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Comment by pflenker | Hacker News Reader

Fun Trivia: When Volkswagen announced that their canteen would offer vegetarian and vegan alternatives, Germany's ex chancellor Schröder made the headlines with deriding this decision and calling the sausage the "Kraftriegel der Arbeiter" (worker's power bar).

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Had to check this and it turns out that what you're saying is not quite correct:

The canteen stopped serving meat altogether which meant that the famous "VW-Currywurst" wouldn't be available anymore. That's what Schröder complained about, not the availability of vegan alternatives. He actually praised those in the same sentence.

To be precise: One of three or four canteens on the main site was affected. So there still was alternative.

Assuming 90:10 meat eaters to vegetarians, and a reduction of 25% of the capacity, 15% of workers who are meat eaters will have to eat at the vegetarian canteen.

Yes, but meat eaters may choose to eat a vegetarian meal on any given day. 15% seems like a plausible figure - meat eaters choosing 1 day a week to eat a vegetarian meal.

It would still have been available in another canteen right next door though. Also, the canteen which did. the change was not exactly catering to the blue-collar workers he was referencing, IIRC it was an office building.

Schröder makes every possible effort to make himself look stupid. He probably should have some currywurst with his buddy Putin.

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