In What's the McFuss about?, Colby Cosh quotes author Douglas Coupland, purported inventor of the word "McJob" as criticizing McDonald's "for taking our surname prefix 'Mc' and turning it into a cheesy signifier for tasteless globalized pap."

Colby Cosh goes on to point out that McDonald's serves important functions:

I find it decidedly odd that McD's should have become such a notorious symbol of globalization, considering that it's a franchise operation. When irony-deficient anti-globalization protesters trash a McDonald's shop front, they are usually venting their australopithecine rage on a locally owned business. The evil Golden Arches have provided financial independence and hands-on business training to tens of thousands of homegrown entrepreneurs in every corner of the globe. This is not to be dismissed just because one doesn't like the sauce on a Big Mac. Owning your own restaurant is really the ultimate "McJob."

In Defining Suitable Employment, Joshua Livestro chimes in,

There is something in our culture that devalues making a living through honest hard work...For most people the choice isn't between McJobs and HappyJobs. It's between the dignity of an independent existence which only a job -- any job -- can provide, or the humiliation and isolation of welfare dependency.