USD. Even the initial sanction shock has petered out as it seems oil and gas sales have been going well
- ushakov 4y agomarket is frozen unless you’re Russian you can’t sell assets at the same time government purchases stocks and rouble with euros made from selling natural resources
- trasz 4y agoBecause it's artificially held high by Russian central bank. That's why Russians are not allowed to buy USD or gold.
- throw-ru-938 4y agoRussians are in fact allowed to buy USD (provided the bank actually has the physical dollar notes). The earlier prohibition on buying foreign currency has been relaxed.
- trasz 4y agoThey aren’t. They can buy virtual USD, but can only physically withdraw up to $10k per year. And if they receive USD, they are required by law to deposit 80% of it within three days.
- throw-ru-938 4y ago> They can buy virtual USD, but can only physically withdraw up to $10k per year. This applies to withdrawing cash from bank accounts. AFAIK there is no limit on exchanging RUB cash into USD/EUR. > And if they receive USD, they are required by law to deposit 80% of it within three days. This applies to companies doing exports, not to private citizens. (Although admittedly citizens don't have many ways of getting dollars.) (Source: I'm Russian and still follow the news from there)
- AltruisticGapHN 4y agoWow thatt's pretty rough. Just recently I saw some old footage of when Russia opened to the West and all those 90's kids in Russia going to the first Mc Donalds opening there. Then again McDonalds is a good example of a lot of things that are just plain wrong about western culture... so no loss for Russia I guess.
- pm90 4y agoMcDonalds in non US countries is often very different from the US. Its still probably not the healthiest option, but it operates in a different market segment.
- bombcar 4y agoThe McDonald's on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées has triple cheeseburgers which aren't usually available even in the US, but it is certainly a bit "higher class" if you will, though that may be related to restaurants in general not being as frequented outside the US (only Italy comes close apparently). No free refills, though.
- werds 4y agoyou guys must eat at McDonalds a real lot to be able to discern any difference, it's exactly the same food in slightly different shapes.
- mlyle 4y agoI disagree. McDonalds in the US is gross. I've had McDonalds in Europe 4-5 times and each of those were pretty OK. (Why am I eating McDonalds in Europe? Sometimes when you get off a train and don't have your bearings yet in a place, something fast that's a known quantity is the way to go even if it pales to other options you'll find soon).
- bombcar 4y agoThe "Here" app loaded with a country has all the McDonalds, which are guaranteed (almost always) to have a restroom and wifi. Can be worth it's weight in gold. (I don't notice a ton of difference between USA McDonald's and other ones, though the taste can be slightly different, and I don't usually frequent McDonalds in dense urban areas in the USA.)
- ThinkBeat 4y agoRussian people: (Much like in every country) "Oh no, we wont be able to buy s*itty industrial hamburgers anymore." I would be happy if mcD would pulled out of my counry.
- jpeter 4y agoYou know, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat there. But other people who like McDonalds still have the option
- selimthegrim 4y agoIs Russia going to reclaim the Moon Man from the fascis…oh wait.
- das_keyboard 4y agoRelated: A Message from Chris Kempczinski: An Update On Our Operations in Russia https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/BusinessModelAndStrategy.chris-russia-update.html https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/ar...
- throw0101a 4y agoA bit of history: "How a Canadian Opened the First Soviet McDonald’s" * https://medium.com/exploring-history/how-a-canadian-opened-the-first-soviet-mcdonalds-cb269232ae24 https://medium.com/exploring-history/how-a-canadian-opened-t... * https://www.cbc.ca/archives/first-mcdonalds-moscow-1990-1.4980247 https://www.cbc.ca/archives/first-mcdonalds-moscow-1990-1.49... Someone should interview George Cohon: > George Alan Cohon, CC OOnt (born April 19, 1937) is an American-born Canadian businessman who is the founder and senior chairman of McDonald's Canada and McDonald's of Russia. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cohon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cohon
- zabzonk 4y agoHas Putin not seen the fate of Beria in the film "The Death Of Stalin"? How long will it take before the Red Army takes him out into the back yard and shoots him? Edit: Usual Putinista downvotes. Get a life. Why do you support this evil man?
- paradite 4y agoThe end of the "Golden Arches theory": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lexus_and_the_Olive_Tree#Golden_Arches_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lexus_and_the_Olive_Tree#G...
- ARandomerDude 4y agoFrom the Wiki entry: > when a country has reached an economic development where it has a middle class strong enough to support a McDonald's network, it would become a "McDonald's country", and will not be interested in fighting wars anymore It's amazing how persistent this basic idea is. "Once we reach a certain level of X, we won't fight wars anymore." X can be money, education, scale of war (WWI), etc. but the idea never proves true in the long run. Nations fight for the same reasons toddlers do, just at a much bigger scale and with far greater consequences.
- chasd00 4y agoit all comes back to ensuring your genes are the most likely to survive. I don't see any economic or political status changing that.
- aasasd 4y ago> it would become a "McDonald's country", and will not be interested in fighting wars anymore Remind me, which country has its army continually trained and upgraded by entering one war after another for the past twenty if not forty years.
- alaricus 4y agoAnd nothing of value was lost!
- wazoox 4y agoRenault did that last month. They sold their car factories and operations building and selling more than 500,000 cars a year in Russia at a very significant profit for one rouble. The Russian state company who bought it promised that it will sell back the company for the same price when the sanctions are lifted, BUT for the "enhancements" they could make until then...
- mothsonasloth 4y agoWhat I want to know is what a Quarter Pounder burger is called in Russia: A McPutin? A McSputnik? рояль с сыром?
- wly_cdgr 4y ago::gulp::...I guess WWIII it is, then
- divbzero 4y agoDoes McDonald’s exit from Russia count as a partial restoration of the “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention” [1]? [1]: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/26/mcdonalds-peace-nagornokarabakh-friedman/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/26/mcdonalds-peace-nagorno...
- jhbadger 4y agoThe thing that was always weird about that "theory" that there hasn't been a war between two countries that had McDonalds was even when it was created it was wrong. There was a war (depending on how you want to count a war, as it was just considered a "military action" to get rid of General Noriega) between the US and Panama in 1990. Both countries had McDonalds.
- nikolay 4y agoHow is this bad news for Russia though?! MickeyDees is a thing only outside of the States nowadays.