by Lee Rowley

Created on: July 01, 2007

Blaming McDonald's for an "epidemic" of obesity is much like blaming the manufacturers of ammunition for the casualties in a war. In the end, neither fat-laden cheeseburgers nor killing people are good things, but the impetus goes much deeper than suggesting that the problem exists just because the means to create the problem is available.

Why, exactly, are there over 300 McDonald's franchise locations in New York City? Why can you find a McDonald's in rural Midwestern U.S. towns that don't even have a park for kids to play in? Simply put, it's supply and demand - one of the most firmly entrenched concepts of world economics. If half the developed world woke up tomorrow morning and said to themselves, "Hey! We shouldn't be putting this crap in our bodies!", then McDonald's would board up locations and shutter its corporate offices faster than you could say, "I'm lovin' it".

That's not what's happening. Instead, McDonald's is responding to consumer demand. We work longer hours, we have more responsibilities, and we have less time than ever before for things like meal preparation. We turn to fast food because it's a quick, simple way to get ourselves, our spouses, and our kids fed without a whole lot of time and effort.

Is there a way out? Yes, of course! But this way is dependent upon the individual consumer. Each person has to come to the realization that the "food" they are getting from McDonalds is doing little more than poisoning his or her body, and make a conscious decision to eat healthier, even if it takes a bit more time. As I noted earlier, it's the demand that sustains the existence of McDonald's restaurants - the brand is simply responding to consumer demand.

If it's hard for you to grasp this on a practical level, think of someone who does something you don't do, that is destructive to that person. Does he drink too much? Well, then it's clearly his fault, not the fault of the liquor manufacturer. Does she smoke? Then it's her responsibility to stop, not the responsibility of the cigarette company. Neither cigarette nor liquor manufacturers would exist without the willing participation of the consumers.

And so it is with fast food. You can't blame McDonald's for obesity - you blame fat people. After all, no one is pretending that fast food is good for you. We as individuals bear the sole responsibility of overcoming our own laziness if we want to have any hope of shaving a few inches off our backsides. The day we as sentient members of the human race collectively understand this, then golden arches all over the world will be brought down in a glorious shift from high-supply-high-demand economics to high-supply-low demand economics without any sort of governmental intervention.

That's the message that we want to send to the fast food industry not "we won't let out people have your products", but rather, "our people are well informed enough that they don't need your products."

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