At McDonald's, I always put my change in the box of donations for Ronald McDonald House. Partly I would of course, like to help others, but it's also because I am overloaded with small change. It's a weird warping of economics: quarters don't seem very valuable to me, because I have so many, so four quarters seems less valuable to me than a dollar.
Anyway, a few time when I've done this around friends, they claim that the boxes are bogus, and the change just goes into McDonald's profits. That seems like an odd thing to believe. For one thing, it's the height of cynicism, and I think of myself as quite a cynic. I'm no fan of McDonald's - I paid full price to see Super Size Me in the theatre - but even I wouldn't believe their execs have their hands in the charity boxes. It's not so much faith in humanity as the bad publicity if it ever got out - and the sheer number of people involved would guarantee it would get out, with or without Morgan Spurlock's help. Besides, if McDonald's wants to scam us, I'm sure they can do it more than a dime at a time.
Which brings up the next problem I have with this cynical conspiracy theory: You're in a McDonald's, presumably you're about to eat some of their food. Doesn't that worry you? Again, I'm not one to believe that their beef has dirt or worms or plastic or whatever in it. But I certainly find that much easier to believe than the idea that they steal from Ronald McDonald House.
That's the problem with cynics these days. (I'll now pause to let you digest all the layers in that statement.) They have a weird unfocused cynicism where they talk as though they believe the worst, but act as though they're totally naive. So unless you've bought that cabin in the woods to go full Unabomber, forgive me for not taking you seriously.
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