The Cancer of Free-Market Economics, Essay Example

‘Mcdonaldization’ is everywhere that the economic conceptualization of free market dominance is allowed to flourish. In essence, ‘Mcdonaldization’ is extreme rationalization, that is, the rendering of a business model into pure efficiency, repeatability, and therefore cheap exportability. One clear example of the phenomenon is on display at the supermarket every day.

Despite that organic, fair-trade, locally grown produce involves a fraction of the resources and industrial involvement in its production compared to mega-brand produce, it is significantly more expensive. The reason: rationalization makes the mega-brand product cheaper per unit to produce. Let’s take the production of beef: cows are fed with genetically modified, pesticide-heavy corn. They are overmedicated in order to allow their rumens to digest the corn. Each cow will grow up in a factory farm with thousands of other cows, before it is shipped by truck to a slaughterhouse where a machine will kill, dismember and process it. This ‘food’ is then packaged and shipped all over the world. This seems expensive given all the extra things that go into the growing of an animal that occurs naturally, and it uses up more resources per unit of food than its environmentally sustainable alternative, but because it is ‘Mcdonaldized,’ it is cheaper.

‘Mcdonaldization’ is the cancer of free-market economics. As Ritzer explains, the irrationality byproduct of the phenomenon means that efficiency trumps all other concerns (like sustainability). In addition, the Deskilling side effect that ‘Mcdonaldization’ has on affected workforces is contrary to the complexity-oriented future of business and society. This process cannot continue if capitalism is to stay relevant and successful as a socio-economic paradigm.