Silly China - you went for the American dream.......

[JohnyCanuck]

and now it looks like it's turning rather nightmarish.

Snip from latest entry at Kunstler's blog Clusterfuck Nation:

It was fascinating to watch a CNBC report Sunday night about the progress of General Motors and McDonalds Hamburgers in China. It sure makes one wonder about the current mood of Sino-triumphalism -- the favorite car of the Chinese elite is... the Buick, a product that even demented old ladies in Columbus, Ohio, will not touch with a stick. It appears that China has succeeded in turning Peking and Shanghai into simulacrums of Atlanta and Dallas, complete with glass office towers and all the on-and-off-ramps they'll ever need -- a pretty stupid project when you consider how little oil of its own China actually has. One can only say, with a shudder, that they got into the Happy Motoring game a bit late, and wish them "good luck."

The Mickey-D phenomenon appears to be a mere fad, a toy that Chinese trade officials tossed to its people in the euphoria of ramping up the world's last manufacturing economy. For starters, China doesn't have enough groundwater or grain to feed the necessary steers (and hogs) that McDonald's uses for it's "meat products" there.

The most amusing part of the CNBC segment was the deportment of the smarmy American executives representing those companies: Rick Waggoner of GM, who was depicted in the full flower of a campaign to hose his Chinese "partners," blowing smoke up their asses as if he were some kind of a human walking-talking bong, and the two necktied creeps from McDonalds' Asian office scheming on camera about opening tens of thousands of so-called "restaurants" across the ancient kingdom. These were all perfect representatives of people stuck in a paradigm already bygone. When the Olympic mania ends, China will find itself in a new reality, too. Its single advantage, as far as I can see, is that it holds a lot of US dollars in various formats, and I don't know that this is much of an advantage given the imminent tanking of American finance. Yes, China has become the world's factory. But if the world's leading shopper is shopped-out and busted, this might not be much of an advantage. Beyond that, as suggested above, they face huge problems with oil, water, and food, not to mention over-population and environmental degradation at a scale we can barely imagine here.

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/08/shoulder-season.html

[theboss]

1. Everyone wants McNuggets

And, frankly, who can blame them?

[Warpy]

2. Not everyone

but even the Chinese here in the US seem to be scarfing them down by the bucketful. I used to watch people who ran rather nice Chinese food stalls in a mall in Boston hoof it down to McD's during their lunch hour, all eating McNuggets.

I don't get it. It looks like a breaded sponge to me and I'll bet that other than the fat, sugar and salt plus the dipping sauce, it tastes about like a sponge.

Besides, I know what goes into them. Icky doodle.

[cprompt]

5. you don't like mcnuggets?

why do you hate america? :sarcasm:

[tridim]

3. Exporting McDonalds is a WMD.

That shit is poison.

[nc4bo]

4. Sobering piece. I was going to save for later but couldn't stop reading. nt

[enid602]

6. McDonalds

I've been living in Buenos Aires for the last few months, and go to Mcdonalds (usually just for cafe cortado and pasteles, though) more often here than I did when I lived in the US. McDonalds is the only place in town that has a bathroom open to the public. McDonalds is the only place in town that will change larger bills; most BA shopkeepers have signs posted that say ´we have no coins,' which are needed for trains, buses, snacks etc. I guess the real reason for McDonalds success in Argentina, however is that they advertise the hell out of themselves, just as in the US. They've got the kids brainwashed.