1. I discovered a way to measure the degree of urbanization of any community. Just measure the McDonald’s Density Index (MDI). For example, in rural areas, you need to drive for a long time before you see the next McDonald’s. In a suburb like Santa Clara, you can drive in any random direction and chance upon a McDonald’s within 15 minutes (I know, it was precisely what I did while checking out places to rent). In highly urbanized Singapore, if you stop anyone on the street and ask them to point you to the nearest McDonald’s within walking distance, chances are they can.
2. While sitting in a McDonald’s restaurant in the middle of nowhere, I wondered to myself just how much of each dollar I was paying actually went to the food. I concluded that most of that dollar must go to rent, labor, business risk, and profits. But in real life, we don’t really think of things in those terms. For example, I never go into McDonald’s to ask for $5 worth of “rent, labor, business risk, and profits, and whatever meat, bread and sugared drinks associated with it”.