In this essay I want to utilize a particular interpretation of Marx's Capital to explore the extreme contradictions of the contemporary fast food system as it manifests in a particular sector (food) and in acute forms the general contradictions that Marx discussed in his brilliant three volume study of capital's inner logic. My approach features two levels of analysis proceeding from a theory of capital's deep structures to an analysis of some central features of the production and consumption of food in the US currently. The abstract level develops seven crucial themes extracted from capital's inner logic, and the historical level illustrates some ways in which these themes are played out in the current fast food sector of the increasingly globalized American economy.

Following the remarkable work of Japanese political economist Thomas Sekine, I have come to see that Marx's Capital can be reconstructed as a rigorous dialectical logic making it potentially the most powerful theory in modern social science. While the commodity-form never rules us completely, in developed capitalist societies, it does so to such an extent that it is possible to complete its rule in theory. By doing this we convert social power relations into economic structures that can be theorized as forming necessary inner connections that interrelate through quantities (essentially price signals) that are manifested in markets.