[Rant] This is not why we have a government.

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Necronic

Necronic

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stienman said:
For those that are curious, the National Christmas Tree Association is managed by http://www.amrms.com/content/about-us . The association itself has no employees. The management company has 65+ employees and is privately owned and operated.

That management company is in the business of creating associations and getting companies to join the association, pay dues, while the management company holds industry events, advertises, and lobbies for their membership. All this, of course, for a not insubstantial management fee. Of course, since the associations have no employees, the management company pays consultants to do the lobbying - consultants that also happen to work for the management association. They nickel and dime the associations in many, many ways.

Essentially this regulation is a method to force companies to give money to a company whose sole purpose is to create associations and get people to join. Getting a regulation that forces people to join the association is icing on the cake - cake, incidently, that consumers will be forced to choke down at a mere 15 cents per person, but $5 million dollars of consumer money that might have been used elsewhere instead goes to this privately owned and operated company that also happens to manage 20 other similar associations in other industries.

The question should be: why isn't everyone outraged?
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It's like they've outsourced bueracracy.
 
C

Chibibar

Dave said:
This reminds me of the movie "Dave" when they were going over the budget and started talking about exactly this sort of thing but about used cars. It was stupid in the movie and it's stupid in real life.
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That is exactly what I was thinking. making American feel good about the car they already bought.
 
C

Chibibar

Necronic said:
How is there a flame war? Quiznos toasts there subs with actual flames. Subway just uses a microwave.
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super duper microwave that cooks a raw pizza under 3 minutes. It is awesome

Edit: the one we have around here toast (nice and crispy) it does pizza well too as if it was in the oven.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
sixpackshaker said:
hmmm... microwaves don't toast...
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I guess it's not a microwave, it's some kind of convection oven. But still. Radiant/resistive heating is not the same thing as fire. Therefore Quiznos wins the flame war as Subway brought a lightbulb instead of a flamethrower.

Also their sandwiches are crap.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Actually I don't even know which sandwich you are talking about to be honest. The only one I eat there is the Chicken Carbonara or whatever it is.
 
Eriol

Eriol

stienman said:
For those that are curious, the National Christmas Tree Association is managed by http://www.amrms.com/content/about-us . The association itself has no employees. The management company has 65+ employees and is privately owned and operated.

That management company is in the business of creating associations and getting companies to join the association, pay dues, while the management company holds industry events, advertises, and lobbies for their membership. All this, of course, for a not insubstantial management fee. Of course, since the associations have no employees, the management company pays consultants to do the lobbying - consultants that also happen to work for the management association. They nickel and dime the associations in many, many ways.

Essentially this regulation is a method to force companies to give money to a company whose sole purpose is to create associations and get people to join. Getting a regulation that forces people to join the association is icing on the cake - cake, incidently, that consumers will be forced to choke down at a mere 15 cents per person, but $5 million dollars of consumer money that might have been used elsewhere instead goes to this privately owned and operated company that also happens to manage 20 other similar associations in other industries.

The question should be: why isn't everyone outraged?
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Good research. I'd be against it even if it was a bunch of volunteers or whatever, but this just seals it.


And on the broader issue of this type of thing, just because government can do something to benefit an industry doesn't mean it should. Most of the time it should only do what others can't do very well. That leaves a lot up to debate as to what falls in or out, but promoting any industry (or worse yet, propping it up) is bad IMO.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Maybe we can turn this thread into a general "Government doing stuff that no one cares about" thread?

My Contribution? Congress rules that Pizza is a vegetable... as long as it contains 2 tbs of pizza sauce.

What utter bullshit... if a half cup of Ragu only counts as a single serving of vegetables, 2 tbs of sauce would only be 1/8th a serving.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

No, it's so schools can keep serving it. Schools serve LOTS of frozen pizza because it's one of the few things they can get kids to eat consistently, plus it's also cheap and easy to prepare in mass quantities.
 
Tress

Tress

They were prepared to adopt new, stricter nutritional requirements for school lunch as part of President Obama's plan to improve children's health. It was all set to pass until lobbyists for potato farmers and pizza suppliers got their hooks into some members of Congress. The bill was gutted as a result, and now pizza is a vegetable.

Your taxpayers dollars at work.
 
Frank

Frank

AshburnerX said:
Maybe we can turn this thread into a general "Government doing stuff that no one cares about" thread?

My Contribution? Congress rules that Pizza is a vegetable... as long as it contains 2 tbs of pizza sauce.

What utter bullshit... if a half cup of Ragu only counts as a single serving of vegetables, 2 tbs of sauce would only be 1/8th a serving.
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That's not even the worst part, the amount of sodium in that low cost bullshit pizza sauce. Heart attack in your early '30s? Your government says yes.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

It's not even that I BLAME the schools for serving frozen pizza... they have to make enough food for a large percentage of their school, 5 days a week, with only a few hours prep time and on a razor thing budget. More to the point, they need to make sure the kids EAT the food they prepare. I know at my mother's school, it's the case that a vast majority of the students are from homes below the poverty line and that this might be the only meal they get every day.

Sometimes getting cheap, mass produced crap is the only way they can make this possible, especially if you live in a district like mine where you haven't had a levy pass in more than 10 years (unless it's to save after school sports... *sigh*).
 
strawman

strawman

Tress said:
and now pizza is a vegetable.
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No, pizza sauce has always been a vegetable, and the new guidelines were an attempt to remove that concession.

I'd say there's a balance to be maintained. It can be hard to get kids to eat nutritious foods, especially if they're used to fast food at home. Kids who don't eat enough at lunch do worse in school and retain less, one of the reasons many schools have breakfast programs for younger children, especially in impoverished areas where the kids might not get breakfast before school.

Further, nutritious food that kids enjoy is more expensive, takes longer to prepare and serve, and goes bad more quickly. The school budgets are terrible, and even though kids are supposed to pay for their own lunch I would be surprised if the money they paid actually covered the cost of the food, the staff, and kitchen maintenance, nevermind the teachers that have to monitor lunch, etc.

Tomato sauce isn't a bad food, nor a bad vegetable. It's not as good as broccoli, perhaps, but I think people are picking at nits here. I'd rather see them figure out a way to lower the fat and salt before worrying about whether the vegetable is vegetably enough for them.
 
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