With many imperial units- similar deal. Many were inherited from the Brits since we were their colony. Britain didn’t adopt metric until the mid 1960’s- and that was only largely because most of Europe besides them used metric, and their close proximity and regular dealings and cooperation with other European nations made it pretty necessary. But you can still find many things in Britain from consumer goods to signage with imperial measures. Less so after the early 2000’s when laws were passed to make imperial measures unauthorized for most consumer goods, and initiatives were undertaken to remove old signs and such in imperial. But right up through the 1990’s there still weren’t legal requirements to use metric for many things!

So America was the first to just call their game “football” as its actual name, and the British were the first to call the game “soccer,” and all the international guff America gets for having the “weird” football or calling the game “soccer” is misplaced because we just called soccer what the Brits called it, and we had the name “football” for the actual proper name before soccer was football everywhere else.

Yes! And also no. The Brits had several longer names for each type of football- football basically being most games played with a ball on and foot as opposed to horseback. I’ll save the whole lecture but due to the slang of time- to differentiate the games they had primarily “Soccer” and “Rugger” as “er” was a popular convention. Americans went and invented our own football- which we just had the one- so we called it “foot ball.” Americans picked up the game and term “soccer” from the British origins- but then the Brits got upset we were using their word and making it less cool- so they started calling soccer “football” to take the piss out of the Americans.

Ah. Apologies. Sarcasm sometimes does not come through in writing.

Most places have tip jars. So if ONLY every person getting fries left a .50 tip- the employees would collect the $980 odd dollars already. If every person who ordered ANYTHING left even just a .50 tip- the employees would make even more. Yet... they don’t. So it would seem that most people aren’t really willing to pay the extra out of the goodness of their heart- because there is already nothing stopping them.

The big assumption here though... is that 100% of those profits go to the employees. What are the odds of that? Dubious. What’s even more dubious? That people would pay it. You SAY you’d pay- but famousone pokes a big old hole in that one.

That’s $486 at an extra .50. A day. But... if our shift is a generously small 5 people- we’d need at least 20 for a full days rotation. An extra $24 a day. Better than nothing. That’s almost $960 a month. So they wouldn’t be as likely to need 3 jobs- maybe more like 2. Except... that’s assuming that they get paid on fries sold off their shift, and that full time and part time employees get that number regardless of how many hours they worked. Unlikely- but let’s say we go for it.

Well I mean- would that .50 cents actually make it so the fry cook doesn’t have to work 3 Jobs? Let’s say you have an average of 5-10 employees on shift. The “average” McDonald’s will serve about 972 orders of fries per day. Those are very generous numbers based off of if every fries sold was a small, and world wide sales extrapolated from total potatoes used and standard US small sizes for fries. So if we include hash browns and other potato products it goes down as well. So this is VERY generous and simplified.

Now now. That’s not fair. It’s all true- but you forgot the part where the entire model of the system is designed to funnel money from those with less to those with more. So while localized markets are tapped dry to pump capital into a global pool- by design and necessity those with less have whatever their capital earning power be, fed upwards so that a small group can consolidate the wealth thereby multiplying their relative buying power.

Breisgau is in Germany, or at least there is A Breisgau in Germany; and the sign- native Germans feel free to correct my less than stellar knowledge- appears to me to be German and say “we are looking for you” or more literally- “we seek you.” So my best guess is it is in Germany, probably in or near Breisgau.

Lol. It sounds like a good day. I’m
Glad.

Since we already have the American government to worry about- and that is by nature of us being- America, so it came pre installed and is needed for the country to run- I’d like to just keep it there. No need to install China too and have to worry about both. We can theoretically stop, or at least slow, China from getting their hooks into things- it’s already long too late to stop our own government from getting its claws into everyone business. I’ll keep the one I have, and China can go rule Asia or maybe bother Europe or their other neighbors.

China is scary as hell because it is not so different from the Western Powers. It’s largely the same on the level of ethics and operation- and if you don’t live in a country that is a western power, and you aren’t scared or wary of the western powers- history is laughing at you while waiting to show you what’s waiting behind that door when inevitably you run afoul of one. If we cloned America- I wouldn’t let America 2 anywhere near fucking America. Those guys are dangerous. So clone America and make it a communist totalitarian “democratic” dictatorship- hell no. I wouldn’t trust those guys at all. If you do- well- history. History will tell you what happens. Even in the “so great” west most of us are worried about our own governments screwing us- trying to watch China AND the US government and make sure they don’t screw me? That’s too much work.

So my point is- China is a place of horrors and happiness. The people who aren’t on the receiving end of the horrors see the system working pretty well. But how’s that any different from most world powers except that we can point at our grand parents or greats and great greats and so on and blame them while we enjoy the spoils of their sins and wash our hands of any responsibility?

America and the UK are awash in horrors for 200+ years, without which- would neither likely be what they are today. And so modern China- it’s not even 100 yet. When America was 100 we had just outlawed chattel slavery 10 years before- and would still be struggling to even begin to truly integrate blacks in society- until we were almost 200 years old! And well... it’s still not quite perfect today but it isn’t nearly as bad as it was. We were still massacring natives and short decades before were stealing land by conquest from Mexico. It was 1900 when we annexed the independent kingdom of Hawaii. Did we stop there?

But without WW2- Germany wouldn’t be positioned where it was. Wouldn’t have developed technologies and so on and so on- which placed it where it was. That turned it from a nation crippled by war debt and all these troubles- and enriched it as well as the fact that the extreme reaction to the post war period previous had the allies taking a different tact than punishing the nation as hard as they could for what had been done.

We didn’t become world powers by being nice. We got to the top and then decided to play nice because we can afford to. When we can’t- we don’t. You and I spoke about Germany, without the Nazis it is very unlikely Germany would be where it is today. Had the whole country been soviet- it very likely would never have achieved the status as a world leader of technology and industry- and likely would have hit a hard recession when the USSR collapsed like other soviet countries. The integration of east Germany shows what that historically “short” period had done comparing the lives of East Germans to west.

They learned from us. They leaned what the diplomacy of the world powers looked like. What the promises of a world power were worth, and the depths world powers would go to in order to rise to the top and stay there. And the European powers and America- we get to say “that was in our barbaric past” and let’s pretend that’s true and we are all perfect angels of human rights and integrity and virtue as nations now (we aren’t. Let’s pretend..”

The facts are that we taught China that we were unreliable, that the West didn’t value Asian life the same and that they weren’t going to be let in to the club with western nations who would always back each other over the “outsiders” they were. Then the west as a whole basically declared them an enemy because they were communist- our stated mission to end their way of life and put them under ours.

And guess what? The roots for this rebellion were formed by anti western sentiment caused by our unilateral deals, “gun boat diplomacy” and the West... hooking a country on opium and funneling drugs in to allow exploitation? But the Chinese steak our trade secrets. Yes. The west stole Silk from them. Literally. Tea. Many more things over time and more recently too. And if you think stealing the secret of silk isn’t a big deal- go look up the trade and see not only the value of textiles over time and the royalties that would be at even 10%, but think about how many businesses got their start from that money that could have been Chinese owned if the trade had stayed with them.

The communists in China killed millions to form their new progressive nation. We don’t know how many. Some say 80 million or more. Some estimates much lower. In America- 20-100 million native Americans are estimated to have been killed to pave the way to our new progressive nation. Huh. Well- we were formed in revolt against an unjust monarch (supposedly.) wait... the communists were formed in revolt against.. and unjust monarch?

What I will say is this- China is like America. That’s why America and China don’t get along. China wants to do whatever it wants wherever and whenever. It wants to control the flow of information and commerce and be the guide post for the world. It wants what is best for China and will justify what it has to do for that to happen. The human costs just need covered until the deed is done- then you can apologize, blame your fore fathers, shrug- “can’t undo it now...” and reap the profits. Then repeat without ever changing. Just like us. Just like Russia.

And that to me makes China dangerous. If there were no China- if there were no Russia- I’d lost the most dangerous country in the world as the USA. Not saying the best military or the best technology or any of that- most dangerous. Do I think it’s good when other countries let America in to their homes and their economies and such? Sure. Good for America. Do I think it’s good for them? Well... I decline to comment.

I could go on for days. I won’t. I’ll finish with this- China, is like the US. They learned from us and other western powers. They watched us use gun boat diplomacy, they watched us be “benevolent” to strategic allies and leave other in need hang when it suited our interests. I don’t know how well versed you are in the history of China from the 1800’s or so up to the late 20th century- but it’s a country that exists in its modern form thanks to the west and our actions in large part.

So in saying that there is a level of sophistication to information control that makes it nearly magical in power. No matter how intelligent a person may be- there’s a truck for them in an ever evolving bag of tricks. And since we’ve got a largely young user base here- well... what could possibly be wrong with allowing a situation where the next Facebook could be controlled by te Chinese government, and a generation of American youth gets their information through the Lens they choose?