Blogs Sep 21, 2012 at 8:43 am

Comments

1
You can burn down a prison cell?

I thought they were made of concrete and metal?
2
@1, i made a small change. things and not cell, is what i meant to say.
3
U.S. prisons and jails, yes. Probably the mattress is the only flammable object.
Other countries, however... history has many tragic cases where rioting prisoners set their prisons on fire, inadvertently killing hundreds.
4
"The destruction of those fast food businesses will have no material (and a very small symbolic) impact on Americans, but will have a huge negative impact on poor and struggling Muslim families."

I could be misunderstanding you, I hope once again. Are you actually saying that the loss of a fast food restaurant hurts the poor? Because, I happen to think fast food restaurants PREY on the poor, feeding them the filth that the rich wont eat at prices that are too good to refuse. I am sad that we are exporting our waste products called food to other countries.
5
I'm not entirely sure this is pertinent. Based on personal experience, KFC is not always considered poor people's food. So, I'm not sold on the idea that the worst off families will necessarily suffer.

Certainly, I saw firsthand that in China, India and Indonesia, these are young people's date restaurants or slightly nice family restaurants (think Olive Garden).

Some quick internet research reveals a similar price point for a Middle Eastern country (*a sample of one is obviously not statistically significant but I got tired after UAE and stopped):

Average low income salary in Dubai (looking at gardener, nanny and taxi driver on dubaifaqs.com) was 733.33 - 2166.67 AED

Prices for KFC meals were from some guy who said he lived in Dubai and gave an answer on yahoo.answers:
Extreme combo meal: 21 AED
9 pc family meal: 55 AED

Our lowest low wage earner could have 35 combo meals per month (barring all other expense), spending 2.8% of his pre-tax income on each meal. The highest low wage earner could have 103 combo meals in a month, spending .96% of his income.

Our lowest wage earner could afford 13 family meals (7.5% of income) and our highest could have nearly 40 (2.5% of income) - again, barring all other expenses.

To compare with an American low-wage earner (I'm using the federal poverty line of $23,050 per year - or $1920.83 per month - which is for a family of four). I'm also assuming what a meal at KFC costs because I fucking hate that place and their online menu doesn't have pricing.

Let's say: $7 for a combo meal and $20 for a family meal.
Our American wage earner could have: 274 combo meals (.36% of pre-tax income) or 96 family meals (1.04% of pre-tax income). The real cost of dining out in the UAE is much higher than for Americans, consistent with what I observed in other pricing abroad.
6
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