Also I'd say Rob and Dougs positions on McDonalds are based on different cultural contexts. We've had McDonalds in the U.S. as long as I've been alive (substantially longer than Rob). The cultural damage has been done -- more or less irreversible short of a revolution which won't happen in our life times. Any independent fast food vendors who exist are ones who have managed to adapt to the existence of big chain competitors.
Apparently in Oz this particular damage is not quite so advanced. (I take Rob's word of course. Practically everything I know about Australia comes from his posts.) Not patronizing McDonalds may actually be a form of resistance there -- whereas in the U.S. it is only nostalgia (or a means of saving money and preserving health) -- without political significance.