• Cause, consequences/harm, beneficiaries, framing …. what do they tell us about the problem and how to address it?
• Individual choices (about consumption, work and the job market)
  • Food:what you put in your body; it’s, well, important
  • co-ops vs supermarkets–what’s the difference (ownership, quality, packaging, corporate influence, etc.)
    • Beware the corporate organic chain ….
  • Education: public vs private

 from Bozeman and Anderson (2014), Arizona State University profs.

• Pressures on public to create efficiencies; pressures on private to create profits
• Measuring ‘success’ (White House initiative, ‘college scorecard‘)–for-profit college students are 12% of total, but 50% of loan defaults (NY Times)
  • EOU, Phoenix, Whitman, Eugene

• Travel–cruises, hotels, airlines–can you avoid chains?
• The ‘personal responsibility’ rhetoric—who’s behind it?
• The government — what is the proper role? Some structural approaches:
  • local, state, federal, etc.
  • Regulating advertising? (World Net Daily is on it … others promise to “do better”)
  • Politics (presidential debates, campaigns, and money)
    • from Kennedy Nixon to Bush Kerry
    • getting Congress to act
  • school, TV, physical activity?
  • Tax high-fat foods?
  • The Environment
    • Natural resources and energy, the environment and McDonaldization–any connections?
      • Do McDonaldized businesses and the increased consumption they encourage have environmental impacts? Such as?
      • What would happen to the trend of McDonaldization if the price of oil quintuple
• Social movements (‘slow food,’ ‘smart’ growth,’ sprawl busters)
  • • • Greater public awareness: McSpotlight (from the McLibel era)
• The marketplace–the advantages of large corporations and the ability to externalize costs
  • size/scale–the trend toward fewer and larger corporations in most every sector of the economy (health care, defense, transportation, food, pharmaceuticals, media, finance, insurance, etc.)
    • versus more local economies (Community-supported agriculture, farmers’ markets …)
  • How about beyond the fast food example? Does ‘the free market’ work?
    • Where do consumers get their information? Here, here, or here?
    • Private industry–what can they do, what can be done? Will they respond to concerns about consumption?
• Education, public awareness
  • Media–size, ownership, commercial business models, reliance on advertising
  • the documentary (Supersize Me, Food, Inc., etc.)
  • Propaganda
    • Meet Ruth Kava (nutritionist for the food industry)
    • Debating a fast food ban or a j unk food tax (sourcewatch’s take)
• Society and beyond:
  • Art, music, religion, literature, therapy/self-help, etc.
  • What’s wrong with a trend toward McDonaldization? Who benefits and who pays a cost?
  • Role of consumption