Space/Time

The slogan of the modern capitalist society is "Time is Money", which is a very good summarizing modern capitalism. Long gone are the days when you were paid by the quality and the amount of product you make. It is now all about how much time you are willing to spend on the production floor. You might get a 15 cent raise if you are willing to make 100 units more by working your ass off, but is that 15 cents an hour really worth working that much harder? The fast a product can be produced the more of the product can be made within an hour, so that product can be sold more, meaning that the company makes more money if more products are made within a time. This obviously means that the quality of the product comes second to the price. People are willing to spend less on a hamburger that cost $5 than a hamburger that cost $1.

I used to work at Culver's and Chili's, at both places I worked just as hard as the other, and I was paid 5 dollars more for my work at Chili's than at Culver's. I might have made better hamburgers at Chili's, but the hamburgers I made had better quality. It was the complete opposite at Culver's, I made shitty burgers, but I made a lot more of them than I did at Chili's. Obviously from what I was paid, and the price that Chili's sold my burgers for, time isn't always the most important trait. I made more money by making better products than I did for making more of them. McDonald's and other fast food restaurants are far more successful than places like Chili's, so some people might agree with me, but the rest of American doesn't, or at least they don't care what they eat.

The entire fast food business is raised on the fact time is money. They want their workers to make the most of their hourly wage by making as much of their product, in the quickest way possible. Not only that, people "eat up" the fast food idea. Consumers view there time as money by also getting paid by there hourly service, but the view the rest of their free time just as important. That is why they flock to fast food restaurants, they don't want to waste their leisure time on something they don't care about. They would rather waste their time by watching television.