As I skimmed past the Drudge Report today, one particular story caught my eye. An AP story entitled, “McDonald’s: Apple Slices in Every Happy Meal,” described how under pressure from regulators and health interest groups, McDonald’s will no longer be offering consumers the choice between fries and apples slices with caramel, but will instead be putting apples in every happy meal, along with much smaller servings of fries. Yet even that hasn’t pleased the health nuts who have repeatedly sued McDonald’s for, and I quote, “creating the national child obesity problem.”
The hysterical animosity towards companies like McDonald’s, or indeed any company, is akin to the old saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” I can’t think of a single example in a free market where a company can force consumers to buy its products. McDonald’s did not force people to eat its fatty food, which probably has led to some measure of childhood obesity. Where were the parents when their children were purchasing McDonald’s happy meals? They are the real culprits, but you don’t see liberals bashing them. No, because they don’t actually care about children, or obesity, they care about control, and blaming McDonald’s for an entire generation of fat children is an easy way to take over control of the entire fast-food market and dictate what every American can consume. Its gotten so bad that McDonald’s isn’t even waiting for more crazy regulation or frivolous litigation, they’re throwing in the towel themselves. And if they were responding to changing market preferences that would be fine, but they’re not.
Fact is, McDonald’s provided a service that people wanted, and they partook of it freely and regularly. McDonald’s never claimed its food was healthy and people whose dietary goal was to stay in shape have long abdicated the quick, but fatty, meals they provide. That’s their choice, just as it is the choice of other Americans to eat fast food if they want. Liberals who hate McDonald’s for meeting market demand should direct their ire where it belongs, at the American people who chose to purchase fast food. Democrats harp about the societal costs of obesity in higher health care costs, etc. But perhaps America should actually be asking about the societal costs of Democrats policies. Why is it their prerogative to tell us what to eat? How bout instead, they leave us alone to deal with our own health needs, and we’ll leave them to decide on theirs.
