Question

What are the costs and benefits of McDonaldization for societies?

Answer 1

There is a far greater availability of goods and services than before, their availability depends less on time or geographic location.


This wider range of goods and services is available to a much larger portion of the population.


People are able to get what they want or need almost instantaneously.


It is far more convenient to get what they want or need


Goods and services are of a far more uniform quality; at least some people get even better goods and services then before McDonaldization.


For more economical alternatives to high-priced, customized goods and services are widely available; therefore, people can afford things they could not previously afford.


Fast, efficient goods and services are available to a population that is working longer hours and has fewer hours to spare.


In a rapidly changing, unfamiliar, and seemingly hostile world, there is comfort in the comparatively stable, familiar, and safe environment of a McDonaldized system.


Because of quantification, consumers can more easily compare competing products.


People can do things, such as obtain money or a bank balance in the middle of the night, that were impossible before.


It is now safer to do things (for example, diet) on a carefully regulated and controlled system.


People are more likely to be treated similarly, no matter what their race, gender, or social class.


Organizational and technological innovations are more quickly and easily diffused through networks of identical operators.