The Case For McDonald’s
posted by Susan Stark
Leftists hold many differing opinions on many subjects, although they tend to hold certain things in common, such as concern for the environment and social justice.
But one attitude that I find rather irritating is the almost universal disdain among Leftists, from anarchists to Democrats, of fast-food restaurants. McDonald’s in particular.
Leftists generally don’t believe in the Devil, but if they did, it would be McDonald’s.
And there are some good reasons for hating McDonald’s.
The food served is very poor in nutrition, and very high in fat and calories. It is designed to taste good, but not nourish the body with what it needs. Furthermore, the restaurant encourages waste by supplying disposable wrappings, cups, lids, straws, paper bags, and napkins. All of which are thrown away after one use.
Another grievance against McDonald’s, as with all fast-food chains, is that there isn’t any actual cooking involved. The food is assembled, much like on a factory assembly line, with one low-paid worker after another adding one ingredient until the product is finished.
All of these are good reasons for disliking McDonald’s and other fast-food chains. But I can’t help but detect a bit of elitism, either conscious or unconscious, in criticisms of fast-food.
It doesn’t seem to occur to these shiitake-mushroom eaters that many people eat at McDonald’s and the like because they can’t afford to eat out any place else. Sure, low-income people can prepare food at home, and for the most part they do, but why should they stay at home when the middle- and upper-income folks have their pick of dining establishments?
Another convenience (besides the low prices) of fast-food joints is the availability of the bathroom. Technically, you have to be a customer to use a bathroom in any restaurant, but with fast-food, this is usually not strictly enforced. In large, compact cities like New York and San Francisco where a dearth of bathrooms is near epidemic, this can literally save someone’s life. Especially for homeless people, run-aways, indigents, and delivery people, the fast-food restaurant bathroom can provide not only a toilet, but free running water as well.
During winter time, McDonald’s and other fast-food establishments can provide a warm place to sit without buying anything. And if the management insists that you pay for something, a hot cup of coffee or tea is a lot cheaper in these places than at Starbucks or the local bohemian joints. This has saved the life of a run-away, a punk, a krusty kid, an indigent, or a homeless person many a time. Especially here in New York, where some McDonald’s places are open 24 hours a day.
Sure, vegetarian restaurants are certainly healthier and less wasteful, but where does a vegetarian restaurant exist where you can walk off the street and use the bathroom, and is open 24 hours a day, and costs less than five dollars a meal?
13 Comments.
The problem is this is the kind of food that we've decided to make cheap and available, largely due to subsidized commodity corn and soy.
Maybe that money could serve needy Americans better.
Absolutely correct. MacDonald's prop food, 24 hour service, and toilet availability exonerates its liability in providing sugary, fattening, and cholesterol ridden food to "billions served."
Business plan! Lease business space with heating and a potty. Put up bulk-rate uniform exterrior & interior decor, including bench & table units. Put a dumptster outside. Get undercompensated, unprotected laborers to process and package the trash as food-like units. Advertise copiously. Charge hungry people (there are plenty) a little money for the trash units. Deposit money in bank. Develop and market corporate identity. Repeat worldwide. Invest heavily in lawyers and US lobbyists.
It is not only where the low-income people go out to eat, it is what they can afford to buy at the grocery store. If you see what food is affordable and what goes on sale the most it is swill and crap. High carbohydrates, high fructose corn syrup, and lo in nutrition. Want some healthy food, well head on over to Whole Foods and if you are a family of four, be prepared to drop a ton of money.
Obesity is a problem in the country because people can't afford to eat healthy.
This has got to be one of the most inane blogs ever.
McDonalds also serves some of the most humanely killed meat available, astonishingly enough.
1. McDonald's that are located in urban setting – at least the ones with which I'm familiar in the Northeast – are not cheap at all. A local diner or pizza joint is priced in the same range, and probably has better and better tasting food.
2. Read "The Omnivore's Dilemma", "Fast Food Nation" and any book on environmental economics to understand why chain food (which, it can be argued, McDonald's started) is really bad on all kinds of levels, especially for the poor.
3. Fast food restaurants and deli's are the largest sources of food poisoning annually, according to CDC surveilance programs.
4. That they provide warm places with clean bathrooms is spurious.
This post puts a spin on McDonald's and other fast food joints I hadn't thought of before. It's almost as if they're charitable institutions. McDonald's is the safety net our government refuses to provide when we fall through the cracks. The Burger King benevolently distributes welfare to his loyal subjects. McDonald the jester delights and entertains, providing playgrounds for children trapped in the concrete jungle. Where would we be without them? If only our government could look up to the McDonald's and the Wendy's and Taco Bells as role models for their own beneficent programs, then we may inherit a better tomorrow.
Kudos for pointing out some things too many left-leaning elitists ignore. It is, after all, so much easier to score political points (and to feel better about ourselves by disparaging the very people we, in all our comfort, purport to care about) then admit that not everything (or, indeed, anything) is as simplistically black and white as we wish it to be.
conservatives cite mc donalds restrooms as reason for closing public restrooms. Who needs homeless shelters when you can go sit in Mc Donalds?
Everything is so ass backwards that we rely on a private company for these things. So what happens when Mc Donalds changes CEOs and they close the restrooms to the public?
There is no case for mc donalds.
So the best argument in favor of McDonald's is that their restaurants offer some of the benefits of homeless shelters, minus a place to lie down for the night, but plus McNuggets?
That's…a view that would not have occurred to me, and frankly I'm not sure what else to say about it. Except that it would be nice if McDonald's employees were paid enough to be able to afford something other than McDonald's food.
Hey Irishup, Angelo, and assorted anony-posters, how about I shit at your house instead of at McDonalds?
The odd thing is, here in Belgium, a country with a fairly well-running social security system, McDonalds restaurants are amongst the most costly places to go to the bathroom, and, to my knowledge, the only restaurants where even paying customers *still* have to pay to use the bathroom. And it's heavily enforced. Why, exactly, is unclear to all except, I suppose, the CEO of McD Belgium. Widely seen here as a typical example of American corporate greed…Somewhat strange in my book 🙂