Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 165

McDonaldization

There are ideas that shout. McDonaldization is not one of them. It waits quietly until the day you need it.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Consider the chit fund in a small town. It survives not on contracts but on the shame of defaulting before neighbours. Reputation is the oldest collateral in India.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. Keep the name. Use the pause it gives you. That is the entire homework.