A Marxist has taken aim at McDonald’s. Writing for UnHerd, self-proclaimed Marxist Ralph Leonard identifies the fast-food chain as representative of much that is wrong with our economic system — so much so that, as the article’s headline puts it, “McDonald’s made me a Marxist.”
But Marxism is a substitute for working at McDonald’s in the same way cyanide is for water: a lethal one.
Before getting to the essence of Leonard’s argument, let’s clarify some factual matters. Leonard invokes the Bible to identify what’s wrong with our capitalist political economy: “The Bible declares that those who do not work shall not eat.” But this principle is explicitly stated in the constitutions of communist states.
The 1918 Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, Article II, Chapter Five, Point 18: “The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic considers work the duty of every citizen of the Republic, and proclaims as its motto: ‘He shall not eat who does not work.’”
The 1936 Constitution of the USSR, Article 12: “In the U.S.S.R. work is a duty and a matter of honor for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle: ‘He who does not work, neither shall he eat.’”
The 1975 Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, Article Nine: “The state applies the socialist principle: ‘He who does not work, neither shall he eat’ and ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his work.’”
As for the essence of his argument: Leonard claims that “our secular society clings onto that idea: the harder you work, the greater your reward ought to be.” He’s wrong. Leonard is accurately describing the labor theory of value to which Karl Marx subscribed and on which his political economy is predicated. In a capitalist society based on private property and voluntary exchange, however, you must provide others with things they value to receive from them that which you value. In the capitalist system, value — be it of a good, service, capital, or labor — is subjective; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Based on his experience working at McDonald’s, Leonard concurs with Marxist György Lukács that, as Leonard puts it, “human relations are treated as relations between things.” He identifies one of the sources of this alienation as the hierarchical relationship between the employer and the employee, lamenting how, at McDonald’s, “orders were issued from on high, the managers enforced them . . . on pain of sanctions such as getting fired or denied decent hours.”
When one enters an employment contract, one voluntarily alienates his labor to his employer in the manner and for the duration to which both parties assented. When orders are meted out from on high in a Marxist command economy, one disobeys his manager not on pain of getting fired, but on pain of corporeal punishment, exile, imprisonment, and execution. Which sounds better to you?
Leonard also decries the precarity of McDonald’s employment.
He declares that servers should “be able to earn a living, afford decent housing and a social life, [and] raise a family.” But increasing the wage of McDonald’s employees would not reduce the precarity of this labor market; doing so would price the least-skilled out of the job. Young people (those younger than 25 years old) who, as Leonard himself recognizes, make up more than three quarters of McDonald’s labor force.
I’ll grant this: Having worked retail and service-sector jobs myself, I appreciate Leonard’s gripes about managerial mistreatment, customer misbehavior, low wages, and general tedium.
However, by Leonard’s own account, McDonald’s management took labor conditions so seriously that it suspended a man accused of sexually harassing a coworker. Furthermore, while the regimentation of McDonald’s may not produce an uncomfortable pace of work for Leonard, its unique franchise-management system, as depicted beautifully in the movie The Founder, enables McDonald’s to make products that are delicious — yes, delicious — and cheap enough for other low-income workers.
Simply put, McDonald’s runs an efficient enterprise that employs young, low-skilled people and provides yummy, if not altogether healthful food, at affordable prices. One ought to treat these service workers with dignity and respect due to the simple fact that they are human; they are also preparing for you a delicious meal which, if you’re me, constitutes your daily breakfast.
However, demanding that McDonald’s employees be paid more than the equilibrium labor-market wage entails one or some combination of the following: unemployment and menu-price increases. Both of these are regressive, which you’d expect a Marxist to abhor. Guess not.