Yes

by Jerald Cogswell

Created on: December 18, 2010

Those who assert that McDonald's and other fast food companies should not be more heavily taxed, regulated, or penalized offer several arguments that deserve discussion. Their arguments include these talking points:

  The fast food companies are just giving the customers what they want.

  In a free society, we strive for less government control and more individual responsibility.

  Food is a personal choice that should not fall under regulatory scrutiny.

  The fast food industry offers convenience for busy parents of finicky children.

While these are lofty arguments for most areas of commerce, the fast food industry is a special case of commerce that is starting to undermine the security and prosperity of our society. While some corporate names in this industry do provide conscientious consideration to health and quality of life, the worst offenders have become parasites to the general welfare. Promoting the general welfare of our society is one of the stated purposes of government in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

Let's deal with the claim that McDonald's and their major competitors are simply giving the customer what he wants. That claim is similar to saying that a drug dealer is simply giving the customer what he wants, so leave him alone. Fast food companies tempt the public by offering a particularly salient product with little regard for its contribution to health. They have made great investment in tasting laboratories to discover ingredients and combinations that appeal to the pleasure centers of the brain. Then they amplify this advantage by packaging toys and so-called collectibles from the latest movies and icons of the popular culture. The actual value of the promotional items is miniscule, yet the promoters know customers will not stop with a partial set of glasses or toys.

The impact of this kind of marketing is already having grave consequences for the U.S. and other countries. These food products, high in trans fatty acids, sodium, and sugar have become a significant portion of caloric intake for city dwellers. The number of obese children has nearly tripled in twenty years according to the Center for Disease Control. Americans in general are getting fatter. These facts are not simply matters for personal responsibility and individual choice. Obesity costs all of us.

The most obvious cost of obesity is medical care. Even aside from the government component of health care, obesity raises the cost of our health insurance premiums. The so-called Health Care Bill passed in 2010 is widely unpopular because we all have the nagging doubt that Americans are getting unhealthy and will need more costly medical care. Added costs of care and health insurance mean that employers will hire fewer workers or hire workers at lower wages. Lower employment and lower wages translate to lower tax revenues.

The most expensive health care cost occurs in end-of-life care. Those dying of type II diabetes, heart disease, and stroke can consume tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of health care in their last months of life. These are all highly preventable diseases. The American Dietetic Association, the world's largest association of food and nutritional professionals advises that those who follow a plant-based diet and minimize their sodium and sugar intake are less likely than meat-eaters to become obese and less likely to get heart disease and certain types of cancer. The popular offerings at McDonald's are as far from these recommendations as a grease gun from an Orange County housewife. Our health care has less to do with insurance regulation than with healthy diets. McDonald's must bear its fair share of these medical costs if it persists in promoting unhealthy food choices.

The fast food industry affects our national defense. According to The Army Times (November 5, 2009) 35 percent of Americans aged 17 to 24 are unqualified for military service because of physical and medical issues.  An alarming percentage of young people cannot do push ups, chin ups, or run. This age of high fat, high sugar, and “super size that” has reduced the pool of qualified recruits for the armed forces.

The family dinner is another casualty of the fast food industry. Those who grew up in the 1950s know that dinner was more than food. It was a special time when parents and children shared the day. The intimacy, or even the stress, of the sit-down dinner gave parents the chance to spot troubled areas in the childrens' lives and give corrections and encouragement. The individual experience of fast food has eliminated the most important shared opportunity of the family day. The cost to society for this loss of the family dinner time is inestimable.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV, December 18, 2010 Professor Nouriel Roubini faulted government for its bailout of the failing financial institutions' management and stockholders at the expense of the taxpayer by saying that we were “privatizing the gains while socializing the losses.” And so it is with McDonald's and their major competitors. We defend them in the name of free enterprise while ignoring the magnitude of their predation upon our people's health, prosperity, and general welfare.

Learn more about this author, Jerald Cogswell.
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