Economic Theory Plots a Course for Good Food.
TAKE a renowned economist to lunch, and you learn a few things. For instance, if you dine where children are among the patrons, you can count on bad food. Children are, in fact, one of the reasons American food got so bad. The other reason? Prohibition.
At Starbucks, the price of coffee isn’t so expensive. But the profit margin changes when you order any special blended milk and sugar concoction. And speaking of beverage prices, if you must order a Coke with your meal, it tends to be cheapest at Chinese restaurants.
Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University, compiles these findings and more in a new book, “An Economist Gets Lunch,” which is part economic history of American food, part attack on the self-righteousness of locavores and other food snobs and part guide to getting a better meal at home or a restaurant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/dining/an-economists-theories-plot-a-course-for-good-food.html?hp
= new reply since forum marked as read
But if liberals are gonna win, they gotta mix with the community, and food is a community magnet. The more variety the better.
An additional benefit is that a bunch of fat monolingual Americans might drop a little weight and learn some things about themselves and others as well, especially since any future we have may require it of them.
But I do heed the warning
