"The People's Cheese"

I was recently part of a spirited debate on the following topic: "Agree or disagree: cream cheese really is the people's cheese." There were so many fine points, that even though this blog is about buffets, I had to re-live them here. The non-winners posted below:

• Nacho cheese: accessible, but ethnic - and some prefer their cheeses to be in solid form
• Roquefort: For the bourgeois only - doesn't even belong in the discussion
• American: With only 300+ million out of the 6 billion people worldwide, this is hardly universal
• Parmasean: isn't pasta universal?
• Mozzarella: one of few cheeses that goes well with meat (chicken parmasean anyone?), and on pizzas and TGI Friday's (in stick form) worldwide
• Marscapone: one of few cheeses that goes well with almost anything sweet, but a little exotic
• Cream cheese: works well for breakfast and dessert, but very limited in between
• EZ cheese: highest marks in the convenience factor, lowest in nutrition; also, may not actually be "cheese", so we can't count it

And the winner is: Kraft Mac 'n Cheese cheese. Why? Here was the winning submission, verbatim:

"We've left out the famous Kraft Mac 'n Cheese cheese. This nameless wonder is truly the people's cheese - sold in every local Mom and Pop store (read: Walmart) in America. It's as healthy as the average american, and probably made right here in China!"

Priceless. I think "healthy as the average american" was the clincher for me.

And if you don't think that's "global" enough, how's this for global: "Local Kraft managers say the plant makes so much macaroni and cheese in a year that if they lined up all the boxes, end to end, the line would wrap around the world 2.4 times." (from: http://www.news-gazette.com/special/cfcu/ind/kraft.cfm)