[supakeen]

> Roberts, 38, now only gets fast food "as a rare treat".

I feel that that is it should be? When I was young it was important enough to mention at the monday class circle if your grandparents had taken you to visit the Golden Arches and everyone would be very jealous.

[vidanay]

Growing up in the 80's, I got fast food (McD's, Pizza Hut) maybe once every two or three weeks. I got to go to a "nice" restaurant perhaps twice a year.

My parents however, left us with a Tombstone pizza or Swanson's TV dinner three times per week when they went out to dinner.

[lotsofpulp]

> My parents however, left us with a Tombstone pizza or Swanson's TV dinner three times per week when they went out to dinner.

I would consider this negligent parenting due to the poor nutrition of those meals.

It’s not time consuming to cook some lentils or other protein and add some spice and eat some yogurt.

[smeej]

I have a personal rule that if I can remember the last time I ate fast food, it's too soon to eat it again. That seems to space it out to no more than a handful of times a year, and I agree that seems to be about the oftenest I would like it to be.

[JKCalhoun]

Growing up poor (mom was single, working as a secretary in the 1970's trying to support two small kids) Shakey's pizza offering free drinks on Tuesday nights (if you ordered a large pizza and brought in a coupon) was our special night out.

Fast food has never been "normalized" for me and I think that is a good thing.

[jacknews]

For an entire family, maybe so, but let's not confuse fast food for that rare gourmet meal experience.

It's niche is good value convenience food for those on-the-go, and cheap enough for kids parties etc.

If it's now premium prices, local options are likely to be way better. I mean I'm not in US, but there's absolutely no way I'm paying $12 for a mcdonalds quarter-pounder-and-cheese - I remember them being famously under $1 and thus a great car snack on the way to a meeting or whatever.

And in case this is their intent, I really don't think the chivas regal effect can apply in this case - that's reserved for when the average punter can't really discern quality.

[ravenstine]

I don't disagree from a nutrition standpoint, but the very American innovation of cheap food arriving at your table fast now being seen as too expensive isn't a good sign from an economical perspective. This is like saying that if gas hit $10 that it's actually a good thing since people should drive less anyway. Like, yeah, but that's really not the key issue. Maybe the word orthogonal is what I'm looking for here?

[xg15]

Fun fact: That's the exact argument a lot of EU politicians made after the cutoff from russian oil and gas caused price shocks.

Like yes, we do have to phase out fossil fuels sooner than later, but maybe that's not the core issue here?