McWorld
"McWorld" is a term coined by Benjamin Barber to describe what he sees as the result of the ongoing McDonaldization of the international order.
| The dismal science Economics |
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In McWorld, jobs are shifted from one country to another until the workforce which accepts the lowest compensation for their labor is found. Corner "Mom & Pop" grocery stores and restaurants disappear as they are replaced by cookie-cutter identical outlets of Safeway, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, fast food franchises and "family dining" restaurants like Olive Garden and Applebee's. Family farms disappear to be replaced by endless tracts of clone McMansions where every morning and afternoon four lanes of commuters try to squeeze down two-lane country roads to and from work 70 miles away, driving alone in identical SUVs burning $5 a gallon gasoline pumped from one of two different choices (Exxon-Mobil-Shell or Texachevron-76) into 25 gallon tanks.
On McWorld radio, market researchers conduct surveys to determine which songs do the least to "harsh the workplace mellow" and these songs are put into endless rotation on stations across the FM dial, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Clear Channel. In the 16-screen megaplexes, mindless computer-generated Hollywood crap is shown with the ethic of "get the kids in, show them The Clone Wars, and get them out", and everything that makes every corner of the world unique and wonderful is choked off, bought out, and co-opted by the gray forces of standardization as our culture, our religion, our politics, and every facet of our lives becomes conformed to the principles of the corporate franchise model.
This is, in essence, the ultimate nightmare of anti-globalization activists. It is frequently used as a setting of cyberpunk literature.
External links
- Jihad vs. McWorld.
- One person's thoughts on the solution.