The McDonaldization of Society

George Ritzer discusses in his chapter, "The McDonaldization of Society" in Sociological Odyssey, how the process of rationalization has taken over many aspects of human society. Ritzer breaks down rationality into several characteristics which are: efficiency, predictability, calculability, substitution of nonhuman for human technology, and control over uncertainty. The emphasis on these aspects in our society correlates greatly with how industrialized and mechanized our way of living has become. Constantly improving technologies have been steadily increasing the efficiency of production to allow for greater quantities of goods to be produced and sold at significantly reduced costs. This also leads to lower quality products and uniformity, or predictability as Ritzer calls it.

Although rational systems provide many benefits, Ritzer argues that rationality comes with a price. First, there are almost always negative byproducts produced in rational systems that people need to remove, or in some cases simply cover up, using some artificial solution. An example of this in the food industry is the massive amounts of chemicals and antibiotics we feed our livestock so that they can consume feed that they would not be able to process otherwise. Another problem with rational systems is dehumanization. Rationalization promotes efficiency in human actions and work. The way people work most efficiently is by doing repetitive simple tasks (i.e. assembly line style of work) and this leads to people acting as robots.

Ritzer clearly states that he is not urging society to become less rational but rather gain greater control of rationalization so that we do not experience its negative consequences. This notion makes sense but is it even possible to do so? With more and more reliance on technology and a huge demand for greater efficiency, will rationality eventually dominate our society? Will we ever reach a point where machines do all the work of humans?