• Efficiency or inefficiency? Or efficient for whom??
• "Unreality" Sometimes we can experience things secondhand where we otherwise couldn't, like the blooming of the cherry trees in a Washington, DC park. Or video games. Or indoor skiing. Check out SkiDubai! But is it the same?
  • unreality of place, intimacy, competence
• Homogenization (check out Levittown, the first subdivision; this is San Antonio , TX; Florida before and after)
• Food and factory farming (chickens, hogs n' cows)
• Dehumanization--the McJob
• Discomplexity--McPolitics Social Security
• McHealth (including McDeath and McBirth)

Ritzer's cage metaphor

• Velvet
• Rubber
• Iron

Social problem?

• McDonald's as means to address social problems?
• What to do?
• Individual choices (consumerism, job market, Blippy!)
• The government (local, state, federal, etc.)?
  • regulating advertising? (World Net Daily is on it ... others promise to "do better")
  • school, TV, activity?
  • Tax high-fat foods?
• Social movements ('slow food,' 'smart' growth,' education?)
• Meet Ruth Kava (nutritionist for the food industry)
  • Fast food ban, anyone?? Tax (sourcewatch's take)?
• How about beyond the fast food example? Does 'the free market' work?
  • Where do consumers get their information? Here, here, or here?
• Art, music, religion, literature, therapy/self-help, etc. What's wrong with a trend toward McDonaldization? Who benefits and who pays a cost?
• Natural resources and energy and McDonaldization--any connections? Do McDonaldized businesses and the increased consumption they can stimulate have environmental impacts? What would happen to the trend of McDonaldization if the price of oil quintupled?